SUNDAY 5TH APRIL 2020

BPP Rejects NAMA’s Request for No Objection Certificate on ILS Procurement Recent flight diversions blamed on lack of capacity Ndubuisi Francis in Abuja The Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) has turned down a request by the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) for the issuance of

a “certificate of no objection” to enable it adopt direct/ single source procurement method for the installation of Instrument Landing System (ILS/DME CAT 111) at three airports in the country. By

this request, NAMA wanted to avoid a competitive bid process by shutting out other suppliers who might have the competence to provide and install the navigational aid, in favour of a preferred provider.

In another development, informed sources said system failure was behind the recent diversion of flights from Lagos to neighbouring countries by foreign airlines during bad weather.

The airspace management agency had through a letter with reference number NAMA /MD/BPP/026/1911/12, dated November 12, 2019, requested approval to adopt direct/single source

procurement method for the installation of ILS/DME CAT 111 at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano; Port Harcourt International Continued on page 5

Lockdown: Lagos Takes up Medical Bills of Pregnant Women, Patients... Page 11 Sunday 5 April, 2020 Vol 25. No 9127

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COVID-19: Survey of 6,200 Doctors Shows Hydroxychloroquine is Best Treatment FG proposes N500bn special intervention fund to NASS Five more test positive, total now 214 cases Plateau nurses, midwives threaten to down tools Doctors without borders warn of devastating effect in IDP camps Edo begins televised classes for SSCE, NECO students Over one million infection cases recorded, 64,675 deaths globally, as US death toll rises to 8,452 Our Correspondents As scientists and researchers all over the world scramble to develop treatment for the deadly coronavirus (COVID 19) that has infected over one million people globally and claimed 63,894 lives, many doctors have said the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine seems to be the most effective treatment

for patients. But few doctors are prescribing it in the US, as in other hard-hit countries like Spain, according to a survey.

The survey of 6,200 doctors around the globe published

by Daily Mail of UK revealed that while few corners of the world were untouched by the virus, the pandemic was being handled very differently from Continued on page 5

...Nigeria, Others Must Mount Pressure for Debt Relief, Says Okonjo-Iweala Obinna Chima The Chairperson of the Global Alliance for Vaccinations & Immunisations (GAVI), Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has advised Nigeria and other African countries to mount pressure on the G7 and G20 countries for debt relief, due

to the ravaging impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has plunged the world into an economic crisis.

The two-term Minister of Finance in Nigeria and a former Managing Director (Operations) of the World Continued on page 8

OGUN STATE COVID-19 RELIEF...

Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, inspecting bags of rice at the central food bank ahead of the state-wide distribution of relief materials following the COVID-19 lockdown across the state...yesterday

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MNJTF Launches Aerial, Artillery Bombardment on Boko Haram in Borno NAF helicopters provide air support Kingsley Nwezeh in Abuja In continuation of a grand offensive launched Thursday against the Boko Haram terrorist group, also known as Islamic State's West Africa Province (ISWAP), the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) yesterday hurled heavy artillery fire and aerial bombardments on the insurgents at Tumbun Fulani, on the fringes of Lake Chad, killing scores of insurgents.

The joint offensive followed the killing of 122 soldiers from Chad and Nigeria in the last

two weeks by Boko Haram.

The Air Task Force of the MNJTF provided airlift support to troops of participating MNJTF national contingents along with logistics.

A war update issued by the Directorate of Defence Media Operations (DDMO) said the offensive was predicated on intelligence reports that indicated the presence of a camp of ISWAP within Tumbun Fulani settlement in Northern Borno.

The DDMO stated, “The Armed Forces of Nigeria, through the Air Task Force of

Operation Lafiya Dole and Artillery Batteries of Sector 3 of the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF), has destroyed an Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) camp at Tumbun Fulani on the fringes of Lake Chad in Northern Borno State.

“This was achieved in combined air and artillery bombardments conducted on 3 April 2020 as part of the coordinated joint offensive by the MNJTF to dislodge and completely rid the Islands (Tumbuns) of Lake Chad

of terrorists’ presence and activities.”

The update issued by the Acting Director, Defence Media Operations, Defence Headquarters, Brigadier-General Bernard Onyeuko, said the operation was executed on the heels of credible intelligence reports indicating that the ISWAP elements, with their structures concealed under the dense vegetation of the area, used the settlement as a base for planning and launching attacks.

“Accordingly, the joint

interdiction mission was launched with a Nigerian Air Force (NAF) Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft coordinating the barrage of artillery and air fire towards designated targets in the settlement, destroying them and neutralising some of the ISWAP fighters in the process,” the update said.

It added, “In a related development, the Air Task Force has continued to provide airlift support to troops of participating MNJTF national contingents, along with their

logistics.”

The update also said, “NAF ISR platforms and helicopters are also providing aerial command posts for enhanced coordination of close air support missions as well as fire control support for independent ground artillery bombardment of terrorists’ positions.”

Onyeuko maintained, “The Armed Forces of Nigeria, in furtherance of the objective of restoring peace and security in the North-east, will sustain the offensive against the enemies of our nation.”

COVID-19: SURVEY OF 6,200 DOCTORS SHOWS HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE IS BEST TREATMENT country-to-country.

An adviser to Sermo, the leading global social platform for physicians and largest health care professional survey company, which conducted the survey, Dr Murali Doraiswamy, urged that countries should take note of what was working for doctors and governments elsewhere and move quickly to adopt practices that were saving lives.

This survey further buttresses the report by French research study, which allegedly confirmed a combination of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and Azithromycin as effective in treating COVID-19 patients.

The French study report was published by TECHSTARTUPS. Last week the Federal Government of Nigeria through National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and Ministry of Health granted Lagos State license to commence clinical trials of chloroquine in the treatment of COVID-19 patients.

Meanwhile, Nigeria confirmed five new cases with three in Bauchi and two in FCT raising the total number of coronavirus infections in the country to 214.

Also yesterday, the federal government approached the National Assembly for an approval for its proposed intervention fund of N500 billion to combat COVID-19.

The proposal was tabled at a meeting between the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, and the leadership of the National Assembly.

That was as Medecins Sans Frontieres, otherwise called Doctors Without Borders, called for immediate improvement in

water and sanitation facilities in all the internally displaced persons (IDP) camps in Borno State, saying should the virus sneak into the camps, the result would be devastating due to overcrowding and poor sanitary conditions.

Meanwhile, Edo State Government said it would begin a state-wide televised classes for students in Senior Secondary Schools preparing for the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and National Examinations Council (NECO), following the disruption in academic activities occasioned by the coronavirus pandemic.

In Plateau State, nurses and midwives threatened to stop work due to lack of protective kits for those assisting with the management of the virus outbreak.

Doctors and governments across the globe are struggling to develop treatments for coronavirus. While most nations have issued guidance for doctors to standardise care for coronavirus patients, there are no clinically proven treatments for the devastating infection.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has launched a multinational trial of several treatments, including the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, and remdesivir, a drug developed to treat Ebola. The trials are taking place in countries including Argentina, Bahrain, Canada, France, Iran, Norway, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, and Thailand.

To push the federal government’s intervention fund proposal, Ahmed, accompanied by senior officials from her ministry, met with the President

of the Senate, Senator Ahmad Lawan, and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, and intimated them with the proposal to establish a N500 billion COVID-19 Crisis Intervention Fund.

A statement by the Special Adviser to the Senate President, Ola Awoniyi, stated that the meeting was a follow-up to one held last Wednesday between the National Assembly leadership and members of the Presidential Task Force set up to manage COVID-19, headed by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha.

Yesterday’s meeting held at the National Assembly Complex and was also attended by the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege; Deputy Speaker, Hon. Idris Wase; and other principal officers from both chambers.

Speaking at the meeting the minister said, "What we are proposing is an establishment of a N500 billion COVID-19 Crisis Intervention Fund. This fund that we are proposing, that should be created, will involve mopping up resources from various special accounts that the government as well as the Federation have, to be able to pull this N500 billion."

In addition to the identified special accounts from where the money would be drawn as loans, Ahmed said the proposed intervention fund would be sourced from grants being expected and loans from multilateral Institutions.

"Our general view is that this crisis intervention fund is to be utilised to upgrade healthcare facilities as earlier identified. The federal government also needs to be in a position to improve health

care facilities, not only in the states, but to provide intervention to the states," Ahmed stated.

She explained to the lawmakers that the fund, if approved, would also take care of special Public Work Programmes currently being implemented by the National Directorate of Employment (NDE).

“We know that there will be a need for the parliament to agree and approve the taking of loans from these special accounts and we will be coming back with a proposed bill in that regard that will define what the fund will be used for," the minister said.

Earlier in his remarks, the Senate President said the meeting was in fulfilment of an earlier promise to provide support as the need arose in the fight against the coronavirus.

Lawan stated, "Just like we told Nigerians, when there is need for us to meet or to take legislative action in ensuring that the government responds appropriately to developments, issues, and challenges in the country, we will do so. This meeting, the second in the series after we shut down the National Assembly for two weeks, is a clear testimony of what we have said.

"Governance requires that we work together, so we want to listen to those things that you have on your side and how we can also play our constitutional role in ensuring that Nigerians continue to benefit from governance and how we are able to weather the storm created by COVID-19.

"Going forward, we need to interact more, because very fundamental decisions will need to be taken, and these decisions can only be said to

be constitutionally legal if the legislature gives its stamp of authority for the executive to implement and execute. I think coming to us for those loans is critical, because we are in an emergency and time is of the essence. So, we must work as expeditiously as possible to ensure that we place the request before the National Assembly.

"I think time has come for us to redefine the implementation of the Social Intervention Programme, probably going out to communities to give them N20, 000 per person might not be the best way to go. It is still an effort, but I think we need a better approach that will be more efficient.”

The leadership of the National Assembly resolved to meet again tomorrow with the executive over the latter's request.

THISDAY gathered that the leaderships of both the Senate and House of Representatives were unsatisfied with the presentation by the finance minister, hence, the adjournment to Monday. Apart from requesting more information on the proposed fund, the National Assembly leadership was also said to have expressed concern about the disbursement of the COVID-19 fund so far, while stressing the need for accountability and transparency.

Leader of the Senate, Senator Yahaya Abdullahi, who attended the Saturday meeting with the executive, told THISDAY after the meeting, “The National Assembly leadership at the meeting made some observations and suggested areas that need to be looked up again." Abdullahi said another meeting had been scheduled for next week, "While the National Assembly will reconvene at the

appropriate time afterwards."

Similarly, Minority Leader, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, who was also part of the Saturday meeting, told THISDAY that the talks would continue on Monday.

Abaribe said the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Sadiya Umar Farouk, had been invited to the Monday meeting to address issues about the disbursements of COVID-19 funds, among others. He added that other top government officials were to be part of the meeting to throw more light on the post-isolation strategy of government, saying the National Assembly believes N500 billion being asked for is too small and there will be need for further discussion on the issue.

"The Intervention fund matter would also be further discussed because the National Assembly feels that it’s rather too small and the suggested ways of deploying it would need further elaboration,” he stated.

On how soon the National Assembly will reconvene to consider the executive proposal on COVID-19 funding, Abaribe declared, "The National Assembly resumption issue is to be discussed between the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House to agree on what to do."

according to the sources, are entirely new equipment that NAMA engineers are still trying to acquaint themselves with, having been trained on a particular brand of instrument landing system from a different manufacturer.

THISDAY gathered that when the need to upgrade the ILS at MMIA arose, due to increasing volume of daily traffic, the NAMA management, in collaboration with some top Ministry of Aviation officials, ignored the advice of the engineers and engaged an indigenous company, Allolix Geoscience Limited, representatives of Sellex, the equipment manufacturer, to supply and install the ILS at the airport. After installation, efforts were made to calibrate the equipment, but they were not successful. Two attempts at calibrating the ILS reportedly failed before the recent flight diversions occurred.

Sellex engineers, THISDAY further gathered, had been trying to ensure that the equipment was calibrated, but to no avail.

Sources say the failure to calibrate the equipment still portends danger at the airport because aircraft may not be able to land successfully, as envisioned, during adverse weather conditions.

Aviation experts had contended during the flight diversions that even if NAMA was going to introduce brand a new and untested safety-critical equipment like the ILS CAT 111, it should not have experimented with MMIA, which is the busiest aerodrome in the whole of West Africa at the moment. They reasoned that NAMA should have started its introduction with less busy airports to ascertain its reliability before adopting it for a prime airport like the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos.

US Death Toll Rises as Global Cases Climb Past One Million Confirmed cases of coronavirus infection globally shot past 1,200,372 with 64,675 deaths even as the United States was now prominently at the centre of the pandemic.

Currently, the US has Continued on page 8

BPP RE JECTS NAMA’S REQUEST FOR NO OBJECTION CERTIFICATE ON ILS PROCUREMENT Airport, Omagwa; and Katsina Airport.

Sources told THISDAY that while processing the NAMA request, BPP had received a letter from Thales Deutschland Air Traffic (which was copied the House of Representatives Committee on Aviation). In the letter, Thales indicated their capacity and interest to supply and install ILS/DME CAT 111 at Kano, Port Harcourt and Kastina airports.

In the course of review, BPP was said to have observed from its database of categorisation and classification of verified companies, which had completed their registration on its online registration portal, that there were other suppliers and equipment representatives involved in the supply and installation of aviation systems that could have taken the opportunity to bid for the project.

In light of the revelations that suitable alternatives existed, and

considering the fact that other firms were willing to bid for the supply and installation contract, BPP, it was gathered, felt it would be against the tenets of the Public Procurement Act, 2007 to adopt single source method for the procurement of ILS/ DME CAT111 equipment for the airports. The bureau also reasoned that approving a single source method would deny the government the benefits of healthy competition.

Based on these considerations, BPP declined NAMA's request for Due Process Certificate of No Objection.

Accordingly, BPP directed NAMA to procure the installation of ILS/DME CAT 111 via open competitive bidding method in line with Sections 16 (1)(c) and 25(2)(ii) of the enabling Act. Meanwhile, system failure was the real cause of the recent flight diversions to neighbouring countries by foreign airlines during bad weather, sources

revealed. International passengers to the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos (MMIA), mostly Nigerians, had suffered harrowing experiences between January and February as a result of several flight diversions to neighbouring countries due to inclement weather.

Aviation authorities had attributed the development to non-calibration of the new Category Three (CAT111) ILS recently installed at the airport.

But revelations now point to the contrary.

The advanced navigational aid was aimed at facilitating seamless landing of flights at the everbusy airport under bad weather even at near-zero visibility. The essence of upgrading the ILS at the airport from Category Two (CAT11) to CAT111 was to avoid flight disruptions during the harmattan.

Following the January/ February flight diversions, the House of Representatives

Committee on Aviation, chaired

by Hon. Nnolim Nnaji, had summoned the NAMA Managing Director, Capt. Fola Akinkotu, and heads of other aviation agencies for answers. The summons was at the instance of a motion sponsored by Hon. Wale Raji, representing Epe Federal Constituency of Lagos.

The House of Representatives had directed the committee to investigate the circumstances that led to the flight diversions and report back within two weeks.

Akinkotu told the committee that the diversions occurred because the agency could not calibrate the equipment on schedule due to interferences from wrongly mounted communication masts within the airport.

However, inside sources revealed that the problem, which led to the embarrassing foreign flight diversions, was traceable to lack of capacity.

The ILS installed at the airport,

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NEWS ...NIGERIA, OTHERS MUST MOUNT PRESSURE FOR DEBT RELIEF, SAYS OKONJO-IWEALA Bank, gave this advice in a BBC programme, ‘Focus on Africa,’ which she posted on her Twitter handle yesterday.

“And I think that (debt relief) is what they should be going for and we need to move quickly. So, there needs to be a great bit of pressure on the G20, G7, to come forward with these measures.

“If countries get debt relief, that means that the money that they would have been paying to service the debts they had taken from those countries or from multilateral institutions, the monies would now be used to procure food and supplies and support the livelihood of people in the rural and urban areas,” she stressed.

Okonjo-Iweala, also urged African countries to also avail

themselves of other sources of support from institutions such as the African Development Bank (AfDB), the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to cushion the impact of the COVID-19 on their economies as well as to support their citizens.

She pointed out that the AfDB recently floated a Social Bond of $3 billion, that would be available to the continent, while the World Bank Group has $14 billion to support countries affected by the pandemic, of which it has already committed $2 billion to 25 countries and 11 of them are Africans.

Similarly, she revealed that the IMF has put forward $50 billion as an emergency fund and already 80 countries have since applied and many of them are

from Africa. In addition, the IMF also has a $1 billion grant fund for Catastrophe Containment.

Likewise, she said GAVI has immediately made available, $200 million to $300 million to support countries due to the COVID-19 disruption.

Responding to a question on the likely impact of the directive for lockdown in most of the countries in the continent, as part of efforts to contain the spread of the virus in Africa, Okonjo-Iweala, who is the Board Chairperson of the African Risk Capacity and board member, Standard Chartered Bank and Twitter, said: “We have seen what happened in China and the developed countries, how the lockdown led to many people losing their jobs. It would even

be worse for us on the continent since many of our workers are in the informal sector.

“And you know also that the prices of the commodities from which we earn our foreign exchange have crashed. Crude oil is now at $23 per barrel, gold is down and so with many commodities. That means that our countries are not earning the same kind of resources that they used to earn.

“On the other side, those of them that need to import food and pharmaceuticals now have to pay more and inflation is high.

Remittances are down because tourism is down. So, there are so many repercussions. So, there is a need for outside resources to complement with the continent is doing, and some are available.”

Also commenting on the approach by different countries in the continent to contain the spread of the virus as well as intervention by leading private sector business leaders in Africa, Okonjo-Iweala, who stressed the importance of social distancing, said: “I think we need a national approach or what countries can do within their national boundaries. Then, it would be good to have a coordinated African approach for certain things.

“For instance, the procurement of equipment, supplies, mask and ventilators, it would be good to have a coordinated approach from the continent, to see if the joint procurement would help several countries.

You know some countries are very small, so they don’t have

the purchasing power.

“So, having a joint approach for tackling some of the health and economic issues is a good one. The continent can also come together to make an estimate of what is needed in terms of resources from outside. And you mentioned donation by the private sector in the continent, I think that is excellent. “Many of them from Dangote, to the founder of BUA, AbdulSamad Rabiu to Tony Elumelu, Otedola and also in in South Africa, so many of the philanthropists in the continent are stepping forward.

They can also come together as private sector and decide to do something continent-wide, to try and mobilise supplies and equipment. The private sector knows how to do this.”

COVID-19: SURVEY OF 6,200 DOCTORS SHOWS HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE IS BEST TREATMENT more than 310,286 cases, while the New York State is hardest hit with more than 113,704, as of yesterday morning.

About 8,452 people in the US have so far died from COVID-19, according to Johns Hopkins data.

New York has the highest death toll, with 3,565 deaths, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said. Cuomo also said Saturday that China was facilitating the shipment of 1,000 ventilators to his state, as he continued to shop for more of the lifesaving device ahead of a growing number of coronavirus patients, who are expected to need them.

“This is a big deal and it's going to make a significant difference for us,” Cuomo said, adding that the State of Oregon volunteered to send 140 ventilators to New York.

Cuomo also said he was looking for ventilators closer to home, and had issued an order that forces even private hospitals in the state to redistribute ventilators to the hospitals most in need.

“I want this all to be over,” Cuomo said, noting, “It’s only gone on for 30 days since our first case. It feels like an entire lifetime.”

Plateau Nurses, Midwives Threaten Strike over Lack of Protective Gear Nurses and Midwives in Plateau on Saturday threatened to abandon their duty posts if the state government failed to provide them with Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) as they tried to curb the spread of COVID-19. Addressing the press under the auspices of National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), Plateau State Council, the association, led by Mrs. Briskila Dabit, said, “Everyone knows about the danger of COVID-19 and how that it is posing serious challenge in Nigeria and the world as a whole. It will be unfair on the side of government to expose our members to the virus without personal protection equipment.

“We have decided to down tools in all health centres, including hospitals and Isolation centres if the state government will not provide our members with necessary protection equipment. It is no longer news the havoc the ravaging virus is causing to health workers across the globe; we need protection if we must do our duties as patriotic citizens.

“As I speak with you, we lack PPE in our hospitals and isolation centres. Consequently, we have directed our members not to attend to any patient with a suspected case of coronavirus without PPE.” However, reacting to the allegations, Dr. Simon Macham, Director of Press Affairs to Governor Simon Lalong, said the nurses’ concerns were driven by lack of information.

Macham said, "Regarding personal protective equipment, the government has already purchased about 400 pieces and is also in the process of producing more locally here in Plateau State. The distribution to various hospitals and isolation centres will soon commence.

“As for the COVID-19 committee, they are also captured in one of the sub-committees.

What, perhaps, is happening is that they may not have been carried along properly at that level and the government will address it immediately.”

Doctors Without Borders: COVID-19 Portends Grave Danger in IDP Camps Medecins Sans Frontieres, also called Doctors Without Borders, warned that should COVID-19 break out in the camps, the result will be devastating as a result of overcrowding and poor sanitary conditions. A statement by the organisation on Saturday said, “After more than a decade of armed conflict, outbreaks of severe malnutrition, malaria, measles and cholera, approximately 1.5 million internally displaced people (IDPs) in Borno State now face the spectre of COVID-19.

“Many live in vastly overcrowded camps with poor water and sanitation facilities, limited supplies of hygiene essentials, such as soap and water, and often no individual space at all.

“Functioning health infrastructure in Borno is scarce, and the capacity to refer patients is extremely limited. With so many people already vulnerable to outbreaks of disease, essential humanitarian assistance must be maintained; water and sanitation facilities must be improved in IDP camps; and frontline health workers on whom the population will depend, must have access to personal protective equipment.”

The statement further said, “MSF has been working in Borno State since 2014, and during that time we have borne witness to deplorable conditions for IDPs, many of whom already suffer from illnesses endemic to overcrowded settlements, such as water-borne diseases and respiratory tract infections, like pneumonia, which has been identified as a significant threat when coupled with COVID-19.

“COVID-19 has had a devastating effect on healthcare systems, economies and populations worldwide and it poses a substantial threat in Borno. However, even if COVID-19 were not present in Nigeria, the need for humanitarian assistance in Borno would still be massive. In just over a month, rainy season will commence, bringing with it a surge in cases of malaria and malnutrition.

Edo Govt Begins Televised

Classes for SSCE, NECO Following the disruption in academic activities by the coronavirus pandemic, the Edo State Government will tomorrow begin a state-wide televised classes for students in Senior Secondary School students preparing for the West African Senior School Examination (WASSCE) and National Examinations Council (NECO). A statement by the Commissioner for Education, Jimoh Ijegbai, said the classes would be televised everyday from 12noon to 1pm on the state-owned television station, Edo Broadcasting Service (EBS).

The statement noted that the move was part of government’s effort to curtail the spread of coronavirus.

“Edo State Ministry of Education, in collaboration with Edo State Broadcasting Service (EBS) and the Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools (ASUSS), is organising a television programme for students in Senior Secondary Schools, particularly those writing the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and National Examinations Council (NECO) for the year 2020 May/June/ July,” the statement noted.

It said students would be taught Mathematics on Monday and English on Tuesday, while Physics, Biology, Geography, Civic/Economics and Chemistry would be televised on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

The government urged parents and guardians to draw the attention of their children and wards to the opportunity during the stay-at-home period.

Rivers Urges Traditional Rulers to Imbibe New Values Rivers State Government called on traditional institutions in the state to imbibe new values and extend same to their domains to aid the fight against COVID-19. The Commissioner for Information and Communications, Paulinus Nsirim, made the call yesterday in Port Harcourt while speaking to representatives of traditional institutions drawn from all 23 local government areas of the state.

The commissioner, who was speaking at a sensitisation and awareness creation meeting with the royal fathers, said one key area the traditional rulers were expected to play a key role was in social distancing in the closely knit culture of their people and ensuring that large numbers of people do not gather.

"We have a culture that handshake, embrace, and the like are part of us. Now that the virus is here, we're advocating social distancing, just as we're

explaining here today. We also advocate that people should not gather in large numbers," Nsirim said.

He explained that the meeting was prompted by the need for the traditional rulers to borrow a leaf from the proactive stance of Governor Nyesom Wike, whom he said commenced preparation for the prevention of the coronavirus weeks before the only index case was noticed in the state.

"His Excellency did not wait for us to get an index case before resorting to proactive measures.

Our committee was set up so many weeks before we had an index case in Rivers State. The Emergency Operations Centre was also set; the Treatment Centre was set, and fully equipped. This shows that the government is very responsive,” he stated.

In his remarks, Chairman of the State Council of Traditional Rulers, King Dandison Douglas Jaja, the Amanyanabo of Opobo Kingdom, expressed delight over the meeting, noting that it would clear the air on misinterpretations surrounding the coronavirus.

PDP Directs Members to Scale Up Personal Interventions The leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Saturday directed its members across the country to intensify their personal efforts to assist vulnerable Nigerians in their neighbourhoods to mitigate the socio-economic effect of the COVID-19 lockdown directives. PDP also called on more Nigerians to join publicspirited individuals and groups in extending assistance to vulnerable citizens in the effort to contain and check the spread of the pandemic in the country.

A statement by the national publicity secretary of the party, Kola Ologbondiyan, stated that the call was against the backdrop of the manifest failure of the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led federal government to shelve its greed and corruption to make adequate provisions for social palliatives and other panaceas to Nigerians, despite the immense resources at its disposal. Ologbondiyan said the PDP position was also in line with its manifesto and guiding principles to ensure the security of the people. He said the wellbeing and happiness of all citizens, irrespective of creed, ethnicity and political persuasion, was not negotiable and called on all Nigerians to look beyond primordial considerations and join forces to defeat the virus.

The party lamented as worrisome the fact that the APC government remained lethargic and allowed sheer incompetence and greed to constrict it into unnecessary parochialism in the handling of the COVID-19 issue.

"Our party also bemoaned the lack of accountability and the manifest sleaze in

the disbursement of financial palliatives with allegations of diversion of billion of naira to private purses to the detriment of poor Nigerians. Indeed, such is not the way to go,” PDP said.

PDP urged the federal government to be transparent and involve more capable Nigerian medical experts, researchers as well as equipment manufacturers to assist in checking the spread of the pandemic in the country.

PDP, in another statement, charged the National Assembly to comprehensively scrutinise the overall profile of the N500 billion proposed by the federal government as intervention fund against the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure that the fund reached the desired target. The party also urged the legislature to examine the expenditure layout and put adequate clauses to eliminate diversion, ensure prudence as well as guarantee broad-based transparency in target-specific disbursements across all need areas in the fight against the pandemic.

A statement by Ologbondiyan stated that the call was predicated on apprehensions in the public space over allegations of fraudulent diversion of fund in the recent disbursement of N20,000 social palliatives, with many Nigerians rejecting the figures put out by the government. The party urged the National Assembly to request the federal government to furnish it with details of how the N500 billion would be spent; what amount would be spent as interventions to individuals and families as well as a template that guarantees that the fund gets to the targeted vulnerable Nigerians.

Oyo Records One New Case, To Fumigate Markets This Week Oyo State recorded another case of COVID-19, bringing to nine the total of cases in the state.

Acting Chairman of the state’s taskforce on COVID-19, Professor Temitope Alonge, confirmed that the latest case was a close contact of the second confirmed case that subsequently developed symptoms. Alonge said the patient had been moved to one of the isolation centres in the state, while activities at the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) were being ramped up and reviewed to meet the evolving nature of the pandemic.

“With the index case in the state already discharged, the other seven cases remain stable,” Alonge said. He noted that the diagnostic centre located inside the University College Hospital had commenced full and timely testing of samples, saying it is committed to a turnaround time of less than 24 hours to provide results for samples taken.

“His Excellency is pleased at the progress that has been made at the Infectious Disease Hospital, Olodo, Ibadan, with

the training of key personnel and the readiness of the centre to receive patients starting from Monday, April 6,” a statement

by Alonge said.

NCDC Evacuates, Isolates Scores at NNPC, Abuja Estate The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) evacuated and put in isolation several persons at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Estate in Garki, Abuja. NCDC took the action after an infected individual at an apartment in the estate located in the heart of the Federal Capitalist Territory (FCT) tested positive to COVID-19 at the weekend.

It was also learnt that the NCDC had begun a complete disinfection of the entire flat and its environs, following the incident that caused panic in the area where some of the corporation's bigwigs reside.

One of the occupants of the estate, who was said to have tested positive just returned from the United Kingdom (UK), but had stayed in self-isolation after his return.

The corporation, while confirming the incident, however, noted that contrary to insinuations of massive infection in the estate, the case was an isolated one that was being dealt with by the NCDC. It explained that the said case involved a non-member of staff of the NNPC, who developed symptoms of the disease at the estate.

A statement by NNPC’s Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Dr Kennie Obateru, in Abuja, said the national oil company was aware of all the actions taken to tackle the singular case, which for now remained an isolated incident.

Obateru stated about the infected person, "His case was said to have been confirmed positive by the NCDC after undergoing a laboratory test. And in line with NCDC approved protocol, all residents of the affected apartment were moved out and placed in isolation, while officials of NCDC undertook a disinfection of the flat and adjoining areas to eliminate the chances of community infection."

NNPC said it had long embarked on a public awareness campaign within the organisation and beyond, including sharing with the residents of the estate guidelines on successful self-supervised isolation. It noted that this was to ensure strict adherence to all NCDC prescribed safety measures designed to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, the corporation announced an additional N10 billion contribution by the petroleum industry to the fight against COVID-19, to bring the total donation so far by the sector to N21 billion.

SUNDAY APRIL 5, 2020 • T H I S D AY

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ APRIL 5, 2020

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SUNDAY COMMENT

Editor, Editorial Page PETER ISHAKA Email peter.ishaka@thisdaylive.com

ENFORCEMENT OF THE LOCKDOWN Security agencies should be civil in enforcing the restriction of movement to stem the spread of Covid-19

T

he killing last Thursday in Warri, Delta State, of a young man allegedly by one of the military personnel deployed to enforce the stay-at-home directive to curtail the spread of Coronavirus has brought to fore the danger the nation faces in handling this pandemic. The vortex of outrage triggered by the incident was not unexpected. This is more so as we cannot make rapid progress in this public health emergency campaign with flagrant violation of the human worth.

It is bad enough that we are overstretching the capacity of the armed forces at a time that terrorists are randomly killing troops deployed to tackle insurgency in the North-east. But it is worse when the conduct of some of the security agencies in the midst of the civil populace is callous, barbaric and unbecoming. On Friday, the army headquarters announced that soldiers caught in a viral video threatening to molest women in Warri had been arrested with the promise of an investigation that would be “swift and fair in accordance with applicable military laws.” It is commendable that the army acted swiftly on the disgraceful incident that can only sully their image and that of Nigeria before the civilised world.

The necessity for the current lockdown is understood. Since we are in an emergency situation almost akin to war, all extraordinary measures should be put in place even if they are inconveniencing so as to safeguard public safety.

Apparently because the federal authorities dithered on how to handle the pandemic, there was

no time for adequate public enlightenment before a 14-day lockdown was imposed by President Muhammadu Buhari on Lagos, Ogun and Abuja, and in some of the states by their governors. But applying arbitrariness in the enforcement of the restriction of movement is misplaced.

S

It would be tragic if enforcing the stay-athome order in the country is allowed to degenerate into unmanageable social convulsion and avoidable bloodletting

Letters to the Editor

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S U N DAY N E W S PA P E R EDITOR SHAKA MOMODU DEPUTY EDITORS OLAWALE OLALEYE, TOBI SONIYI MANAGING DIRECTOR ENIOLA BELLO DEPUTY MANAGING DIRECTOR KAYODE KOMOLAFE CHAIRMAN EDITORIAL BOARD OLUSEGUN ADENIYI EDITOR NATION’S CAPITAL IYOBOSA UWUGIAREN MANAGING EDITOR JOSEPH USHIGIALE

T H I S DAY N E W S PA P E R S L I M I T E D EDITOR-IN-CHIEF/CHAIRMAN NDUKA OBAIGBENA GROUP EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS ENIOLA BELLO, KAYODE KOMOLAFE, ISRAEL IWEGBU, IJEOMA NWOGWUGWU, EMMANUEL EFENI DIVISIONAL DIRECTORS BOLAJI ADEBIYI , PETER IWEGBU, ANTHONY OGEDENGBE DEPUTY DIVISIONAL DIRECTOR OJOGUN VICTOR DANBOYI SNR. ASSOCIATE DIRECTORS ERIC OJEH, PATRICK EIMIUHI ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR SAHEED ADEYEMO CONTROLLERS ABIMBOLA TAIWO, UCHENNA DIBIAGWU, NDUKA MOSERI DIRECTOR, PRINTING PRODUCTION CHUKS ONWUDINJO TO SEND EMAIL: first name.surname@thisdaylive.com

adly, what we have seen in the past one week is pure brigandage at a period when there is a need for greater sensitivity in dealing with the people, given the economic and social dislocations in the country. Nigerians who ordinarily live on day-to-day income are forced indoors with no relief.

To now compound their woes with brutalities can result in unintended consequences. Many could view those sent to enforce the lockdown as oppressive adversaries and may begin to fight back, as it is already happening in some places.

Apparently worried by field reports, the Inspector General of Police, Mr Mohammed Adamu on Thursday cautioned officers and men of the Nigeria Police Force currently deployed for the enforcement of the lockdown and social restriction orders “to ensure that the rights of Nigerians are not infringed upon under any pretext.” He said persons on essential duties, duly exempted from the restriction orders, should be accorded due courtesies and unfettered access to and fro their places of duty, adding that all police officers in the field “must be professional, humane and tactful and must show utmost respect to the citizenry.”

In commending Adamu’s intervention, we appreciate the fact that the challenging security situation in the country has forced the deployment of military personnel to many states to aid the police in securing the peace. We have always given allowances that, because of their operative rules and norms of trading in violence, and with insufficient training for their new roles, no one expected the human rights report to be smelling of roses. But the torture and harassment of citizens perpetrated by some undisciplined soldiers during this period of lockdown is unacceptable and potentially dangerous.

It would be tragic if enforcing the stay-at-home order in the country is allowed to degenerate into unmanageable social convulsion and avoidable bloodletting. It is the responsibility of President Buhari to ensure that doesn't happen.

TO OUR READERS Letters in response to specific publications in THISDAY should be brief (150-200 words) and straight to the point. Interested readers may send such letters along with their contact details to opinion@thisdaylive.com. We also welcome comments and opinions on topical local, national and international issues provided they are well-written and should also not be longer than (950- 1000 words). They should be sent to opinion@thisdaylive.com along with the email address and phone numbers of the writer.

The Best Nigerian Goalkeeper

t will be a surprise if Nigeria had produced a better goalkeeper than Peter Rufai. I refer to Rufai of the Stationery Stores. Peter Rufai of the Green Eagles in the 80s and the very early 90s.

Rufai was at his peak in the 80s. You needed to watch Rufai at the Nations Cup in Morocco in 1988.

There was the story, not a myth, that great Cameroon footballers like Roger Milla, Emmanuel Kunde, Omam Biyik, etc., would always dread Nigeria when Rufai was in goal.

Peter Rufai at the peak of his career would not concede "foolish goals"!

He probably saved more penalty kicks than any goalkeeper in Nigerian

football history!

Indeed, Rufai was in goal when Nigeria beat Cameroon 2-0 in Ibadan in the qualifier for the Italia 90. It remains a matter of regret that Coach Clemens Westerhof dropped Rufai for the comparatively less-endowed Alloy Agu during the final qualifier in Yaounde. Not a few football aficionados believe that Nigeria failed to make appearance in the 1990 World Cup because of the attitude of Westerhof towards Rufai.

Why was Peter Rufai not in goal in the final match of Nigeria against Cameroon in Ivory Coast in 1984?

Of course, a goalkeeper is as good as his 10 fel-

low players on the field, especially the defenders.

When you have defenders that are not up to scratch, who recklessly expose the goalkeeper, then even the most endowed goalie would be turned into a rookie or greenhorn by the opponent.

But sometimes it takes a very good goalie to save a team from defeat just as it sometimes takes an exceptionally good striker to deliver victory to his team.

Nigeria football would seem to have been in recession since the 1994 World Cup. Never mind the occasional flash in the pan.

Sometimes you have your mouth agape. Where

is the Segun Odegbami in this team (on the right flank)?

Where is the Felix Owolabi in this team (on the left flank)?

Where is the Big Boss, Stephen Keshi, in this team (in the central defence)? Where is the Peter Rufai of the 80s in goal?

After the exit of Jay Jay Okocha, when last was a free kick converted directly to a goal by the Super Eagles? Your Super Eagles under Gernot Rohr would play 10 to 15 free kicks in a match, where the stakes are so high, yet would balloon all or waste them all.

Not a single one would threaten the opponent's goal mouth or make the spectators rise in expectation of a goal or in awe of a masterly delivery!

And I often find myself exclaim: What did you learn in training?! What do these play-

ers actually do in training?!

A worse-case scenario. You have a football federation giving an AFCON quarter/ semi-final target to the Super Eagles coach in the 21st century of Nigerian football!

In the decade when Egypt won the AFCON three times in a row!!! What level of lack of ambition could be so inflicted on this nation! So many questions begging for answers...

Well, this piece is supposed to be a short intervention on the proposition by Segun Odegbami - the best goalkeeper in Nigeria's football history since 1960!

Lest it takes a life of its own, my choice, without any further ado, is - Peter Rufai!

––Opeyemi Soyombo, Abeokuta

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THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER Ëž ÍłËœ Í°ÍŽÍ°ÍŽ

NEWS

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Sexual Violence against Minors Surges in Lagos ‡ DEXVHG GHÀOHG UDSHG LQ DORQH ‡&KLOG¡V ULJKWV FDPSDLJQHUV FDQYDVV VWLIIHU SHQDOWLHV 2016 and 2019.

With this ugly portrayal, the statistics revealed that the frequency of violence against male children had been steadily growing in the state, constituting about 3.11 percent cases of domestic and sexual violence in 2016; 6.63 percent in 2017; 7.95 percent in 2018 and 35.44 percent in 2019.

Disturbed by this ugly trend, Founder, Girl Child Africa, Bukola Shonibare explained the increase in sexual violence in Lagos State from an economic perspective.

She argued that poverty, low

socio-economic status, unemployment, illiteracy, limited access to economic opportunities, unfavourable policies, and several others “are factors that obstruct the economic prosperity of women. “Once women are not economically empowered, the chances of being sexually abused or staying in abusive relationships is high.

That men are socially constructed to make decisions and control the family’s wealth makes this even more difficult.�

Providing more insight into the statistics during an interaction with

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In what appears to be grim realities the Lagos State Government has been grappling with for years, the reported cases of sexual violence against minors have been on the steady rise in the state, statistics from the state’s Domestic Violence Response Team (DSVRT) has revealed.

DSVRT’s data, which THISDAY analysed year-on-year, showed that 3,247 minors were abused, defiled or raped in 2019 alone, constituting 63.58 percent of 5,107 incidents of domestic violence and sexual exploitation that were reported in the year.

DSVRT, however, said the rise did not necessarily suggest that the acts of domestic and sexual violence have significantly surged in the state, but obviously attest to the efficacy of the concerted approach to stemming the social vice by the DSVRT and its partners statewide.

With 3,247 reported cases involving minors, a class of children protected under the Child’s Rights Law of Lagos State, 2007, DSVRT’s data showed that sexual violence against children within the 0-1 age bracket constituted 8.22 percent with 267 incidents, suggesting that all children, irrespective age and gender, were targets of the violators.

Also, the statistics further revealed that the children within the 2-9 age bracket equally comprised 59.38 percent with 1,928 incidents in 2019 while those within the 10-17 age bracket formed 32.39 percent with 1052 incidents, a disturbingly grievously trend, for which child’s rights campaigners sought stiffer penalties.

In 2016, specifically, the statistics showed that the state recorded about 79.75 percent rise in the reported cases of sexual violence; 83.09 percent in 2017; slumped by 4.23 percent in 2018 and subsequently rose by 1,388 percent in 2019, representing the state’s highest reported cases in the last two decades.

Rising from 450 in 2016, on aggregate, the reported incidents of domestic and sexual violence grew by 218 percent in 2017 when 1,432 cases were reported; 39.60 percent in 2018 with 1999 cases reported

and 156 percent in 2019 when 5,107 incidents were documented across both sexes statewide.

With about 34 reported cases in 2016, as the statistics explicitly revealed, the violence – domestic and sexual – against children between 0 and 17 years has been steadily on the increase, indicating an unprecedented rise of 9,450 percent in 2019 when the state recorded 3,247 incidents.

Also, astronomically, the reported cases of domestic and sexual violence increased by 300 percent in 2017 with 137 cases were recorded; 25 percent in 2018 when 170 cases were reported and 1,810 percent in 2019 with over 3,247 cases reported statewide.

More grievously, the statistics tracked the frequency of domestic and sexual violence against the adults within the 18 – 45 age bracket with an increase of 376 percent between 2016 and 2019, a time space of four years.

Consistent with DSVRT’s statistics, the frequency of domestic and sexual violence against adults between 46 years and above was relatively insignificant compared with the number of victims that fall within the 0-17 and 18-45 age brackets.

With 52 incidents reported in 2016, the statistics showed that the occurrence of domestic and sexual violence against adults above 46 years still increased by 65.38 percent in 2017 when 86 cases were reported; 103.48 percent in 2018 with 175 incidents and dropped by 26.86 percent in 2019 when 128.

In term of gender, the statistics showed that female residents were not only the victims of domestic and sexual violence. Also, as shown in DSVRT’s data, the rate of abuse of male children, mainly those within the 0-17 age bracket, has been on the rise with a difference of about 12,829 percent between

"

Gboyega Akinsanmi

THISDAY, DSVRT’s Coordinator, Titilola Vivour-Adeniyi claimed that the state government paid special attention to reversing the ugly trend under the administration of former Governor Akinwunmi Ambode.

Aside campaigns in the conventional and social media in 2016, the coordinator explained the impact of a six-month engagement, a door-todoor campaign, which the Ambode administration adopted to sensitise the traditional rulers, community leaders and religious leaders on their roles and responsibilities in the campaign against domestic and sexual violence.

Obviously, Adeniyi-Vivour pointed out that the intensive campaigns explained why the reporting of cases increased astronomically in the subsequent years, mainly with most residents “now see themselves as the mandated reporters. By implication, it is the increase in awareness and advocacy that translated to the increase in the number of reported cases.�

But the challenges associated with the frequency of domestic and sexual violence in Africa’s most populous city might indeed be graver than ever expected or grimmer than ever imagined just as implied in the statistics Adeniyi-Vivour referred to in a voice note she sent to THISDAY on WhatsApp. For her, it is difficult tracking unreported cases statewide. But before the age of 18, she explained that one in every four girls “will be sexually abused in their lifetimes vis-Ă -vis the previous statistics that the DSVRT had collated. As it is the case in other parts of the world, 70 percent incidents of sexual violence actually go unreported or under-reported.â€?

On this account, Adeniyi-Vivour explained cultural, religious and social dimensions to unreported cases of sexual and domestic

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violence. In the case of sexual abuse, she cited the fear of stigmatisation as an impediment “to reporting incidents of abuse, defilement and rape.�

Rather than blaming and reporting the perpetrators, she lamented that the survivors seldom enjoyed empathy from the society, which she said, had discouraged the survivors from seeking justice or make formal report for fear of being stigmatised in their communities or neighbourhoods.

Apart from the societal constraint to case reporting, DSVRT’S coordinator cited institutional challenges, which according to her, some institutions might not be accessible to survivors of sexual and domestic violence. Also, there might be bureaucratic bottlenecks associated with responding to cases.

This often discourages victims from reporting incidents.

In the case of domestic violence, she cited the instance of religious leaders or institutions intervening in or perhaps making efforts to settle the cases of gender-based violence, forgetting that such cases “are crimes against the state. And it is only the state that reserves the power to prosecute or not to prosecute the perpetrators of domestic violence.�

But Shonibare lamented that the growing incidence of domestic and sexual violence “has been an enormous challenge for the society at large. It often limits women’s productivity in all spheres of life, especially in workplace, businesses and even parenting.

When a woman is not so productive, according to the women rights campaigner, her participation and contributions to society’s development processes, economic growth, and stability will be limited.

Also, Shonibare noted that rising spate of domestic and sexual violence in Lagos State “will cause a huge burden on the governance systems, especially judicial and health.� “It equally constrains women from responding to rapidly changing political, economic, and society changes. Countries are recording increased percentage of women in political and leadership positions, and while Lagos State is not doing badly in this regard, the gap is still

COVID-19 May Worsen Instability in Nigeria, Others, Warns MIF Tobi Soniyi Except Nigeria and other countries in Africa handle the crisis created by COVID-19 with care, it may fuel further conflicts and instability, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation (MIF) has warned.

The warning is contained in a report released by the foundation during the week. The report is titled COVID-19 in Africa: a call for coordinated governance, improved health structures and better data.

In its 22-page report, the foundation said apart from the economic impact the virus would have on the economy in Africa, it may “test the institutional fragility

of some countries, fuelling further conflicts and instability.�

Many countries in the continent are facing internal security challenges ranging from armed insurgencies to terrorism and banditry.

Already, the United Nations Economic Council for Africa (UNECA) had warned that the pandemic would hit economic growth from an expected 3.2 percent down to 1.8 percent .

But the report said: “If not addressed in a collective and organised way, this could reverse the positive growth of the past decade and impact areas where Africa has steadily progressed, be it the fight against malaria

or against poverty.�

Moreover, according to the report, this could spill over beyond the economy.�

The report noted that the spread of COVID-19 “is accelerating across the world. In Africa, most countries have now confirmed cases and the number of fatalities is rising. “If allowed to spread unmanaged, the impact on African citizens and economies will be substantial�, the report added.

It noted that despite factors mitigating against the spread of the virus in the continent, including the average age of African citizens, which is the lowest globally, and factors relating

to the continent’s climate, the foundation warned that, Africa might yet be worst hit by this invisible disease. “Africa’s already fragile health systems, coupled with a high burden of respiratory and diabetic diseases and densely packed urban agglomeration, are likely to increase the vulnerability of the continent and the lethality of the virus�, it warned.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of the World Health Organization (WHO), had earlier called on Africa to “wake up� to the COVID-19 threat and prepare for a worst-case scenario.

The Mo Ibrahim Foundation

warned that public health systems across the continent would quickly be overwhelmed if the virus took hold in Africa, a continent that is home to over a billion people.

The report listed some immediate challenges calling for action in the continent, first suggesting that sound and coordinated governance, which it observed, was needed across the continent.

The report noted that any pandemic required by nature a general coordination of efforts across national and regional borders, and with multilateral actors and partners, even more so in a globalised world.

Secondly, the report said there was an urgent need to act on the lessons learned from the Ebola outbreak in 2015 and address the specific weaknesses of Africa’s health structures: improve health systems, and citizens’ access to them, and more generally strengthen data and statistical capacity.

Thirdly, it noted that only 10 African countries provided free and universal health care to their citizens, while healthcare in 22 countries was neither free nor universal. “Governments need to make swift improvements in handling and improving access to basic health services,� it said.

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ͳ˜ ͰͮͰͮ

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NEWS Campbell: Power Shift Impediment to Sanusi’s 2023 Bid Predicts Osinbajo-Sanusi Presidential Ticket Says way forward for Tinubu, Fashola unclear yet Gboyega Akinsanmi Amid the political undercurrents already defining the 2023 presidential contest, dethroned Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi might consider electoral politics, though power alternation would be an impediment to his presidential aspiration, former US Ambassador to Nigeria, Sir John Campbell has said.

Campbell, a senior fellow at the Council for Foreign Relations (CFR), has forecast a presidential nomination between Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and Sanusi citing uphill conditions power alternation and religion factors have foisted on Nigeria’s presidential politics since democratic transition in 1999.

He explained these possibilities in a blog post on the website of CFR with a title, “Lamido Sanusi: A Man of Nigeria’s Past and Possibly Its Future.”

Kano State Governor, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje had secured the approval of the State Executive Council to dethrone and banish him to Awe, a community in Nasarawa State, a development that ignited protracted public discussion about the legality of Ganduje’s decision.

Sanusi had contested Ganduje’s decision to banish him in a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja. The court subsequently declared Sanusi’s banishment illegal and unconstitutional, thus putting an end to home confinement that he was placed for about four days.

With the decision of the

federal court, reports, especially among some Nigerian business class, had suggested that Sanusi might kick-start a political career, perhaps even contesting for the presidency in 2023.

Beyond political permutation around Sanusi’s dethronement, Campbell observed that Sanusi might want “to enter electoral politics, though his way forward is not clear,” citing different factors that often defines Nigeria’s politics.

He wrote: “Sanusi is popular among the captains of Nigeria’s modern economy, just as he is among international business people. He appears especially popular among Nigerian expats, both those living abroad and those returned home.

“Hence, Lagos would appear to be his natural political base.

But Lagos, mainly its political class, is dominated by the Yoruba, Nigeria’s second biggest ethnic nationality. It is hard to see them making room for a northerner, especially a critic of the political economy from which they benefit.”

On the national level, Campbell observed that Nigeria’s system of political alternation, or power shift between Christians and Muslim and between north and south, obviously plays against the dethroned monarch.

Even under the British colonial administration, former US ambassador observed that the northern, Muslim, political class feared domination by the much wealthier and more advanced south, a condition that has entrenched the tradition of power alternation in the last 21 years.

More categorically, Campbell explained the fear of the northern political class, which he argued, had long dreaded exclusion from government and hence from the wealth that accrued to those that capture the state and can access oil revenue.

The former US envoy said: “Power shift, in response to those fears, was an important part of the 1998 to 1999 transition from military to civilian government. In principle, after eight years under President Buhari, a Muslim from the north, it will be the Christian South’s turn in 2023.”

Among Nigerian expatriates and in the internationally oriented business community, however, Campbell observed that it had been increasingly said that Nigeria “no longer needs power alternation to stay together.”

He explained the high-level politics that played out in the pre-election presidential election when former President Umara Yar’Adua, a Muslim president, died in office on May 5, 2010.

He said the supporters of former President Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian and southerner, played down the power alternation when he ran in 2011, though it was ostensibly the turn of the north at the presidency. Jonathan, as vice president, was meant to finish Yar’Adua’s first term and then make way for a northern Muslim to run in 2011.

VOLUNTARY EXAMINATION . .

Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat undergoing medical examination to determine if he is COVID-19 free at Folarin Coker Staff Clinic Complex, Alausa ... recently.

NMA Condemns Sexual Lagos Takes up Medical Bills of Pregnant Women, Patients “The move is to ameliorate the cases, including registration, laborapalliatives yesterday at a news Assault on Kogi Beauty Queen Segun James inLagos conference he addressed after the difficulties that may be experienced tory tests, surgeries, and drugs.

Ibrahim Oyewale in Lokoja The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) yesterday condemned the alleged battering and rape of a beauty queen, Elizabeth Oyeniyi,

by Kogi State Commissioner for Water Resources, Mr. Abdumumuni Danga.

NMA, West Africa’s largest medical association, also tasked all relevant law enforcement agencies in the state to conduct thorough investigation into the allegation and ensure that justice is served.

The Chairman of NMA National Committee on Gender Violence, Dr. Godwin Tijani made the call yesterday in a statement he issued in Lokoja.

Tijani condemned in its entirety the alleged battering and rape of Oyeniyi, describing it as a gross gender violation and abuse of office by the privileged government’s official.

He said: “The NMA condemns in a strong term the alleged human right abuse, assault and rape of Elizabeth Oyeniyi by Kogi Commissioner for Water Resources. Violence against women and girls is a grave violation of human rights. ‘’Its impact ranges from immediate to long-term multiple physical, sexual and mental consequences for women and girls, including death. It negatively affects the victim’s general well-being and prevents such women from fully participating in society. ‘’Violence not only has negative consequences for women

but also their families, the community and the country at large,’’ Tijani said.

He, therefore, called on the relevant law enforcement agencies to conduct thorough investigation into the allegations and ensure that justice is served, while commending Kogi Government ordering accelerated investigation into the allegations.

He, also, commended the coalition of human right civil society organisations for the prompt action in coming to the aid of the victim in order to justice for her.

He restated NMA’s commitment to partner with Governments, civil society organizations and other institutions to advocate for ending violence against women and girl-child.

He added the partnership would increase awareness of the causes and consequences of violence and build capacity of partners to prevent and respond to violence.

Oyeniyi, a 23-year-old beauty queen, had in Facebook post accused Danga of not taking care of his sibling, who is her friend before the alleged assault.

She said, “I left Abuja for Okene to stay with my friend because of the spread of the COVID-19. On getting there, she explained to me that the commissioner, who is her stepbrother, had not been taking care of her.

The Lagos State Government yesterday said it would take up the medical bills of pregnant women and patients admitted into any of its secondary and tertiary healthcare facilities statewide as part of measures to cushion the effects of a 14-day lockdown the federal government imposed on the state.

Apart from the new palliatives, the state government equally acknowledged that pockets of irregularities were observed in the implementation of social intervention programmes he recently rolled out to ensure that its residents duly observe the stay-at-home directive.

The state governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu reeled out the new

State Security Council meeting held at the State House, Marina.

For the period the lockdown will last, Sanwo-Olu explained that the state government would offset the medical bills of any patient admitted into the state-owned secondary and tertiary healthcare facilities.

He said the new palliative scheme “will cover the medical equipment expenses of pregnant women on maternity delivery and other categories of patients in emergency, casualty cases, laboratory testing and surgeries.

“The cost of any medication bought at the secondary and tertiary healthcare facilities will be borne by the government during the period of lockdown.

by those whose wellbeing may have been affected by the ongoing restrictions initiated to curtail the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic in the state,” the governor disclosed at the briefing.

Sanwo-Olu said measures had been put in place to ensure the scheme was not compromised, adding that the palliative would make great impact on those in need of medical attention in the period of lockdown.

He noted that the state government would, for the duration of the restriction on movement, take full responsibility for the medical bills of all patients who fall in the following categories at all healthcare facilities.

He revealed that the first category “are patients in emergency, casualty

Those in the second category are maternity cases. We will bear the full cost of pregnant women on normal delivery and Caesarean sections in our hospitals in this period of lockdown.

“What this new scheme means is that, at this time, patients with the listed medical conditions will not need to pay to access treatment and care in all our 27 General Hospitals across the State.”

The governor said the state had started to review the process of distribution of food relief package, which was introduced at the beginning of the restriction, admitting that the programme had made positive difference in the lives of the intended beneficiaries.

Lawan, Gbajabiamila, APC Governors Felicitate with Oshiomhole @68 Adedayo Akinwale and Udora Orizu, in Abuja The Senate President, Dr. Ahmad Lawan and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila have congratulated the National Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, on the occasion of his 68th birthday.

In a statement issued by Special Adviser media, Ola Awoniyi yesterday, Lawan congratulated Oshiomhole on his good health despite the intensity of his life of service to Nigeria as a former labour leader, two-term governor of Edo State and in his current position as the

National Chairman of Nigeria’s governing party.

He, therefore, described Oshiomhole as a man with conviction, who has been consistent in his principled and dogged pursuit of better life for Nigerians.

He said the life of the former comrade governor “has been that of struggle for the improvement of society, especially of the living conditions of the common Nigerians. This is clearly evident in his glittering records as a labour leader, governor and now as the captain of the ship of our great party, the APC.” For Gbajabiamila, Oshiomhole’s leadership qualities as

the APC National Chairman have contributed tremendously in stabilizing the party since he came on board in July, 2018.

In a congratulatory message by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Lanre Lasisi, the speaker described Oshiomhole as a pragmatic leader, who has proven to be one committed Nigerian, working tirelessly in moving the country forward.

Gbajabiamila said, “On this day, I join millions of Nigerians, especially members of our party, in congratulating and celebrating our National Chairman on his 68th birthday.

“He has brought his experience of decades and political sagacity

to bear in leading the APC to victory during the 2019 general elections.

“His firm commitment to party supremacy and discipline is a trait that many do not have.

Oshiomhole is one individual that has weathered the storm in difficult circumstances and has come out stronger. He remains ever determined to ensure the continuous unity and harmony among members of our great party.

While thanking him for all that he has done for the APC to remain one, I pray that God Almighty will continue giving him the wisdom and energy to pilot the affairs of our party.”

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ APRIL 5, 2020

OPINION

COVID-19: HOW CHINA DID IT

Zhou Pingjian writes that the pandemic has been effectively controlled through the efforts of everyone

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uhan, the hardest hit Chinese city by the COVID-19 outbreak, will lift outbound travel restrictions from April 8. Other areas in Hubei Province have already lifted outbound transportation restrictions since March 25.

As the epicenter of the outbreak, Wuhan, with over 50000 confirmed cases and 2500 deaths, accounts for nearly 61% and 77% of the total confirmed cases and deaths, respectively, in the Chinese mainland. One month ago, several thousand of new infections reported every day in Wuhan. With over three months’ struggle and sacrifices, Wuhan recently reports no newly confirmed cases for days.

This marks a notable turning point in the city's months-long battle with the virus and sending a message of hope to a world grappling with the pandemic. As the Director-General of World Health Organization (WHO) Dr. Tedros pointed out, “Wuhan provides hope for the rest of the world that even the most severe situation can be turned around.”

All across China, the situation in beating the COVID-19 pandemic is moving steadily in a positive direction. Life and work are quickly returning to normal.

How China did it? You may wonder. C.H.I.N.A did it, I should say.

C: Curbing the transmission Wuhan, the capital city of Hubei Province with a population of over 11 million, is the major transportation hub and the most populous city in Central China. On January 23, the government decided to block off Wuhan's transport system — or what we refer to as launching the lockdown of the city. Till the upcoming lift on April 8, the people in Wuhan will have been staying at home for 76 days.

At the beginning, some people might become disgruntled about the decisions made to quarantine infectious groups, suspend public transport operations in Wuhan and block off all contacts between the epicenter and the rest of the country. But the continuous trend for better situation in China have proved that the lockdown of Wuhan is a least costly and most effective approach to quarantine the infections and cut off every possible method and channel, containing the pandemic at its source and from spreading further.

H: Highest priority On January 25, the first day of Chinese Lunar New Year, while we were celebrating together the Abuja Temple Fair inside the China Culture Center, President Xi Jinping chaired a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee. He heard reports on the prevention and control of the outbreak and decided in the meeting to set up a CPC Central Committee leading group

to oversee the work, and also send groups to Hubei province and other hard-hit regions to direct the work on the ground. Holding a meeting on the Spring Festival, the first day of the Chinese Lunar New Year, which has traditionally been a happy time for family reunions and other gatherings, is for the first time ever in New China’s history.

Since the outbreak, the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee has convened eight meetings within three months to guide and ensure the effective deployment of pandemic prevention and control. The State Council made arrangements for the prevention and control of the outbreak with measures typically used for category-A infectious diseases even though the outbreak has been classified as a category-B infectious disease. All 31 provincial-level regions in China’s mainland launched a first-level emergency response – the highest level for a public health emergency. All levels of finance departments have allocated over 116.9 billion yuan (US$16.6 billion) for virus prevention and control efforts nationwide. On February 3 and 8, the 1000-bed Huoshenshan Hospital and 1500-bed Leishenshan Hospital were put into use respectively. Both of the makeshift hospitals were built in less than 10 days. With the rapid completion of another 16 temporary hospitals, the number of hospital beds in Wuhan rose from 5,000 to 23,000 in a few days.

I: International cooperation China is by no means alone in its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. For instance, the WHO deployed a high-level mission including 25 international experts to China to conduct field research on the prevention and control of COVID-19 from February 16 to 24. “The Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu was one of 10 global health

The continuous trend for better situation in China have proved that the lockdown of Wuhan is a least costly and most effective approach to quarantine the infections and cut off every possible method and channel, containing the pandemic at its source and from spreading further

leaders invited by the WHO to visit China and understudy their response approach. Since his return, the NCDC has been implementing numerous strategies and programs in Nigeria to ensure that the adverse impact of this virus on our country is minimized,” Said President Muhammad Buhari in his public speech on March 29.

By sharing the genome sequencing of the virus at the earliest opportunity as well as the control and treatment experience without reservation, China has won admiration and support from the international community. Leaders of over 170 countries and heads of more than 50 international and regional organizations have sent messages of support and 79 countries and 10 international organizations have provided medical supplies to China.

President Buhari made a statement of solidarity on February 2, “China's efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus have been exemplary, as well as the country's collaboration with international agencies and other countries on the matter.”

Indeed, China received strong political support and assistance in various means from the Government and good people of Nigeria at the most difficult moment in our fight against the COVID-19 outbreak. Such expressions of friendship boost our confidence in no small measure and will always be remembered and cherished by the Chinese people.

N: Nationwide efforts.

Ms Li Hui, a nurse born after 1995, joined the battle in Wuhan without her parents' knowledge and said she would donate her body to research should the worst happen. Ms Zhao Peiyu, head of the nursing group of the medical team sent by the ChinaJapan Friendship Hospital in support of Hubei province, said that more than 930 nurses had signed up to go to Wuhan.

Their reasons are simple and pure, some said they had experience in treating SARS, some said they are a member of the CPC, some said they do not have too much family burden. These are just epitomes of all 43,000 medical workers from 340 medical teams who had been dispatched from all across China to Hubei province, Wuhan in particular, since the outbreak.

By fighting the pandemic with concerted efforts, Hubei and Wuhan, the hardest-hit areas in China, received full-scale support nationwide timely. The National Health Commission and the Wuhan health authorities hold daily briefings to keep the public updated. 4,000 military medics were quickly dispatched to Wuhan. Nineteen provinces paired up with the cities in Hubei to provide one-on-one support. The communities in the whole country played an important role to identify the people, record their information for community management, and closely observe their health condition.

––Dr.Pingjian is Ambassador of China to Nigeria (See concluding part on www.thisdaylive.com)

Curtailing The Spread of COVID-19 A young Jamaican's invention could help tackle spread of viruses like COVID-19, writes Patricia Scotland

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ive years ago more than 40 babies born in Jamaican hospitals became infected with lethal bacteria - half of them died.

The bacteria Klebsiella, like the coronavirus, is spread from person-to-person or via contaminated surfaces. It can be killed by hand-washing with warm soapy water.

The situation caught the attention of technology student Rayvon Stewart based in Jamaica who set about finding a way to curb the spread of harmful germs.

"I made a determined decision that I was going to find a solution to limit the transfer of pathogens to multiple surfaces, thereby saving lives," says Rayvon.

I met Rayvon at the Commonwealth Health Ministers Meeting (CHMM) in Geneva last year. He was among the finalists shortlisted for last year’s Commonwealth Health Innovation Awards.

He took part in an exhibition on the theme ‘Universal Health Coverage: Reaching the unreached, ensuring that no-one is left behind’ which highlighted how young people are tackling age-old challenges with modern technology and disruptive thinking.

The event underlined Commonwealth commitment to empowering young people as outlined in our charter and also our contribution to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

I spoke to five extraordinary innovators who made it as finalists of the Commonwealth Health Innovation Awards which recognise outstanding young people whose groundbreaking projects have made a real impact in helping their countries achieve Sustainable Development Goal 3, which is to ‘ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages’.

William Wasswa was working on a digital pathology platform for automated diagnosis and classification of cervical cancer from pap-smear images. Then there was Midia Hassan using 3D

printing technology to provide prosthetics to amputees living in refugee camps and poverty zones.

Another timely invention is that of Nitash Jangir who was one of 15 finalists at our SDG innovation awards. Nitash invented a neonatal breathing support device for low resource settings, with multiple powering options. It maintains respiration and oxygenation in premature neonates with Respiratory Distress Syndrome by providing constant airflow and pressure to keep the lungs open during transport to a tertiary care setting.

I was struck by the ability of young minds to find solutions to real problems in their communities, and their persistence in finding support to scale-up their projects.

In Rayvon’s case, he focused on the most common places where bacteria and viruses could easily be left by one person and picked up directly by another. He came up with what he calls ‘Xermosol’- a simple-to-install device that automatically disinfects door knobs and handles after each use.

The innovation uses ultraviolet light to target and specifically kill harmful microorganisms, while being harmless to human beings.

The potential impact of Rayvon’s invention could now be even more important than when he first conceived it, as the world battles the frightening COVID-19 pandemic.

The coronavirus lives up to two or three days on stainless steel and metal, and several hours on fabric depending on factors such as temperature and humidity. Field and laboratory testing has validated Xermosol’s efficiency in killing more than 99.9% of deadly pathogens. In addition to health facilities, Rayvon hopes it could help reduce transmission of germs in other public spaces such as schools and businesses.

Tests carried out in conjunction with University of Technol-

ogy, Jamaica and University of the West Indies show Xermosol destroys organisms such as MRSA and E-coli and destroys viral cells such as influenza virus H1N1.

This is a huge step in the fight against microorganisms and offers new ways of thinking around combatting viral cells such as Coronavirus.

Rayvon says the recognition he received from the Commonwealth Health Innovation Awards was a key moment in Xermosol’s progress, generating immense interest in the project.

But now the production of Xermosol faces a number of considerable challenges - from development funding to finding a manufacturer to mass produce.

Financing options are mostly focused on large-scale innovation, but the Commonwealth is exploring and proposing that all 54 member-countries go into partnership with the Global Innovation Fund to help young innovators like Rayvon.

Over the past two years, the Commonwealth Youth Health Network has worked closely with the Commonwealth Secretariat and member states to leverage the unique capabilities of young people and drive forward progress toward SDG3 (which includes a bold commitment to end the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other communicable diseases) and health-related development goals.

Citizens aged under 30 comprise 60 per cent of the Commonwealth’s population - a proportion that is 10 per cent higher than the global average. In the course of my interaction in and with our member countries I am continually impressed by the drive of these 1.4 billion young people. They have the ideas, energy and talent to make a huge ––difference in their communities – and they are doing so.

––Scotland is Commonwealth Secretary-General.

T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ APRIL 5, 2020

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LETTERS Social Distancing and Environmental Challenges

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ith the outbreak of the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic, new vocabularies and terminologies have been introduced into our literary space. One of these new vocabularies is social distancing. It refers to measures that reduce contacts between large groups of people and underscores the importance of maintaining a safe physical distance between people to prevent infections from easily passing from one to the other.

A cursory look around Nigeria – especially Lagos – the environment typifies very dense urban settlements with human traffic swarming like bees at urban city centres without a conscious attempt to put order and decency.

Also, with the burgeoning state of the real estate industry and the apparent lack of enforcement of the extant physical planning laws of development in the state, properties are being developed without due regard to air space, allowable number of units per plot, (density), statutory green areas, the minimum number of parking spaces, as well as other planning regulations.

This has turned the city into a big urban conundrum.

The consequences of these developments are evidenced in the poor sanitary conditions all over the state, traffic

I

Ehanire, Minister of Health congestion, environmental pollution, declining productivity, and very poor quality of life.

Perhaps a new vocabulary of environmental distancing should be coined as a metaphor to curb the various infractions being experienced in our physical environment in Nigeria. With the way redevelopments are springing up in most of our residential estates, any outbreak of fire will wreak a lot of havoc on surrounding buildings due to the apparent disregard for the statutory airspace between buildings.

The other areas where environmental distancing should be applied is the Rightof-Ways (RoW). These are areas earmarked by planning authorities for establishment of roads, bridges, power lines, drainages, railway lines, gas/oil pipelines, flood plains and green belts. These areas should be properly gazetted by government and signposted for the blind to see and any encroachment by anybody should be met with very stiff penalties.

Serious losses have been incurred (both human and material), due to the incessant

encroachment on the right- ofway and continuous distortions of approved master plan by highly placed government officials and politicians for selfish and pecuniary gains to the detriment of the public good.

The government owes it a duty to protect its citizens by protecting, monitoring and enforcing the executions of master plan and the RoW enshrined in it to prevent looming disasters as witnessed in the flooding of the entire Isheri axis of the Lagos- Ibadan Expressway and the recent explosions that caused many the loss of lives and property at Abule Ado area of the Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area of Lagos State.

These are avoidable disasters. Also of immediate concerns are the very numerous developments under the high tension power lines in the state. A minimum setback of about 50 metres is stipulated by the law for any development around these lines, but most of these areas have developments right underneath them or sited with inadequate setbacks from them. Decisive actions should be taken by the government now before another disaster occurs. These corridors could in fact be turned into beautiful green areas which will help in mitigating climate change.

It may not be a bad idea for various state governments in Nigeria to embark on the

A New World Is Possible

n January 2006, I attended the World Social Forum in Bamako, Mali. The theme of the social gathering was ‘Another World is Possible’. We all came back charged believing that a new world indeed was afoot. Fourteen years after, the world has become even more dangerous and precarious. Elder statesman, Prof. Ben Nwabueze, stirred the hornet’s nest with his declaration that the world is fast tilting to a failed state. Those who so believe have enough elements to paint the picture of gloom, despair, despondency and distraught. The many things that happen to us every day are more than enough to feed the feeling of a failed world. All you need is scan the headlines every day.

It is scary. They are even more bizarre acts that go unreported.

But for anyone who has the leverage to see the vision and mission of the Ethanrose foundation in the Niger Delta Area, you will know we can experience a rebirth. A new world is possible. A foundation is standing stoutly for the benefit and progress of the elderly and had hit the public stage with a bang. The devotion of the Ethanrose foundation is Pentecostal and has become the avant- garde of the

course of the old people in the Niger Delta region.

In a bid to contribute their quota towards the fight against Corona virus, Ethanrose foundation on last Sunday took their sensitization programme to Kaiama in Kolokuma Opokuma Local Government Area of Bayelsa State. The NGO which named the sensitization programme “Corona Virus Awareness Campaign” taught the people of the community the essence of regular washing of hands, practicing social distancing, using hand sanitizers, keeping the environment clean, among other things.

According to the team led by the Secretary Annette David West, the foundation takes care of the elderly and had nothing to do with any political interest or affiliation. It’s strictly on a humanitarian mission aimed at bringing peace, unity and love to the people of the Niger Delta.

Drugs, sanitization materials, food stuffs were shared to both the elderly and the young and a lecture on how to stay safe in this era of Covid-19 was delivered through a medical team led by Appah Williams. Williams asked the people to practice respiratory hygiene, adhere to basic protective

measures and maintain at least one-meter distance between themselves and anyone coughing or sneezing. The medical team taught the people how to use hot water daily for preventive measures and also told them that washing their hands with soap and water or using alcohol-based hand rub kills viruses that may be on the hand. The foundation advised that marriages and burial ceremonies should be avoided adding that if there is any death, few persons should bury the dead.

In response, the Royal Majesty of Kolokuma Opokuma kingdom, King Onyia Mozi Agara thanked the foundation for remembering the people of his kingdom and prayed for divine protection. The king affirmed that the Covid-19 committee had not been able to do anything since it was inaugurated adding that was the first activity he was seeing concerning the pandemic.

The Ethanrose foundation team also called on the paramount ruler of Kaiama community, His Royal Highness Sir J. O. Burutolu and equally delivered the goodwill message of peace, unity and love. The King admitted that ignorance itself is a disease in our clime.

The train moved to Sampou community, the home of the Bayelsa State Governor Douye Diri where it also shared some drugs and food items and taught them how to stay safe from Corona virus. At the palace of the paramount ruler of the community His Royal Highness F. C. Usuioromogha, the team enlightened the people on the dangers of Corona virus and equally shared drugs and food items to the elderly and young people.

One of the beneficiaries of the programme in the Sampou community, Robert Kimo, thanked the foundation for remembering them at a time like this and encouraged the foundation to continue to spread the message of peace, hope, unity and love across the region.

Yes, there are bad guys all over us: in the offices, in the cabinets, in the schools, in the private sectors, in the churches and mosques, just everywhere. Yet, the sky shall be our starting point if we all emulate the Ethanrose foundation. We can begin to experience the song of transformation which the Ethanrose sings ever so often. And then we will know that a new world is possible.

––Allison Abanum, Yenagoa

following recommendations, such that our environment will begin to evolve in a manner consistent with best practices in the civilized world instead of the amorphous corridor developments we have all over Nigeria.

One, there is need for the establishment of states’ comprehensive master plans to be approved and signed into law by the various state Houses of Assembly.

These master plans should be broken into constituent parts according to the local government areas of the state.

The local government councils should now be the main drivers of the execution of the various phases of development, with support from the state government.

Each state under the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development should constitute an Ombudsman Committee to be

comprised of residents with proven integrity alongside ministry officials, who will monitor and ensure the enforcement of the provisions of the master plan.

In addition, the organized private sector and the academia should also be engaged and adopted into ensuring that best practices and optimum design proposals are adopted. These proposals should equally be subjected to critiques via town hall meetings for stakeholder inputs and engagements.

Most importantly, the land use patterns of the various states must be carefully looked at to ensure that there are adequate provisions for office parks, business parks, industrial parks, educational parks, hospitals, markets and others.

––Gbenga Onabanjo, founder, Go Forte Foundation, Lagos.

Re: Addressing Blindness in Nigeria

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our Editorial, “Addressing Blindness in Nigeria,” published April 2, 2020 missed the work being done by Tulsi Chanrai Foundation (TCF) in Nigeria.

With a strong belief in caring capitalism and intention of giving back to the society, the Chanrai family established TCF in 1992. The vision of TCF is that “every Nigerian should have access to quality Primary Health Care, Safe Drinking Water and Eye Care”.

To realize the vision, the key thrust areas of TCF continues to be mission for primary health care, mission for water and mission for vision.

At TCF we believe that these interventions are critical change agents and they give people a sense of self-control over their lives.

The key objectives of mission for vision at TCF are: Significantly contribute to the efforts of eliminating avoidable blindness in Nigeria; ensure availability, accessibility and affordability of quality eye care services to every Nigerian irrespective of socio-economic status, caste, creed and religion; increase local ophthalmic capacities through capacity building/ training of personnel; increase cataract surgical coverage.

As part of mission for vision, TCF aims to reduce avoidable blindness, predominantly cataract and glaucoma, among the rural poor of Nigeria by providing high quality free surgeries. Since inception, TCF has restored eyesight of more than 126,000+ blind eyes, and is performing more than 5,000 surgeries per annum through the

eye centres established in partnership with two state governments (Kebbi and Cross River).

Earlier till 2015, TCF also carried out cataract surgeries in two other eye-centres in Yola and Katsina States which are now handed over to the respective governments.

In addressing the underlying key problems and to eliminate avoidable blindness in Nigeria, TCF has embarked on the journey of establishing a “Centre of Excellence” through a specialty eye hospital and ophthalmic institute in Abuja called the TCF Eye Hospital.

The TCF Eye hospital will scale up in a phased manner to provide comprehensive services including referrals and capacity building of local ophthalmic personnel not only for Nigeria, but for the whole of West Africa.

TCF Eye Hospital in Abuja is in operation since January 2019, aimed at providing comprehensive eye care services and build, nurture local ophthalmic resources. We are very glad to inform you that the hospital was officially commissioned by the President Buhari, Federal Republic of Nigeria on July 11, 2019.

We envisage to provide cataract surgeries free of cost with world class quality and precision to the poorest of the poor across Nigeria. The hospital is providing services to all economic sections of Nigeria and in the last one year of its operation we have done more than 3200 eye surgeries free of cost to the poor patients around Abuja. The hospital also caters to the population who can af ford treatment in Abuja.

––Sanjay Kumar Upadhyaya, Abuja.

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SUNDAY APRIL 5, 2020 •T H I S D AY

SUNDAY APRIL 5, 2020 • T H I S D AY

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AP ͽ˜ ͺ͸ͺ͸ ˾ THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER

INTERNATIONAL Beyond PMB’s COVID-19 Address and Nationbuilding: Self-survival versus Self-deceit Attitudes

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resident Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) gave an address on the COVID-19 pandemic last week Sunday, 29th March, 2020, after a long national expectation. Many Nigerians, rightly or wrongly, believe that PMB is challenged by physical unfitness or by intellectual incapacity to always speedily attend to urgent national questions.

However, his Special Adviser on Media Affairs, Femi Adesina, made strenuous efforts to debunk that type of perception by arguing that PMB’s approach is a ‘matter of style.’

And true enough, PMB himself has admitted to the observation that he is ‘Baba Go Slow,’ that is, ‘the old man who goes slowly.’

This means that the extent to which the able presidential spokesman can be faulted is limited. What is noteworthy, however, is that PMB eventually yielded to public pressure. He addressed coronavirus-related national issues with serious implications for national survival. Serious national questions must always warrant urgent attention as a desideratum, and must go beyond rationalisation of style.

When it is a matter of life and death, a good soldier must seek to kill his enemy first, before allowing himself to be killed by an enemy. COVID-19 has been universally acknowledged as the number one public enemy. PMB should, therefore, be commended for accepting to speak to his Fellow Nigerians on this public enemy.

He did not speak vertically as Mr. President, but horizontally, as if he is at par with other nationals. It is from this perspective that the address is worth explicating within the framework of polemology and social science methodologies.

The speech, called an ‘address,’ and structured into 65 paragraphs, deals essentially with anti-COVID-19 measures already taken and to be undertaken. It sought the understanding and cooperation of all fellow Nigerians, and expressed sympathy to the families of those who had lost their lives. Even though many observers have not seen goodness in the speech, we strongly believe that the address still has a lot of merits. It was logically consistent.

Relevant issues were addressed. It was written in plain language, but not presidentially delivered, which is not yet a big deal.

Without doubt, some of the issues raised are analytically controversial and still far from being enough. The speech does not address the challenge of capacity-building in the health sector in a post-COVID-19 era in Nigeria. The issue of self-survival is raised for which there are no critical paragraphs dealing with its modalities in the address. There is also the critical challenge of self-deceit in the whole address: PMB gives directives that are directly and openly flouted by the implementers of the directives. How can Nigerians be yearning for cure and at the same time be flouting directives meant to ensure their safety? Whatever is the case, the address is a welcome development.

In looking at the issues involved, the exegesis of the address is necessary in light of three critical international developments: deepening gravity of the situation, the seriousness of the implications for Africa, and the global quest for collaborative solution. In the words of the Director General of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom, there has been near exponential growth of COVID-19 and he is much ‘concerned about the rapid escalation and global spread of infection.’ Consequently, he warned Africa, Central and South America of the ‘serious social, economic and political consequences.’

In this regard, to what extent has PMB’s address considered the seriousness of the socio-economic and political consequences?

And more interestingly, is Nigeria part of the 74 countries participating in the UN health agency’s ‘Solidarity Trial’ that will be comparing four promising drugs or drugs combination required to treat COVID-19 confirmed cases? 200 patients are involved and ‘each new patient who joins the trial gets us one step closer to knowing which drugs work,’ the WHO’s boss has said.

PMB’s Address

As noted above, the address comprises 65 paragraphs.

Paragraph 1 is the shortest and simply draws attention to PMB’s address. It says ‘Fellow Nigerians,’ it did not say ‘Fellow Compatriots’ in the mania of change of government by coups d’état, but raises a question on who is a fellow. Ordinarily speaking, the word ‘fellow’ can mean many things. The New International Webster’s Comprehensive Dictionary of the English Languages says it refers to a man, a boy, a person or an individual, a companion, a mate, a counterpart or one of a pair. It also refers to a trustee or a member

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Buhari of the corporation in some educational institutions, a member of a society, a graduate or student of a university holding a fellowship or stipend awarded for excellence in a field of study.

From the technical and legal perspective, a ‘fellow’ is defined as any person ‘joined with another in some legal status or relation.’ It also refers to ‘a member of a college, board, corporate body, or other organisation’ (vide Bryan A. Garner, Black’s Law Dictionary (St. Paul, USA: Thomas Reuters, 2014, 10th edition). From the foregoing, the meaning that is most relevant is companionship, especially in the war against COVID-19. PMB did not address Nigerians as mates or boys or as members of any college or as counterparts.

What is quite obvious in the address is ‘companion.’ It is from the perspective of this companionship that all the other paragraphs should be understood.

Paragraph 2 talked about the genesis of Government’s antiCOVID-19 efforts. In the words of PMB, ‘from the first signs that Coronavirus, or COVID-19, was turning into an epidemic and was officially declared a world-wide emergency, the Federal Government started planning preventive, containment and curative measures in the event the disease hits Nigeria.’ This statement requires clarification because, at the outbreak of the virus, it was simply referred to as Coronavirus and epidemic. When the impact was beginning to be uncontrollable, the World Health Organisation gave a new coinage, COVID-19 and changed the notion of epidemic to pandemic, meaning that there has to be a differentiation in both the meanings of coronavirus and COVID-19, on the one hand, and epidemic and pandemic, on the other.

COVID-19 is a coinage for ‘corona virus disease.’ The inclusion of ‘19’ is to imply the year of its outbreak: 2019. The fundamental difference in meaning of epidemic and pandemic is defined by scope of impact of a disease. The dictionary meaning of epidemic is ‘affecting many in a community at once.’ It is medically defined as ‘a disease temporarily prevalent in a community or throughout a large area.’ The words in bold and italics are to draw closer attention to the defining factors of what constitute an epidemic, that is, it affects many people, but not all the people. It may affect a large area, and a community, but not in the sense of global community or the whole world as a global village of peoples.

Unlike epidemic, ‘pandemic’ is ‘pertaining to, or affecting

Benjamin Franklin said ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.’ In this regard, can it be rightly argued that all PMB’s efforts so far are worth an ounce of prevention, not to talk of being a pound of cure? We can also borrow Charles de Gaulle’s idea of losing the battle and not the war. Nigeria has neither lost the battle nor the war.The war on coronavirus has just begun.

Nigeria must, therefore, learn how to understand coronavirus in its appropriate context, and therefore, prepare for it militarily, strategically, economically and culturally. COVID-19 is more of a political disease with which epidemiology is not much concerned. One good way of preparing for the coronavirus war is for PMB to have a National Sabbatical ResearchVillage to coordinate all researches in the tertiary institutions and to where academic researchers in Nigeria and overseas can do their sabbatical year.The village should host a world-class, specialised hospital, first of its kind, where there will be all facilities for the treatment of any disease or sickness. It should be a think-tank village covering all aspects of human development research

all the people.’ Medically or in epidemiology, it is explained as ‘widely epidemic.’ This means that whenever we are talking about pandemic, it is the universal scale of an epidemic that we should always have in mind. Pandemic is more serious than an epidemic.

The seriousness is in terms of its intensity, happening at once without interludes, and affecting all peoples without distinction.

Consequently, when PMB talks about ‘from the first signs of coronavirus or COVID-19 was turning into an epidemic and was officially declared a world-wide emergency,’ it is important to note that the time coronavirus became an epidemic is quite different from when it became a pandemic. The use epidemic starts with the emergence of the symptoms in China and ended with the emergence of WHO’s re-designation as pandemic. For purposes of future research in Nigeria’s foreign policy and medical history, it should be rightly stated that Government was referring to the initial period before WHO’s re-designation of the name. In other words, Government started to plan the prevention, containment, etc, of the virus, when the story was still at the level of coronavirus and epidemic. The chronological implication of this distinction is clear: all the observers who have accused PMB of late response cannot be right in their assessment of the situation.

But if the observers were to be correct, it cannot be because of the time of re-designation of the name by WHO, but essentially because the original name of the virus is ‘Wuhan 400’ given in 1981, when it was predicted that by 2020, the virus might come to life. This was the way Koontz put it then: ‘In around 2020, a severe pneumonia-like illness will spread throughout the globe, attacking the lungs and the bronchial tubes and resisting all known treatments...’ (vide Dean R. Koontz (1981), The Eyes of Darkness, 320 pp.). In other words, what prevented the Government of Nigeria from preparing for ‘Wuhan 400?’ As we noted hereunder, there is no coordinated all-research centre in Nigeria. Research and Development is not even given priority.

Paragraphs 3 to 6 dealt with Government’s readiness to combat the pandemic. PMB recalled the first confirmed case of February 27, 2020 and its increase to 97 on March 29, 2020. He regretted the loss of an employee of PPMC on March 23rd, 2020. Even though PMB condoled the family of the employee and prayed for the quick recovery of those infected by the virus, it would have been ideal to give the names of the employee on behalf of all Nigerians for greater collective condolence. Nigeria is not developing because of information hoarding like this. In fact, the perception in the Western world is that information about the true medical status of PMB is being hoarded and Government is always seen as a liar which should not be the case.

Paragraphs 7 to 20 raised the issue of curative measures and how Government had been going about the containment of the pandemic. PMB said COVID-19 has no cure (paras 7-10), that Government had been monitoring the situation closely since the outbreak was reported (paras 11-13), that Nigeria had adopted strategies introduced globally, but that the implementation programmes in Nigeria have been tailored to reflect local realities, and, in this regard, Government has taken a 2-step approach: protection of lives of Nigerians and residents in Nigeria; and preserving the livelihoods of workers and business owners (para 15). Mention was also made of some of the protective measures: healthcare measures, border security, fiscal and monetary policies, all of which PMB considered as right reaction by the right agencies, whose guidelines Government will always be ready to follow (paras 19 and 20) .

It is important to note the controversial non-curable character of coronavirus raised by PMB. He submitted that there was no cure to the pandemic as at the time he was delivering his address. In this regard, one cannot but quickly also ask here, if those infected by COVID-19 and have also been released from their isolation centres, were not cured. Is it not because they were cured that they were released to go back to the larger society? Or could it be the difference in the meaning of ‘healing’ and ‘cure’ that medical practitioners often make? Were they simply tested and found that they were not yet infected, and therefore, there was no case of healing or curing?

Clarity is required in this case.

Paragraphs 21-29 elaborated further on measures being taken and to be taken: provision of initial intervention of N15 billion to support the anti-COVID-19 effort, establishment of a Presidential Task Force to evolve a workable National Response Strategy that is being reviewed on daily basis, call for nomination of doctors and nurses, as well as representatives from the military and paramilitary forces to be trained by the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and Lagos State Government. And more importantly, PMB recognised in paragraph 29 that the response to COVID-19 must be guided, systematic and professional as a nation, and, therefore, assured the general public that ‘all inconsistencies in policy guidelines will be eliminated.’ This means that PMB has now come to recognise that there are inconsistencies in policy dispositions of the various levels of government in the country and that there is the need for harmonisation.

In Paragraphs 30-37, PMB drew attention to the 97 confirmed cases in Nigeria, the people they had contacts with, and based on the advice given by the Ministry of Health and the NCDC, PMB directed in paragraph 34, ‘the cessation of all movements in Lagos and the FCT for an initial period of 14 days with effect from 11 pm on Monday, 30th March, 2020.’

(See concluding part on www.thisdaylive.com)

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ͽ˜ 2020

17

BUSINESS

Zainab Ahmed

Kristalina Georgieva

Editor: Kunle Aderinokun 08033204315, 08111813084 Email:kunle.aderinoku@thisdaylive.com

Patience Oniha

Managing Nigeria’s Debt in Season of Despair

With a stunted economy further buffeted by external shocks especially low oil price and the global Covid-19 pandemic, the Nigerian economy will no doubt have to depend on external borrowings over the next few years to achieve any form of recognisable economic growth. With an ambiguous debt management strategy that has produced a distressing external and local debt collection, it is uncertain how the Nigerian government intends to manage its massively expanding debt portfolio. Kunle Aderinokun and Nosa James-Igbinadolor report

T

hese are not the best of times for Nigeria. Indeed, it is the worst of times. We live in what Charles Dickens defined as “an epoch of incredulity, a season of darkness and a winter of

despair.”

A despairing economy seems set to finally come to‘judgement’.Truth be told, the President Muhammadu Buhari administration since its empanelling in May 2015, has never really strong leash over the economy. It has been one capitulation after another as the president and his economic team increasingly portrayed their inscience and lack of erudition in national economic management.

The global coronavirus epidemic and its associated crash in oil prices have left Nigeria open to the buffeting vagaries of external and internal shocks. With the price of Nigeria’s bonny light crude at just $20 per barrel, it is increasingly become economically unviable to produce crude in the country as the cost of production of crude in Nigeria along with its associated corruption is just around the cost price in the international market.The economy has been in a pretty bad shape over the last five years, characterised by millions of job losses, extremely poor production capacity,

meagre internally generated revenue and very negligible foreign direct and local direct investments in the economy, itself occasioned by an enormous distrust of the Buhari administration’s capacity to take sound and rational economic decisions.

It was this plethora of debilitating economic variables that forced the Nigerian government to shop for a $22.7billion loan from the Islamic Development Bank, the African Development Bank, the World Bank and creditors in China, Japan and Germany. In a letter sent to the National Assembly last December, Buhari had promised that the money will be used to expand the railways, build a new hydro power dam and fund special intervention projects across the country.

The loan request came against a disconcerting reality that the country’s outstanding loans of $27.676bilion amount to about a quarter of its economic output, of which it spends more than half of its revenue servicing debts.

It was against this grim reality that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently warned that without major revenue reforms, Nigeria’s debts could rise to almost 36 per cent of GDP by 2024, with interest payments taking as much as 75 per cent of government revenue.

Only recently, in the face of the unat-

tractive economic situation in the country, the Debt Management Office (DMO) began issuing Promissory Notes to oil marketers, state governments, federal government agencies and exporters on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) with a total of N968,092,181,889.00 issued as at the end of February 2020.

While the senate hurriedly approved the president’s request for the gargantuan loan, the House of Representatives stepped down further debate on the request. Had the loan been taken, Nigeria’s debt profile, which is currently distressing by any measure would have become unsustainable especially with the garrisoning influence of the coronavirus and low oil prices. Nigeria’s debt would have come to over $50 billion, the largest in the history of our country. The IMF Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva, recently warned that half of the low-income countries, including Nigeria were already in“high debt distress”and much would depend on the official creditors. Less than a decade after President Olusegun Obasanjo led the country to exit a miry debt burden, Nigeria is once again assailed by a poor debt management strategy occasioned by borrowings that have had little impact on the economy.

A retired diplomat, Ambassador

Kayode Garrick, and one-time Nigerian Ambassador to Brazil, warned that the country “must change the way we do things including the way we manage our debts”, adding that“if we had taken that debt, the reality is that the budget was based on a 57 USD per barrel projection and now oil sells for as low as 20 USD and might not come down soon. What the coronavirus has done is that it has exposed our economic weakness. There is no investment in manufacturing and production in Nigeria and this is bringing to the fore our deep structural challenges.

The question is where will the government get money to finance the 2020 budget?”

The IMF and the World Bank at the end of last month, both launched emergency programmes to offer grants and loans to member countries, with a heavy focus on developing countries and emerging markets, some of which are already in debt distress. They have also called on official bilateral creditors to provide immediate debt relief to the world’s poorest countries.

“Poorer countries will take the hardest hit, especially ones that were already heavily indebted before the crisis,” the World Bank President, David Malpass, told the International Monetary and Financial Committee, the steering committee of the IMF, adding that,“many countries will

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ͽ˜ 2020

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BUSINESS Managing Nigeria’s Debt in Season of Despair need debt relief. This is the only way they can concentrate any new resources on fighting the pandemic and its economic and social consequences.”

Perhaps what wasn’t stated by the World Bank and especially the IMF were the conditionalities that would have to be met before debt relief is extended to countries like Nigeria. For a country that has in just 10 years thoroughly mismanaged its debt management credibility, strict conditionalities will no doubt have to and need to be met including the removal of the ultra-corrupt petroleum products subsidy, a scheme that has over the years been used to rip the nations treasury of billions of dollars.

Nigeria spent N1.713 trillion on the importation of Premium Motor Spirit, also known as petrol, in 2019 out of a budget of N8.9 trillion and N2.95 trillion in 2018 out of a budget of N9.1 trillion, an average of twenty percent of the country’s budget.

Garrick, who once served as the Minister Economic and Commercial Affairs at the Nigerian Embassy in Washington, believes that even with the potential credit line being opened by the Bretton Woods institutions,“countries that have a better capacity to pay than Nigeria will likely be first in line to receive credits.”

Last Tuesday, ministers of finance from Nigeria and other African countries recognising the dire situation their economies face due to substantial drops in revenue from commodity price drops coupled with increasing costs of imports that are putting pressure on both inflation and the exchange rate, called for debt relief from bilateral, multilateral and commercial partners, due to the ravaging impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, arguing that, the need for a longer period for debt relief was necessitated by the fact that the global economy has entered a period of synchronised slow down, with recovery only expected after about 24 to 36 months.

“Development partners should consider debt relief and forbearance of interest payments over a two to three-year period for all African countries, low-income countries (LICs) and middle-income countries (MICs) alike,”they stated.

The ministers also called for the support of multilateral and bilateral financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank Group, and the European Union, to ensure fiscal space required by African countries to deal with the COVID-19 crisis.

APC National Leader and former Lagos State governor, Ahmed Bola Tinubu last week called on the Buhari administration to take urgent economic actions to contend against the socio-economic impact of the coronavirus. Government, he said,“should announce a tax credit or partial tax reduction for firms.VAT should be suspended for the next 2-4 months.

This will help lower import costs and protect against shortages.”On increased stipends to the poor, Tinubu said:“We do this by widening the net, substantially increasing the number of recipients of anti-poverty stipends.”

Tinubu did not however posit on how government should get the money to fund the social intervention programmes.

With little in terms of financial reserved to buffer the country against the threatening economic whirlwinds, Nigeria particularly needs the fiscal space to design an effective and sustainable debt management strategy. At the end of the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo in May 2007, Nigeria’s external reserves stood at $43.13 billion and $22 billion in the Excess Crude Account. The Excess Crude Account, ECA, had been created by Obasanjo in 2004 for the purpose of saving oil revenue in excess of the budgeted benchmark, to protect planned budgets against shortfalls due to volatile crude oil prices. At the end of the Jonathan administration eight years later, foreign reserves had fallen to $29.6 billion while Excess Crude Account stood at $2.45 billion. By the end of March 2020, the nation’s foreign reserves stood at $36.69 billion while the Excess Crude Account had been depleted to a miserly

Buhari

$71.8 million.

DMO, the agency responsible for the management of the country’s debts, asserts that it is on the verge of releasing a new Debt Management Strategy (DMS), which will set out the modalities for debt management in the country.

It is expected that the soon-to-bereleased DMS would continue to give external sources of borrowing higher preference over domestic borrowing.

Acting Manging Director, UCML Capital Ltd, Egie Akpata, argued that foreign borrowing though cheaper on the short term is certainly more expensive in Naira terms over the long term due to regular, material devaluation of the national currency. He noted that,“the recent move of the official exchange rate for government business from 306 to 360 automatically increases the Naira equivalent of the $27.7billion (at end of Q4 2019) foreign debt by 17.6per cent or N1.5trillion. It is virtually certain that further official devaluations would occur this year due to reversals in all the major sources of foreign exchange to this economy.

“Unfortunately, the proposed $3.3billion Eurobond was not issued before the market shut out oil producers after the total collapse in oil prices. Interestingly, Ghana was able to issue a $3billion Eurobond in February at attractive rates. Considering that Ghana is a much smaller economy than Nigeria, a $3.3billion issue seems small, but should have been an easy sell if the issue came to market on time.

“By mid-March, all existing FGN Eurobonds were trading at deep discounts and at much higher yields to maturity than equivalent tenor Naira bonds. So basically, it would have been cheaper on the short and long term to issue Naira bonds instead of borrowing in foreign currency and having to service the debt with scarce USD. Of course, this ignores the benefit to the reserves of borrowing in USD and converting to Naira for local spending by the FGN. “It is no surprise that the collapse in FGN Eurobond prices was quickly fol-

Emefiele

lowed by a formal downgrade to B- by S&P.This downgrade should not be taken lightly. It will make it more expensive for FGN to raise money in the Eurobond market for years to come. A B- rating is just one notch above CCC+ which is a rating for issuers with very likely default tendencies. Nigeria certainly does not want to be in that category as CCC rated African government Eurobonds are currently yielding close to 20per cent “If we are now into a long-term period of oil prices below $30, it is unlikely the Eurobond markets would be easily accessible by the FGN or cheap by recent standards. But given that the system needs a huge infusion of foreign currency into the reserves, where exactly can the FGN borrow $5billion+ every year as raw cash with no restrictions? None of the big DFIs can provide such cash. They all want to fund very over- priced projects.

This leaves the IMF as a viable option. But their money comes with very stringent economic conditions which might not be palatable to the current government.

But the choices going forward are likely to be very expensive Eurobond money with no strings attached or ‘cheap’ IMF money with lots of strings attached.”

The first step no doubt in designing an effective debt management strategy is to know the true state of the country’s debt especially its local debts. Egie Akpata, further posits that it is a well-documented fact that only the financial debt of the FGN are listed by DMO, with contractor, employee and possible litigation debt not listed. According to the investment banker, the outstanding debt now includes N733billion of Promissory Notes out of N14.3trillion outstanding as at end of Q4 2019. More recent reports from the DMO put that promissory note debt at just under N1trillion. Considering that the FEC approved up to N3.4trillion in Promissory Notes issuance, it is likely that number will keep growing nearly as fast as local FGN bond issuances.

“The astronomical rise in CBN outstanding OMO bill issuances in the past few

years was driven largely by lending to the FGN. In the absence of current audited financial statements of the CBN, it is difficult to see how much exactly has been borrowed from CBN by the FGN. However, various reports put that number at around N5trillion, but it is likely more.

There have been news articles stating that that debt will be converted to regular FGN debt which suggests FGN bonds. How exactly up to N5trillion of FGN bonds would be sold is not clear neither is it clear who the buyers would be as local pension funds have over 70per cent of their assets in FGN paper and banks won’t be keen to take on the potential mark-to-market losses that come with holding long term bonds.”

Akpata added that, “Given the new trend of contractor and employee debt morphing into Promissory Notes, it is very likely that N3.4trillion approved amount will be reached in the near future. Add FGN debt to CBN that has to be termed out over the long term and you start to approach another N5-10trillion that is already owed but not formalised onto the FGN balance sheet. Clearly, local FGN debt of over N20trillion is already here.”

The critical state of the nation’s finances according to Ambassador Garrick, presents a nascent opportunity“to go back to the drawing board to figure out how we will deal with our revenue challenge.

He warned that,“What must change is that we need to spend less and spend wisely. We do not need to spend so much of our foreign exchange on importing petrol when our refineries are there lying idle. Oil sales are difficult because of suppressed demand and oil prices will not likely bounce back soon.

“We must therefore cut down on wasteful spending and renegotiate our debt sustainably while at the same time paying serious attention to reforming our economy from its import dependency to a producing cum manufacturing one that will not be easily susceptible to external shocks.”

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ͽ˜ 2020

19

INTERVIEW AYO TERIBA

Teriba

Policy Agencies Did Nothing to Insulate Nigeria from Oil Price Slump With over 60 percent regression in the price of crude oil per barrel between January and March, the Nigerian economy has started experiencing major shocks similar to what it went through between 2016 and 2017. Consequently, this has triggered apprehension in the ranks of the decision-makers and policy analysts that Nigeria may enter into another era of a meltdown, thereby forcing the federal government to cut 14.28 percent from its 2020 budget valued N10.59 trillion. Amid this apprehension compounded by the outbreak of COVID-19, the Chief Executive Officer, Economic Associates (EA) and one of Nigeria’s leading economists, Dr. Ayo Teriba, in this interview with Gboyega Akinsanmi, argued that the current oil price slump was just a temporary challenge. Excerpts:

W

ith the oil price slump, will Nigeria not enter another recession?

We should not take the decline in oil prices out of context. We should always mention what led to a decline in the oil price. Oil

prices collapsed because of COVID-19, which led to temporary lockdowns in China and other Asian economies. China accounts for about 25 percent of the world’s demand for oil.

The lockdown meant that China’s demand was temporarily no longer in the market, creating a temporary supply glut that brought down oil prices.

Not just China’s demand, reduction of traffic inside, inward and outside of China to prevent

the spread of the pandemic also temporarily depressed demand for oil further, as flights couldn’t go into and out of China, meaning the demand for oil by countries where those flights come from, were also temporarily reduced.

That is where the collapse of oil prices began. It resulted from a pandemic that will be short-lived as China will not lockdown forever.

The lockdown started in January, and

already, they have started lifting it. It is just a bit unfortunate that as China is ending its lockdown, Europe, America and Africa are just entering theirs.

It has taken China three months to bring the pandemic under control. Let us see how long it will take other countries. Perhaps, it will also take them three months to contain COVID-19. However, lessons from China’s experience should mean a shorter duration.

20

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ͽ˜ 2020

INTERVIEW Lockdown Is Half-time for Government to Tweak, Rejig Nigeria’s Economic Strategies Does this suggest that the present oil price slump cannot trigger economic meltdown?

We are discussing a temporary problem that led to the collapse of oil prices. It is now a question of how soon the world can bring the pandemic under control. The reason the pandemic led to lockdown is that there are no vaccines. If there had been vaccines, everybody would simply have been vaccinated and continue with their lives. But in the situation where there are no vaccines or any confirmed remedy, and treatment must be based on trial and error, the only way to contain it is to prevent the spread. That brought about the lockdown. If a vaccine is produced today, or a drug that can treat COVID-19 emerges today, there will be no further need for any lockdown. There was a time that malaria was a death sentence for those coming from outside Africa. But now when they come to Africa, they just take an anti-malaria drug to prevent it. It did not stop traffic. The reason COVID-19 is stopping traffic is that there is no effective medical remedy yet to prevent the spread.

Therefore, we must resort to the restriction of movement and social distancing, which will be temporary. When the pandemic is eventually under control, the oil price is likely to rebound because of the rebound of China and other countries demand oil. We are talking about a temporary problem. There is no reason a decline in oil prices for one month should lead to a conversation about a recession. Nothing has come up today that suggests the oil slump will continue for years or decades or that the lockdown will persist. That is why Russia and a few other countries can afford not to cooperate with the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to cut global oil production further. Russia is known to have boasted that its economy and budget can withstand six to ten years of $20 to $30 a barrel oil price. If Nigeria also can withstand the problem for three or six months, we could have coped easily.

If the oil price decline is not enough to cause a recession, what informed the apprehension that Nigeria might enter another era of recession?

It is just a one-month oil price weakness. We are talking about recession. We are also talking about reviewing the budget downward, simply because we failed to prepare for contingencies.

We had a similar problem in 2016. As a result of the temporary weakness in oil prices at the time, we suffered a steep permanent devaluation of the Naira and a permanent-growth reversal that ended in recession and economic stagnation. Oil prices weakened temporarily, and our economy fell apart permanently because there was nothing to insulate our economy from the weak oil price. Between 2016 and now, we have just shown the world that we learnt nothing. Policy agencies did nothing to prevent a situation in which a temporary decline in oil prices would once again create permanent economic problems.

The oil price has fallen for just one month.

Within one week or two, we are talking about recession. We are talking about the recession because we failed to keep adequate levels of foreign reserves. Our external reserve adequacy is very poor.Adequate levels of foreign reserves would have guaranteed that we can meet all foreign trade and capital flow obligations in the foreseeable future and have something left to cushion unforeseen temporary shocks like this COVID-19 pandemic. We often claim to have reserves that can cover our imports for three to six months, but it is no more about imports alone in the prevailing realities of globalization where net financial flows are larger than net trade flows. Of course, we can see that this situation has been with us since 2016 when the Central Bank brought out the list of 43 items that were excluded from the official foreign exchange market. But still, we do not have external reserve adequacy. In 2016, Egypt was in the same boat as us.

They are no longer in that boat. Between 2016 and now, Egypt has built its external reserves to higher thresholds required to underpin a stable exchange rate. They got about $12-billion loan from International Monetary Fund (IMF), they even issued foreign currency bonds of about $7 or $9 billion, they now attract more remittances than we do, and they attract more foreign direct investment than we do.

So, Egypt’s external reserve adequacy today is better than ours. However, in 2016, we were

Teriba

both inadequate in terms of foreign reserves.

So, we are not solving the problem that we had in 2016. But we are about to repeat it.

We failed to make hay while the sun shone.

How will this lockdown redefine the future of Nigeria’s economy?

Fortunately, the spread of the lockdown to other parts of the world including Nigeria offers us some relief: just as the onset of the lockdown in China weakened oil price, reducing our capacity to supply foreign exchange, the spread of the lockdown cuts demand for forex. The Central Bank of Nigeria can do away with its list of 43 items now that people cannot travel because airports are closed and other countries that we could have imported from are also locked down. Nobody needs foreign exchange during this lockdown anyway. We are getting to the stage that people cannot even leave their homes. Banks should soon be closed. Markets would close. That is a complete break. Half-time, as they call it in football.

When oil price slumped in March, we began to run helter-skelter about the budget and about whether we were going to have a recession.

But we have half time now. The lockdown is an unexpected half-time. We should get out of the panic mode. The game has stopped for now. We should now reflect, prepare and plan how to rejig our strategies and tactics before coming back into the pitch for the second half when the lockdown ends. Though our forex supply is weak, the lockdown has weakened forex demand as well.

What are the options before us as a country to respond to what you described as the second-half challenge?

Nigeria must prepare a strategy to take up whatever opportunities emerge immediately the lockdown ends. On the negative side, the global lockdown has cut export and growth opportunities. It is not just that the price of oil is weak. We can’t even get enough buyers to take up what we produce because other countries are similarly locked down. Exports have been brought to a halt, though temporarily. Growth has been slowed down, though temporarily. However, the positive side is that the developed countries are injecting trillions of dollars into a global financial system that is already awash with liquidity. In some developed countries, interest rates have been negative in the past decade to reflect how cheap liquidity has become.

Their response to this lockdown is that they are pumping more money into a global financial system that is already in a liquidity

glut. They are giving people money at a time that they cannot even spend it, at least until the lockdown ends. When the lockdown ends, there will be surplus liquidity in the international financial system. Much of the liquidity will end up in developing countries that know how to adopt investment-friendly policies. So, never mind what goal we did not score or what goals we conceded in the first half. This is half-time. When the second half resumes, we have fresh opportunities to do some of the things we had missed the opportunities to do between 2016 and now.

In 2016, there was no lockdown. There was no half-time. There was no super liquidity injection because of developed countries trying to protect their people. But now we have that opportunity. A lot depends on what Nigeria can make of that opportunity. We may not be able to grow exports by much, but there will be a lot of liquidity in the global financial system in search of investment destinations.

The issue for Nigeria now is that our fate will now depend on how much of that liquidity we can attract to address the consequences of weak oil prices and exports.

How do we attract liquidity into the country – through credit facility or foreign direct investments (FDIs)?

We should not be talking about loans at this time. All the countries that we can look up to for credit facilities have problems of their own. They are all in lockdown. They are dealing with the pandemic. What they are occupied with now is how to cushion the adverse effect on their people. China cannot tell Nigeria that it is going to lend us 18 billion when it has its own challenges at home. India also cannot. India is in lockdown for 21 days.

Is it the US? Is it the UK? Is it France? Is it Italy? Is it Germany? Or Japan? We cannot tell other countries to leave their problems and lend us money. It is not about borrowing from any country. But some of the monies these countries are injecting into their economies will get into the hands of our Diaspora. They cannot even spend the money now. So, they will be looking for where to save it.

If we get our acts right, we can issue foreign currency bonds that appeal to them. Alternatively, we can open those sectors where we have historically shut out foreign investors, especially where the government has 100 percent equity.

Among others, these sectors include power transmission, rail, and pipelines. These are sectors that are likely to attract very large inflows of foreign investment. Saudi Arabia

is offering investors equity ownership opportunities across its infrastructure sectors.

India is now getting over 60 billion per year from foreign direct investments by allowing investments into sectors from which foreign investors were historically prohibited. I am talking about two types of investment: remittances and FDI. For Nigeria, attracting large inflows of FDI is as simple as the government accepting to reduce its ownership. If the government is prepared to dilute its ownership in all infrastructure entities from 100 percent to 49 percent, we will find foreign investors as we found for the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), GSM telephony. If we consider this option, we get the money and pension sector. Because the government has 100 percent ownership in some sectors, it declares a monopoly over the sectors. Nobody else can come in. It is either we sell part of government shares or liberalize the space or do both to open the gate for FDI inflows.

Let other business interests come in to compete like we did when NITEL got a free GSM licence and when new entrants bought theirs. NITEL’s 0804 is dead. In terms of foreign direct investments, there are two types: government can sell part of the equity it owns to attract brownfield FDI or liberalize the space to attract Greenfield FDI as we have done in GSM telephony, in the pension sector or in the NLNG. Second, apart from foreign direct investments, I am talking about remittances from the Diaspora.

We need to prepare ourselves and get as many inflows as we can through all these channels. I am not talking of portfolio inflows or donor funds or foreign aid that tend to be either too erratic, as in the case of portfolio inflows, or too little to be of much use, as in the case of donor money. Combined inflows available to developing counties through foreign direct investments and remittances were already in excess of one trillion US dollars by 2018. COVID-19 induced liquidity injections might push that figure to N1.5 trillion or N2 trillion by the end of 2020. We just need to work out plans for Nigeria to get a good share of these inflows, even while exports are likely to remain weak.

Can the issuance of foreign currency bonds also help in any way?

The primary threat to our economy is what I referred to foreign reserve inadequacy at the start of this conversation. If you have adequate levels of external reserves, your currency will be stable, and money will stay in your financial system. If money stays in your financial system, it will boost your economic growth. If you do not have adequate levels of foreign reserves, your currency will be weakened. Apparently, the weak currency will drive money out of your financial system because holding foreign exchange or real estate will preserve wealth better than putting the money in the bank deposits, bonds, or stocks. As weak exchange drives money out of your financial system, growth will halt because people cannot secure monies to fund growth opportunities. So, it is a four-stage thing. Where it starts is reserve adequacy.

Reserve adequacy strengthens your currency. Strong currency encourages people to prefer money in the bank deposits, bonds, or equity to foreign exchange or real estate, as we saw in Nigeria between 2005 and 2008.

If money stays in the bank deposits, bonds or equity, it will fuel growth. Now, the key problem to solve is the weak external reserves position. And the only way to address the weak external reserves position is to look for alternative types of foreign exchange inflows apart from exports.

Instead of issuing a bond in naira, we can issue in foreign currency. Egypt issued foreign currency bonds and they got between $7 billion and $9 billion.

Nigeria may get as much as $20 billion to $30 billion if we chose to issue foreign currency bonds, especially by appealing our diaspora and use the proceeds to shore up foreign reserves. Nigeria’s capacity to issue such foreign currency bonds, I believe, is better than that of Egypt, particularly given our equity stakes in numerous dollars-denominated whollyowned entities like the petroleum pipeline company and numerous dollars-denominated joint ventures. We can partially privatise the wholly-owned entities and issue foreign currency bonds based on our remaining equity stakes in the joint ventures.

A

WEEKLY PULL-OUT

05.04.2020

Abisola Raolat Isokpehi My Vision Is to Turn Computer Village into Africa’s Silicon Valley ASSISTANT EDITOR OLUFUNKE OLAODE/funkola2000@gmail.com

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GLITZ COVER

How We’re Making Computer Village Bigger, Better And Modern Isokpehi

Her foray into the information and communication technology world was not that straightforward having trained as a linguist at the University of Benin where she graduated in 1990. Yet, from her undergraduate days, Abisola Raolat Isokpehi, the Iyaloja of Computer Village’s life has always revolved around ICT. The boom in information technology in the late 90s further stamped her feet as one of the main dealers in computer accessories which led to the establishment of her company, Laptop Galleria, in 1997. A woman of vision, her exceptional grasp of leadership and administration led to her being installed as ‘Iyaloja’ of Computer Village in 2019. She tells Funke Olaode about her mission and vision Can we have an insight into who you are? am from Olowoogbowo Area on Lagos Island. I was born in Sierra Leone and was brought to the Surulere area as a baby. My families relocated from Apongbon when the Apongbon bridge was being constructed in the 60s. I went to Government Demonstration Primary School, New Era Girls Secondary School, Surulere and Federal Government Girls’ College, Shagamu in Ogun State for my ‘A’Levels after which I proceeded to the University of Benin, Edo State where I studied Linguistics, graduating in 1990. I actually wanted to study Mass Communication but Uniben didn’t offer Mass Communication at that time so I settled for Linguistics.

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How would you describe your growing up in Lagos back then?

It was a wonderful experience under loving and caring parents. My mother was a businesswoman. She used to ship stockfish from Sierra Leone while my father was a public servant with NITEL. It was a comfortable beginning because I didn’t have a difficult childhood because we were well-taken care of.

Growing up in Lagos of old was superb. When we were growing up, there were no corner shops or supermarkets what we had was UTC on Adeniran Ogunsanya and Leventis on Akerele.

So we go to malls to shop for basic needs. We ate the best because the consumer products are always there for my parents to bring home.

My father was working with NITEL. With one naira or one kobo, we would head to Leventis to buy ice cream and all sorts which have now become a luxury for today’s children. I went to a public primary school where we had free lunch. They would give us milk and fruits in the morning and we would have a proper launch in the afternoon. It was stopped in 1979. Back then you don’t have to have money to live a decent life because the system was working well for everybody. What we had in my primary school back then would cost you thousands of naira in a private school because they are no longer there.

A linguist-turned-ICT-dealer: when did the journey begin?

It was a passion that began consciously or unconsciously. I remember as an undergraduate I just developed a passion for it. After Uniben, I went to Compute Rite Computer School for a diploma course in computer. And before then I had a diploma because during Gen. Babangida’s era in 1989, there was a time the universities went on five months strike and instead of staying at home I went for a secretarial course at Grace Institute of Secretariat Studies in Surulere, Lagos and by the time I graduated I was loaded with skills both in secretariat study and computer in addition to my degree so it was easy for me to get a job. After my youth serve in Ibadan, I joined Type Technologies on Norman Williams Street, Ikoyi, Lagos, a Printing and publishing outfit. I was in charge of graphic design. I spent a year after which I joined a construction company, Alma Beach Estate, the owners of Alma Beach Estate Properties as a personal assistant to the managing director. I was there for sometime before I joined my then-fiancé who was into computer business because he studied Computer Science. This was between 1990 and 1995.

We got married in 1995 and had our company in Victoria Island. Sometimes when I wanted to buy some accessories I would come down to Awolowo road in Ikeja to buy. There was a particular day I couldn’t get accessories to buy and I was directed to Otigba in Computer Village. I met only two people then, Tunde and IK, and they encouraged me that ‘madam, you buy things a lot why don’t you import all you need and in case you are unable to finish it you can bring it to us to sell.’ That was how I started the business here in 1997. In 1997, Computer Village was a residential area with only three companies. But there were a group of engineers who were into repairing computers. That was how we started and people started coming until it became what it is today. The laptop was the reigning thing and was very scarce. I established my own company in Computer Village called Laptop Galleria. That was how the journey as an entrepreneur began.

Having spent 23 years doing business inside the market, at what stage did you decide to vie for the position of ‘Iyaloja’?

I became Iyaloja of Computer Village in May 2019. Well, my appointment wasn’t a misstep because I was part of this market from the

inception when only three shops were here.

I can say that I am the most qualified to be Iyaloja. When I entered we were very few and when the number began to grow and decided to have an association I spearheaded the move to form the first association in 1999.

There is no history of Computer Village that you would write that my name would not appear. When they decided to form the Community Development Association (a body formed by the landlords) I was part of it and when the business owners formed Computer and Allied Dealers Association of Nigeria, a body that would be controlling the market, I was involved.

But some people rose and said the association was dominated by the Yoruba and formed their association and this led to over seven associations within the market. So there is this tussle or arguments that the landlords have sold out their buildings and can’t come back and still be calling the shot. It was difficult to make any rules and regulations within the market. That was when some of us now said that constitutionally, the CDA cannot control the market. We now concluded that if we have the ‘Iyaloja’ it would be an administrator for everybody. That was the reason we had Iyaloja and Babaloja of Computer Village so that there would be a single authority in control and management of the market.

What is your vision for the market?

My vision for Computer Village is immense and to God be the glory. I am at the helm of the affairs now. I hope the village will be a conducive environment for investors and other people to do their business. We have embarked on some arrangements. Recently, the governor’s wife held a retreat for all the market leaders in Lagos State and to the glory of God, Computer Village was rated as the most organized market in Lagos State.

You mean despite the chaotic nature of the place?

The crowd is what makes the market.

We got the rating based on our performance in terms of what time do you close? What time do you open? When you come here at night around 8 pm you would be surprised that everywhere would be cleaned and swept. LAWMA comes here every day and the gates are locked. We have a firefighter point in case of emergency and all the facilities needed for a market to run smoothly are on the ground. Our market is moving on smoothly according to how the state government wants it.

Again, this is an enclosed market. The challenge some people are having is that they want to move freely. Most people we have are customers. The reason the place is choked up is because of the parking space because we don’t have available car parks and almost 5,000 shop owners have cars and it is first-come-first-served.

But Lagos State has just built a car park beside Computer Village that can take 500 cars and we have negotiated with the owners so that we make sure that everybody goes there to park. This move will ease the problem. In terms of SMEs, we have invited First Bank, Sterling Bank and a lot of our members have enjoyed the facility. Ecobank too has been here and recently, a few microfinance institutions have indicated interest to partner our people.

What effort is being made to make it a subregional hub for technology in West Africa?

Computer Village has gone beyond Lagos because people come from far and near do business.

It is the largest ICT in Sub-Saharan Africa. People come from Gambia, Cotonou, Guinea to do business and if anything is coming to West Africa it comes to Computer Village first before it gets to other places. It is also a mini Nigeria because every tribe is represented here.

There is a negative perception of the market in terms of thuggery and theft. How do you think you can rebrand the market?

One cannot shy away from the fact that anywhere you find a large crowd there will be an element of bad eggs. But that doesn’t stop the fact that they can’t be controlled. We are trying our best to get rid of all the hoodlums within the computer village. The truth of the matter is that most of the bad eggs are not our members or business owners within the community. Again, it is not possible to start searching everybody that comes into the market.

Most of them are always stationed at the edge where they can escape once they carry out their evil act. But as far as this village is concerned I can tell you that customers are safe. So we are trying our best to get rid of the criminals.

It was reported that the government is planning to relocate ComputerVillage. How feasible is that?

It is a fact and we have been on it. I was part and parcel of those who negotiated ‘Katanguwa’ area with the government during the days of our amiable leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, when he was the governor of Lagos State. We found out that the market was growing fast and we needed a larger space. We told him our challenges and he gave us the place. This was around 2005. It is a project that has been on for a very long time. It is not that the government just woke up one day and want to push us somewhere.

If completed, it is going to bigger and better because we would have more space. We would be more organized.

Are you saying there was no resistance from your people?

Not at all. Who can resist the government when it is giving you something bigger and better? In terms of distance, it is okay. Computer Village has become a brand and when it is ready I am sure that our people will go there. It is a world-class structure that would look like Silicon Valley and they are on it already.

What is now Computer Village was a residential area. There is a limit to which you can reshape somebody’s house or move it backward. In this new one, it would be a well-arranged, bigger and better market than Tejuoso Market. My vision is to make it the Silicon Valley of Africa.

For how long have you been married?

I met my husband as an undergraduate at the University of Benin and got married in 1995.

What was the reaction when you brought home an Edo man?

My father is educated and he is a Lagosian.

Lagosians don’t discriminate. Apart from being an Edo man, he is a Christian. I was born a Muslim.

My parents didn’t object to me marrying in a Catholic Church. They followed me to the church.

I didn’t have a challenge because my husband is a good man, a perfect gentleman. The marriage is blessed with a child.

What does it take to be successful in business?

Honesty, transparency, accountability, and sincerity. For instance, our business is technical and we often advise our co-marketers to adhere to specifications to avoid conflict with customers.

Honesty is the best policy that will take you very far in life.

ͳ˜ ͰͮͰͮ ˾ THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER

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High Life Femi Gbajabiamila’s Good Example

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till, on the matters of the Covid-19 virus and accompanying pandemic, the virtues of the Nigerian House of Representatives is beginning to overshadow all the rumours of inactivity and eyeservice that is usually levelled against the House. It would seem that under the leadership of the Speaker, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, there are new heights for the Nigerian House of Reps. to reach, encompass and exceed. The evidence of this is the fact that Hon. Gbajabiamila recently reported that all the 360 members of the House will be donating two months of their salaries to combating the wicked pandemic that is Covid-19.

Hon. Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila very recently informed the public of this noble gesture on the part of the 360 members of the House of Representatives, a gesture that many people still find hard to believe.

According to Hon. Gbajabiamila, this donation is scheduled to begin from the month of March and will be independent of personal donations expected of his honourable colleagues.

Furthermore, the Speaker hinted at his expectation of the lawmakers to make evident, measurable and distinguishing marks on their constituencies, with each member exceeding the deeds and accomplishments of her/her forebears.

In addition to that wonderful news, Hon. Gbajabiamila informed the public that the donated salaries will not be deducted from the lawmakers’ bank accounts, but will be transferred directly to the Nation Relief Fund account, where they will be put to the best use against the pandemic.

These actions alone are enough to make Hon. Gbajabiamila a Knight of Lady Nigeria, but he went further out of his way to enjoin the Central Bank of Nigeria to make funds available which will help alleviate the humongous sufferings opened up by the pandemic, and encourage the good people of Nigeria to hold on just a bit longer, until the disease has been eradicated, and peace restored to the nation.

By this singular action, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila has made himself (and his fellow lawmakers) darlings of the Nigerian peoples, especially those who have been infected by the virus or affected by the ensuing consequences.

That Gbajabiamila is a shining example now and is a bar set for future Speakers, lawmakers, and politicians in power.

Gbajabiamila

with KAYODE ALFRED 08116759807, E-mail: kayflex2@yahoo.com

...Amazing lifestyles of Nigeria’s rich and famous

Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi’s Soaring Image

Abayomi

So amidst all the fears and dread and terror and newfound hope and happiness, the Covid-19 pandemic is finally looking like something that only gave Lagosians a pause and respite from the usual hassle, rather than a final termination to all life as we know it. As folks are learning to take deep breaths and sigh in relief, it is becoming clearer and clearer that this was not a battle any one man could have fought

alone. Nevertheless, there are some who led the vanguard against the pandemic, shielding and protecting. Having appreciated the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, folks are starting to smile and wave at the Commissioner for Health, Professor Akin Emmanuel Abayomi.

By all accounts, Prof. Abayomi has exceeded the demands and roles of his

Who Will Settle the Fight Between Omo-Agege and Ogboru?

Omo-Agege

Ogboru

It was Kahlil Gibran who explained that “... your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul. If either your sails or your rudder be broken, you can but toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas. For reason, ruling alone is a force confining; and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction”.

Reason says that if the Delta State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) remains divided against itself, it will not stand; passion says to burn it all down, as long as the enemy is inside.

It was recently reported that the

APC of Delta State are currently undergoing something of a last supper before everything blows up to hell.

A kind of civil war was reported to have taken place (and is still allegedly going on in the backcloth) between two factions of the party. This war has been laid on the feet of the two proponents of the factions, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege and Chief Great Ovedje Ogboru.

The start of their animosity is not exactly clear. However, it is understood that there was always a spark there, and that spark became a full-blown forest fire when a disagreement

office and the Commissioner for Health.

Here is a man whose results clearly mark him as an owl hard at work, never asleep, never caught unawares, but steadily monitoring the heartbeat of his state and city, day and night long. If ever there is a doubt here, check the statistics and understand how Covid-19 was halted in its tracks in Lagos.

It has been Prof. Abayomi who has been doling out reports and statistics on the happenings related to the dreaded pandemic. He is who has assured Lagosians of 100% survival rates for all confirmed Covid-19 cases, and verified that 8 patients have indeed been discharged from quarantine.

Although it is generally acknowledged that the healthcare in Nigeria collectively sucks, Prof.

Abayomi and his team have managed to make the most of all equipment and personnel available, going so far as to carry out about 150 tests every day. Is it any wonder, therefore, that there has not been any single infected person reported dead?

Following these heart-warming reports, folks are happy and saluting Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu on having pegged the right man for the right hole. Prof. Abayomi is a specialist in Internal Medicine, Haematology, Environmental Health, and Biobanking.

There are rows and rows of certificates attesting to his education and experience in the quarters of Health and Medicine.

Needless to say, Lagosians are mightily glad to have him, and if his operative style is anything to go by, this is just the beginning.

hatched between Prophet Jones Erue (the state chairman of the party), Senator Omo-Agege, and Chief Ogboru. The disagreement was allegedly centred on whether or not Erue should hold the party chairmanship position and also be the chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

There are layers and layers more to their tiff, including the fact that Senator Omo-Agege deliberately sabotaged Ogboru’s ambition to be state governor in the 2019 elections.

Interestingly, these two have worked beautifully together before.

It is always pointed out within the party that it was the strong presence of Ogboru in Delta Central, added to the fierce and headstrong contribution of Senator OmoAgege that helped the duo to push out Olorogun Otega Emerhor, the former leader of APC in Delta State, and install Prophet Erue.

Alas, their issues have led to the suspension, dismissal and flat firing of notable members of the party. The latest of this particular unintended consequence is the suspension of eight officials of the party including that of the deputy chairman of the party, Elvis Ayomanor; the Southern Senatorial chairman, Tosan Awani; and the state woman leader, Mrs. Janet Oyubu.

Reason continues to say break the fight; passion says burn everything; nobody else is forthcoming to settle them.

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ͳ˜ ͰͮͰͮ

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HIGHLIFE Fame is nothing but a fancied life in other’s breath. Yet, it is this life that compels most of the rich and powerful to open their wallets and their cellars when a humanitarian crisis arises at home or abroad. Their kindness is deliberate, privately planned and publicly produced, a wellrehearsed play that attains its climax at the exact point when the people’s attention and the journalist’s camera zeroes in on them.

Predictably, the ongoing rush of donations to combat the Covid-19 pandemic in Nigeria has taken on a my-donation-isbigger-than-yours aspect. The needy get their masks, their sanitizers, and their food; the donors get their applause, their fifteen minutes of extra fame.

In such a time like this where everyone does their utmost to grab the spotlight, it warms the heart to know that people like the esteemed Hajia Bola Shagaya still exist in this world.

The matron of high society does not count compassion in the number of Twitter mentions or Facebook posts. She measures it by the twinkles in the eyes and smiles on the lips of those she impacts through her silent crusade of care. She is that rare specimen in whom an excess of wealth combines with an excess of empathy for the betterment of the citizens in these difficult times.

Not for Bola the debacle of audio donations. Her aim is to get funds and supplies to the downtrodden whose lives are most affected by the recent lockdown in some states including her native Kwara. To this end, she is one of the major backers

Hajia Bola Shagaya Spreads Love

Shagaya

of the initiative by the Women in Business and Management and Public Service (WIMBIZ) to distribute relief packs to 5000 low-income households in Lagos, the state most affected by the lockdown.

The mother of five is blessed with a heart large enough to

Otega Emerhor Goes Low Profile

Fowler

The older [and wiser] one grows, the more obvious it is that the lives of men cannot be measured in teaspoons or ladles. Great men are most often thought to be great when their bones no longer hold together in the grave – although there are exceptions to this rule. Still, a man alive is one with many roads before him: he could lead a quiet life with joys little and lasting long, or take the

highway to rise and fall and rise and fall intermittently. One wonders if this is the very path that Otega Emerhor has taken.

Not so long ago, Delta State and All Progressives Congress (APC) would not be spoken in the same sentence but for the name of political sharp man, Olorogun Otega Emerhor, who founded the party in Delta State, and was one of its major

regard the poor everywhere as her children. She silently pulls so many philanthropic strings in her native Kwara that she has all but achieved sainthood among the masses. Where the needy are gathered together in the name of donations, she is usually present.

Sometimes, she comes physically to spread the message of hope; sometimes she sends her able lieutenants.

For the ageless and peerless Hajia Shagaya, no feeling is more natural than compassion, no duty more sacred than lifting the underprivileged out of penury.

In normal times, she routinely rolls out training schemes for the disempowered and distributes materials for the needy. Since the Covid-19 pandemic struck, she has redoubled her efforts to ensure that the ordinary citizens do not suffer while the wealthy safely shelter in their expensive mansions.

For Hajia Bola, a happy day’s work consists of making the grass greener for the downtrodden. While others act based on the vain belief that their happiness depends on visibility, Hajia Bola Shagaya cares more for the people’s survival than their acclaim.

In spreading love in a time of rampant fear, she has found her elixir of happiness. financiers, alongside several eminent leaders of Nigeria. This was before the party won the presidential elections; before it had even a smudge of recognition among the grassroots.

It, therefore, was not out of place that Emerhor was made the party standardbearer in 2015. Alas, the general analysis is that the good people of Delta State preferred the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) – which they were more familiar with than APC. Therefore, Emerhor did not come out of that one in flying colours.

However, things started to settle soon enough, especially with the powers of Senator Ovie Omo-Agege and Chief Great Ogboru. It wasn’t long after that the party in 2019 nearly got the gubernatorial seat; but for divisions that ensued within the party, they might have won. Something came out of it, however, and that was the ousting of Emerhor from his chairmanship position in the state branch of the party, to be replaced with Prophet Jones Erue. Thus, Emerhor lost his mojo.

Of course, Emerhor did not get lost in the landscape of party members before being forced out; he engaged in stroke after stroke of contention with Senator Ovie Omo-Agege regarding the senatorial position but lost. Any wonder, therefore, that Emerhor is nowhere to be seen at the moment?

Having pioneered a winning party in Delta State, and gone through many a winding road, Olorogun Otega Emerhorhasretakenthefirstroad,ahumble, low-profile life, disturbing nobody and being disturbed by none.

Mixed Feelings for Dr. Deji Adeleke

Adeleke

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here are some folks who will never believe in the culmination of events, fate or the mystery of times.

The author of the troubling bestseller, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams, said that anything that, in happening, causes itself to happen, happens again. Some people will be quick to point out that since these are very funky and awkward times for the billionaire and father-of-abillionaire man, Dr. Deji Adeleke, it serves him right. A harsh judgment, if ever there was one. But there are undoubtedly many who sympathize.

The subject of this whole tale is the recent gist that Chioma, the eye of paparazzi, wife of popular Nigerian music star, Davido, and daughterin-law of Dr. Adeleke, has been infected with the Covid-19 virus.

The story must begin with Davido, the highlife and contemporary music talent, Davido (real name David Adeleke). This guy, nearly everyone knows, has a minted identity. In other words, rich and wealthy are the most used synonyms to his name; ergo, the popularity of his moniker, ‘omo baba olowo’, the son of a rich father. His other primary public identity is that of a passionate lover, the heartthrob of Chioma, the lady responsible for young women panting and asking for Benzes and cash-well automobiles. Now, he is being labelled the husband of a Covid-19 patient. But his father is really the one in the crosshairs.

It was not so long ago that Dr. Deji Adeleke purchased a private jet, a member of the prestigious and expensive family of Gulfstream jets, that was allegedly worth about $65 million, which tumbles just over 23.5 billion. Now that it is time to enjoy that beauty of a plane, isolate himself in its glinting interiors and sip wine with uniformed hostesses close at hand, the daughter-in-law goes and gets infected with a dreaded virus.

Although Chioma tested positive for the virus not so long ago, folks that emphasize are stating that she is young, and has had access to excellent nutrition; therefore, there is no cause for alarm. She will recover, and then all three of them – Dr. Adeleke, Davido, and Chioma – would cruise around in the newly acquired jet, with no virus infection to fear.

In the meantime, most folks are torn between sympathy for Dr. Adeleke’s daughter-in-law and celebratory salutations for his newlyacquired bird.

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THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ APRIL 5, 2020

THEALTERNATIVE

with RenoOmokri

T h e Tr u th , The Who le Tr ut h, and Nothing But The Truth About Easter

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once told someone that Easter is a pagan holiday that was brought into Christendom (not Christianity), and he looked at me smugly and proceeded to open Acts 12:4 in the King James Version and pointed to the word Easter in the verse below: “And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people.”

When he saw that I was calm, he accused me of being demonically possessed. At that point, I opened the same verse in the New Testament originally written in Koine Greek, where that verse was originally lifted from. In the original Gospel, the word translated Easter is naoxa Romanised as Pascha, which is the Greek word for Passover.

The man was adamant that the evil spirits in me were confusing him. So I asked him to open that same verse (Acts 12:4) in every other translation (thankfully, I have access to about 12 other translations in my home).

In virtually every other translation (NIV, ESV, NASB, NLT, Good News Bible, etc), the word used is Passover.

So, where did the KJV get the word Easter from? From men.

Not from God. You see, the King James Version is a Bible written with an agenda. It is not reliable. It will mislead you. And can literally take you to destruction. It is a historical fact that it was translated by men who had a connection to the occult.

Easter has nothing to do with Christ. It is a European pagan holiday. Look at what the Europeans (who originated Easter) do during Easter. They give out Easter eggs and chocolates or cakes made into a rabbit.

What do eggs and rabbits have to do with Christ? Nothing.

What do they have to do with His resurrection? Nothing. Eggs and rabbits are a symbol of fertility. An egg means a life is in the shell, and a rabbit is one of the most fertile mammals in creation.

So, why are both used during Easter? Because the origin of Easter is that it was a pagan holiday meant to celebrate the goddess of fertility named Eostre. And if you continue to dig deeper, you can trace this goddess to ancient Egypt.

The word Easter is of demonic origin. 2 Timothy 3:16 says: “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It cor-

rects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.”

Let’s ponder on that for a while. If Scripture is “useful to teach us what is true”, then what Scripture backs up Easter? We must celebrate the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, but that celebration is the Passover. We know precisely when Christ died.

Christ died on the 14th day of the Jewish month of Nisan.

We know how Scripture tells us to mark His death, burial and resurrection. We do this with the Holy Communion: “For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”-1 Corinthians 11:23 The above Scripture is the truth and the authority for which we should mark the death, burial and resurrection of Christ.

How does it relate to the current practice of Easter?

Many people will read this and come up with elaborate rational, mental, philosophical or emotional arguments. But should we be led by such, after 2 Timothy 3:16 has warned us that only Scripture should be our guide?

Paul warned us about these days in 1 Timothy 4:1: “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.”

Now, what is the undisputed origin or Easter? It is historically a festival to a Germanic pagan fertility goddess. This is the same holiday we are celebrating in the name of Christ? Think about it.

If you have doubts about the origin of Easter, you should not take my word for it. Do your research. After all, 2 Timothy 2:15 says ‘study to shew yourself approved’. Don’t just swallow everything your pastor, or denomination tells you hook, line and sinker.

Be like the Berean Christians of whom it was testified as follows: “Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.”

Do not just believe what I have written above. Open Scripture.

Search it yourself. Christ did not teach Easter. His disciples did not teach or practice or celebrate Easter.

Easter was not invented until 325 years after Christ’s death when the Council of Nicaea decreed in 325 AD that Easter should be observed on the first Sunday following the first full moon after the spring equinox.

Please do not believe. Assume that I am a liar. Go and carry out your independent research. Do not just assume that everything they do in church is Godly. Be mindful of 2 Corinthians 11:14, which warns as follows, “satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.”

Look at Muslims. I admire them for something. Their mode of worship and their festivals have not changed one bit. It is still as it was when Mohammed handed it over to them. When Christ was dying, His last words were “it is finished” (John 19:30). So why are we allowing men to reopen and amend what Christ finished?

In conclusion, we should be mindful of Galatians 1:8, which says: “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!”

I have spoken my conscience, as led by the word of God. If you like insult me, attack me, and discredit me. What did Christ say?

“Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.”John 15:20

Reno’s Nuggets

Don’t dominate people. They will rebel against you. Rather, dominate yourself and people will nominate you as their leader A true leader does not only improve others. He focuses on improving himself because the best preaching is to be a role model Leadership comes from actions you take, not the position you occupy. Being the boss does not necessarily make you the leader A leader who does not READ can’t LEAD his people. He can only LID them by being the lid that blocks their progress in life #FreeLeahSharibu #RenosNuggets.

PERSPECTIVE

COVID-19 And the Mark of The Beast Femi Fani-Kayode

“Between 100,000 to 240,000 people will be killed by Covid 19 in Amerca if we take the right measures but if we do not take the right measures up to 2.2 million Americans will die”-– CNN.

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f CNN is quoting the experts in the medical field and saying that up to 2.2 million people will die in America alone if the right measures are not taken to tackle Covid 19, can anyone hazard a guess about how many millions we will lose in Nigeria and Africa if care is not taken and we do not do the right thing? The whole thing is not only horrendous but also apocalyptic.

What is really going on with Covid 19 is far too big, too complex, too sinister, too evil, too bizarre and too extraordinary for the average mind to comprehend or accept.

You need to be very astute, very well-read, very focused and literally a genius to get it clearly or you need to be led by the Spirit of God to open your mind and eyes.

Without either you will struggle with accepting the truth and even if you do accept it you may not be able to handle it and you may end up living in total fear for the rest of your life.

If you tell the average person what is really going on they will declare you insane. Perhaps it is better to just tell them to follow the World Health Organisation and Government guidelines, stay indoors, keep clean, hope for the best and PRAY! My initial inclination before making this contribution was to do precisely that, take my own counsel and leave it at that but after a time of deep intercession and prayer through last night I decided to share a tiny portion of what I know and hope that at least a few people will comprehend and accept it.

What we are witnessing in the world today is, to say the least, frightful and shocking. Yet it should not come as a surprise to the spiritually sensitive and discerning or to those that are schooled in eschatology or that are familiar with the many “end-time” prophecies in the Book of Daniel and the Book of Revelations of the Holy Bible.

What we are seeing before our very eyes is the perfect implementation of what is known in enlightened, learned, philosophical and intellectual circles as the “Hegelian dialectic”.

The great British author, researcher and conspiracy theorist,

David Icke, whose works I have been reading for many years and who saw all this coming decades ago, describes it as the “totalitarian tip-toe”.

In a nutshell it is the cultic practice of the ancient, evil and malevolent deceit and guile known as “problem, reaction, solution” and “order after chaos” and its ultimate objective is to establish the classic and dreaded Orwellian state.

I would urge the uninitiated or uninformed to google these terms and learn more about them because space constraints will not enable me to do so here.

Simply put the “hidden hand” of the dark world, the Illuminati and the agents of Satan are at work. The whole thing was planned and contrived over the centuries and they are firmly on course.

They are trying to destroy us all and establish a New World Order in the name of Lucifer and place us under the rulership of Beelzebub and the Prince of Darkness.

Coronavirus or “Covid 19” is part and parcel of that unholy and evil agenda. It is a ravenous beast and an unrelenting, evil plague. It is a demonic spirit that they cultivated and manufactured through the introduction and usage of 5G and that they invoked from the pit of hell.

Wuhan, China was used as the launching pad and it has been unleashed to bring panic, fear, destruction, chaos and death to humanity and to destroy our way of life, the world’s economy and the way in which we conduct our affairs on planet earth.

Corona itself is evil but the vaccine that they will eventually introduce to cure it is the real killer. It will be infinitely worse than the original plague. When it is manufactured and released to the public it will kill millions and cut down the world population. And of course that is their purpose.

They want to cut down the number of human beings on the planet for easier control and management, they want to destroy nations and the world economy, they want to cage humanity and destroy small and medium scale businesses, they want to take our power, civil liberties and human rights away from us and they want the entire world to be controlled by a handful of powerful and massive corporations.

They want to get rid of the whole concept of the nation state, create a globalised world, establish a new world order, establish a cashless society and establish a One World Government which will be controlled by them through Artificial Intelligence.

They want to compel everyone to take a microchip in their body which will allow them to trade, work, go to hospital, buy

food, travel, live and function and without which none of these things can be done. That microchip is what the Holy Bible describes as the “Mark of the Beast” in the Book of Revelations and once you take it you are finished.

They are paving the way for the rise of the Anti-Christ in world affairs: a creature who will bring all world religions together and make them one and who is the personification and living manifestation of evil itself. He will literally be satan in the flesh, he shall perform demonic miracles to fool even the elect, he shall exalt himself as God and he shall have a false prophet.

Brothers and sisters it is time for us to pray. We must resist them and their evil agenda by prayer and we must call on the name of the Lord God of Hosts to help us. This is the time for that. The only way to slow their pace and stop them is through prayer.

The next few days, weeks, months, years and decades will be tough, there will be many casualties along the way and the world may never be the same again but, with prayer, in the end we shall prevail.

No matter what they tell you always remember that Corona is a spirit from the pit of hell and its invocation and objective is to bring affliction, fear, death, destruction and chaos into the world and literally turn it upside down.

Yet despite it all God alone still rules in the affairs of men and He alone forges the destiny of nations. He will see us through and in the end His counsel alone shall stand. No matter what comes our way or what we see and hear we must harbour NO fear and must not be dismayed or shaken.

We must never forget that our God is irresistible and that He is mighty in battle. We must never forget that the Holy Spirt is still with us like a strong tower. We must never forget that the Lord said He will never leave us or forsake us and that He will never take His awesome love away from us. He said that NOTHING can separate us from His love.

He shall be with us every step of the way and He will surely see us through this difficult time as a family, as a community, as a people, as a race, as a nation, as a specie and as a planet. He shall not be denied and neither shall He fail us.

In the end He will make all things beautiful and He will save His people. He will effect His purpose, He will establish His counsel, He will impose His will and His name shall be glorified.

––Fani-Kayode is former Aviation Minister

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ͳ˜ ͰͮͰͮ

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Adebayo Adeoye bayoolunla@gmail.com; 08054680651

Senator Teslim Folarin’s Burning Desire

Of Abba Kyari and Critics’ Death Wish There is a Yoruba saying that literally implies that, though we may be fighting, we should not wish each other dead.

But the veracity of this witty saying seems to have been put to test by recent comments on social media, particularly after it was reported that Abba Kyari, the Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, tested positive for coronavirus, the pandemic that has almost shattered global peace.

In the wake of the shocking news of Kyari contracting the deadly disease, many, who can now be said to have bottled up anger and animosity against him, poured not only invectives on him but also penned words that tended to suggest that they did not pray he survives the attack!

But those who are sympathetic to his plight are quick to ask some pertinent questions: Who has Kyari wronged? What are his “sins”?

Indeed, the foregoing posers tend to force one to take a critical look at the persona of the man in the eyes of storm.

Sources, who spoke to Society Watch under anonymity, claimed that those who do not wish the CoS to the President well were only terrified by his growing fame and success. No doubt Kyari has successfully blocked those who want to take advantage of the president, as Chief of Staff to the President, he sees all memos to the president and points out the not-so-good intentions. This has angered the opportunists whose only intention is to grab for themselves .

Kyari

highly respected and the same time feared by some government officials. He is revered as the most powerful Chief of Staff in the history of Nigeria. A source revealed to Society Watch that you are not doing yourself any good if you need anything from the presidency without his approval as his word is law. He plans Buhari’s schedule -who to see and who he should not see.

Nasir Ado Bayero Resumes Royal Duty

Folarim

Ask Teslim Folarin, a Senator representing Oyo Central Senatorial District, to spell out his most cherished ambition, and he will probably tell you that he wants to be the governor of his state, Oyo. Although he became a first-time Senator at the age of 39 in 2003, his major ambition is to be the number one citizen of the state. Indeed, this is one dream he has always pursued with great determination.

But either by design or accident, the most sought-after position has so far eluded him.

He contested in 2015 under the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, but he was trounced in the election by Isiaka Abiola Ajimobi, who was then the incumbent governor.

Not one to give up easily on his dreams, the godson of the late Lamidi Adedibu, it was reliably gathered, is again working underground to realise his most cherished ambition in 2023. He has vowed to achieve it this time round, not minding the hurdles on his way.

Many will still recall that eight years after losing the return ticket as a two-term senator and majority leader of the Senate between 2007 and 2011, Folarin bounced back in 2019 when he won his seat back at the Senatorial election in Ibadan under the All Progressives Congress, APC. Folarin, erstwhile PDP chieftain had dumped the party for APC in 2017 and won the senatorial ticket of the APC. In that keenly contested the election, he also defeated both the incumbent senator of the district and a member of the House of Representatives in Lagelu and Akinyele constituencies, Monsurat Sunmonu, of the African Democratic Congress and Temitope Olatoye (Sugar) of the Action Democratic Party.

Kyari’s supporters have also posited that his critics were also not comfortable about his closeness to the President, a situation that has always made him a subject of discussion and gossip from different corners. Indeed, his fans wondered if it is a crime that Kyari has the listening ears of the President. With him out of picture temporarily, the opportunists thought they could quickly take advantage and get close to the president. Well unfortunately that has not happened as Coronavirus has only widened the distance with the president, in the name of social distancing.

Also, Kyari’s admirers stated that his critics can’t understand how he had been able to win the confidence of the President since he became the CoS in 2015. His admirers, attributed his closeness to the President as well as his influence to his intelligence, brilliance, hard work and constant quest for excellence. “He is almost a perfectionist and his unshaken loyalty to Buhari has been tested so many times. Another factor is that he is too blunt for some people’s liking,” a source said.

There is no doubt that Kyari is the most influential and powerful official in the presidency today. In fact, many refer to him as de facto Prime Minister of Nigeria. Hate him or love him, he remains one of the most powerful personalities in the country today. He is so powerful that he is always a subject of discussion and gossip from different corners of homes and offices around the country.

When the man sneezes, many catch cold, he is

Bayero

Before his appointment as the Emir of Bichi to replace his elder brother, Nasir Ado Bayero had been tipped as a replacement for the Emir of Kano when Sanusi Lamido Sanusi was deposed.

This is due to his outstanding brilliance and high-wired connections that cut across all walks of life.

However, this was not to be as his brother, Aminu Ado Bayero, was instead considered A few weeks into his appointment as the new Emir of Bichi in Kano State, Ado Bayero is finally settling into his new royal role as a monarch.

The appointment of the Chairman of 9Mobile, among many other blue chips companies, was approved by the Kano State Government as a replacement for his elder brother and first Emir of Bichi, Aminu Ado Bayero, who was upgraded and appointed as Emir of Kano to replace the deposed Sanusi Lamido Sanusi.

Palace sources said Nasir, a consummate businessman and corporate board guru has since resumed his new royal duty. Prior to now,

he was the Ciroman Kano. He becomes the second Emir of Bichi Emirate, one of the four controversial emirates created by Governor Abdullahi Ganduje to curb the influence of the deposed Sanusi.

The personable man has had extensive experience working with Continental Merchant Bank Nigeria; Coastal Corporation (Oil and Gas) Houston, Texas and Hamlet Investment Inc. London, UK. An accomplished entrepreneur and consummate manager of people and businesses, he sits on the Board of several successful businesses. Prominent amongst these are SEPLAT Petroleum (Nigerian independent producer), Platform Petroleum Limited (Nigerian independent producer), Intels (Oilfields) Services Nigeria Limited (Intels is the largest marine logistics company in Nigeria). The Bayero brothers are sons of the late Emir, Ado Bayero.

Rabiu: Setting the Benchmark To give away money is an easy matter and in any man’s power. But to decide to whom to give it and how large and when, and for what purpose and how, is neither in every man’s power nor an easy matter, said Aristotle.

Nigerian billionaire, Abdul Samad Rabiu applies the same tenets to philanthropy as he does to business: to find a need and fill it.

When the spotlight was beamed on Nigeria’s private sector to rise to the occasion and support government in the fight against the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic, Rabiu took the lead as the first to make a substantial donation of N1 billion through his BUA Foundation. This set a benchmark, with subsequent donors understanding the need to commit substantial resources to contain the novel coronavirus which causes COVID-19.

However, Rabiu has gone beyond just transferring money into the coffers of the dedicated Central Bank COVID-19 account.

Through his BUA Group, he placed orders for additional equipment and medical supplies including face masks, testing kits, safety goggles, gloves and personal protective gear for nine states across the country. States to benefit include Lagos, Kano, Adamawa, Edo, Kwara, Rivers, Abia, Akwa-Ibom and Sokoto.

In addition, the BUA Group announced another donation of N300 million to Sokoto, Edo and Ogun States to assist in galvanizing a coordinated response and adequate preparedness in the fight against COVID-19.

The donations to Sokoto and Edo States were on behalf of its cement subsidiary, BUA Cement, which has its major operations in those states while Ogun was also selected as a beneficiary due to its proximity to Lagos which had been the epicenter of the virus in Nigeria.

In his comments, Rabiu said although these states have been identified for this intervention in the first instance, “BUA is monitoring the situation closely and is also looking at other states that may need additional help. We will continue engaging with these states and relevant partners including the NCDC in the areas where they need support to win this fight against COVID-19.”

Rabiu also urged other well-meaning Nigerians – individuals and corporates alike, to join hands in supporting the efforts to put the virus in check in Nigeria, financially and otherwise.

“Our country needs us now more than ever. This is the time to come together and support.”

The industrialist is the founder and chairman of BUA Group, a Nigerian conglomerate concentrating on manufacturing, infrastructure and agriculture, producing revenue in billions of dollars. A man of immense means who hates to flaunt his wealth like some and gives freely to help the needy. He answered to national emergency without being prompted and others have followed his worthy example.

Rabiu certainly has the Midas touch.

According to Forbes, he is the only Nigerian billionaire to have increased his fortune in 2019.

From sugar to cement, ports and terminals to real

Rabiu

estate, his business model is not just about profit, but in making essential commodities and services available to Nigerians. As is evident, this also includes being at the forefront in times of need.

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THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ͳ˜ ͰͮͰͮ

SOCIETY WATCH

Emeka Offor’s Shocker His name used to ring loud in both the social and corporate circles on account of his wealth and knack for celebration of life in grand styles. However, for some inexplicable reason, the businessman, for some time, suddenly disappeared from the social circle, leaving tongues to wag over his financial status.

In fact, the rumour of him suffering a reversal of fortune became so rife when he waited almost a year before burying his father, the late Benneth Offor.

But typical of a strategist, he shocked his critics when he eventually rolled out the burial plans for his late father. He had caused a stir with the-out- of- this world burial he organized for his father who was buried in a N15 million gold casket in 2016. Thereafter, the Anambra State-born billionaire , again, fizzled out of social scene and avoided unnecessary attention and publicity.

During this period of hiatus, many claimed that he was broke, while some maintained that he was only trying to kick some old habits.

But interestingly, the Chairman of the Chrome Group in his characteristic way of creating a shocker has suddenly resurfaced and announced a wondrous donation of $30 million for medical equipment and educational materials to Nigeria and 18 other African countries.

Offor, who set up the Sir Emeka Offor Foundation (SEOF) to alleviate suffering

of the less privileged across Africa, said several medical institutions and higher institutions in Nigeria would benefit from the first phase of the donation. The donation was announced in a statement by his Chief of Staff, AIG Chris Ezike, noting that it was part of the foundation’s mandate for education and health programmes on the continent.

He added that the donation was in line with Offor’s initiative geared towards supporting the efforts of the Federal Government in the provision of quality healthcare service and education to the citizenry.

Offor also listed 14 hospitals and medical institutions spread across the country that had received one container each of consumable and medical equipment to include National Orthopedic Hospital Enugu; Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Teaching Hospital Awka, Anambra state; Police Hospital, Abuja; University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, Maiduguri, Borno state; General Hospital Daura, Katsina state; Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa, Bayelsa state; Federal Medical Centre, Katsina, Katsina State and Gombe State Specialist Hospital,Gombe.

Other benefitting hospitals and institutions are Kebbi State Medical Centre, Kalgo, Kebbi State; Nigeria Police Force; Nigeria Army; Ogun State Hospital, Ilaro, Ogun State; Central Hospital, Benin City, Edo State;

Jennifer Obayuwana’s Rising Profile

Offor

General Hospital, Oraifite, Anambra State and one container reserved for Emergency Deployment.

According to him, 80 universities, 22 polytechnics, 37 colleges of education, seven public libraries (one from each of the six geo-political zones including FCT), 180 primary and secondary schools nationwide had received their support materials from the first phase of books recently distributed by the Foundation.

Top Property Merchant, Sijibomi Ogundele’s Giant Strides

Ogundele

Top property merchant, Sijibomi Ogundele, is blessed with uncommon winning streaks.

In the little time he launched his business, his success story speaks volumes of his business acumen and brilliance. He has always been a man given to hard work in his resolve to excel in whatever he ventures into. Without a doubt, he has been able to carve a niche for himself in the construction of luxury homes within the spate of five years.

It is instructive that, despite the growing economic challenges, Sijibomi, last year, shocked skeptics by breaking various barriers, challenging all status quo in the construction business and launching a masterpiece in Banana Island to mark his organisation’s fifth anniversary tagged ‘SujimotoIs5’.

The event had everyone who is someone in

attendance, including top-rated celebrities, high net worth individuals, local and international acts, and top-rated musicians.

The dwindling economic situation in the country notwithstanding, his company had soldout all the units of the property seven months before the completion.

The magnificent ‘GuillianoBySujimoto – a luxury terrace apartment with two penthouses boasting of a private elevator, unique façade made of Spanish stones, marble and glass, award winning sanitary wares by the Zaha Hadid for Porscelanosa, two Kholer Kitchens with Bosch appliances, full home automation and other unique features is located in the Banana Island.

According to an inside source, the feat had never been achieved before in the country.

Some who acquired the apartments for N320 Million resold them after six months for N480m, which is over 60 percent increment and returns on investment.

Consolidating on the success of the Giuliano, the luxury property icon is building Nigeria’s tallest residential building in Banana Island, known as the LucreziaBySujimoto.

It will be the first building with a Glass Reinforced Concrete (GRC) façade, Kholer Designer Kitchens with Bosch appliances, first ofits-kind IMAX standard cinemafor its residents and their friends, first to bring the golf experience into an interactive lobby through the installation of a Virtual Golf Bar where you can play on over 2000 golf courses, private crèche for the residents, award-winning Zaha Hadid sanitary wares and many more awesome and unique features!

Despite the influx of construction companies

in the real estate and construction sector, Sujimoto has flourished immensely and has even started creating a first of its kind, 6-in-1 commercial hub in Nigeria known as the Sujimoto Place in the heart of Ikoyi.

This record-breaking structure will feature a massive and contemporary event centre with a capacity to host 4000 guests, a premium office space with full automation, an executive hotel to give that home-away-from-home feel, a wordclass gym, a mini mall, and a rooftop lounge and bar.

As an innovator, this ‘Motomatics’ originator has also diversified by creating an arm of his business with the newly launched ‘Sujimoto Residence’ – a Luxury Short let Apartment in the heart of Ikoyi.

According to a close source, “The diversification came after several agitations from luxury lovers who want to have a home-awayfrom-home experience.

“This led to the creation of the luxury short let apartment, situated in Ikoyi, Lagos. From research, the House 106 luxury apartments is the cheapest situated within the affluence and serene Ikoyi axis at 180k per day.

“The 3-Bedroom apartment conveniently boasts of an office space, 1 BQ, Gym, outdoor Jacuzzi and Terrace, Private Chef, Private Chauffeur and an excellent customer service.”

Ogundele, it is said, is a believer in the Nigerian version of the American dream.

In his own words: “Despite our numerous shortcomings as a nation, I believe strongly in the potential of Nigeria, particularly her entrepreneurial success.

As Ex-Osun Guber Candidate, Ademola Adeleke’s Dance Fades Away To say that Senator Ademola Adeleke, famously called the “Dancing Senator”, has been missing in action is simply stating the obvious.

The Ede, Osun State -born former member of the Red Chamber was one of the comical figures of the 8th National Assembly.

A bubbly personality who attained political leadership through his dancing skills would go down in history as Nigeria’s most entertaining politician. He shot into prominence following the passing of his elder brother, Senator Isiaka Adeleke, who was the first civilian governor of Osun State.

The younger Adeleke took maximum advantage of the vacuum created by his late brother’s demise when he stepped into his big shoes like a veteran.

But there’s a different approach to his own style of politics. His selling point wasn’t his track record. His magic was in his ability to entertain with his Michael Jackson-like dance steps.

And he did dazzle the entire country with his energetic dance steps.

The likeable politician won and he was nicknamed the dancing senator. Barely two years into his first major political adventure, the ‘dancing senator’ gave the governorship of his home state a shot. Maybe that was his albatross, as he learnt the hard way that politics goes beyond dancing; he was taught a bitter lesson.

Since he lost out in the scheme of things politically, it seems the music has stopped playing for the bubbly politician after that failed governorship project. He has since disappeared from the social radar with his dancing shoes.

Adeleke

Obayuwana

Jennifer Obayuwana of Polo fame is no doubt a golden fish She needs no special introduction in the scheme of things in Nigeria’s private set up. Obayuwana’s brilliant contributions to the success story of her family’s business, Polo, a luxury lifestyle store, cannot be overemphasized.

The American University of Paris graduate of International Business has proved that there is more to her than her good looks.

She is one of Nigeria’s growing number of executive-level women shattering the glass ceiling in every field of human endeavour.

To say she has done well for herself is simply stating the obvious. She is confidently leading her father’s multi-billion naira businesses to global prominence like a veteran.

Aside her role as an executive director of Polo, the beautiful stylish young woman also calls the shots at her father’s CAT Construction company. A woman full of high taste for fashion and panache, she has mastered the art of staying relevant in society.

However, in despite of her impressive profile, she remains humble. And her bright personality has won her a wide network of high-profile friends from all walks of life.

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ ͳ˜ ͰͮͰͮ

LOUD WHISPERS

with JOSEPH EDGAR (09095325791)

Lockdown Blues For a restless man, this was not going to be easy. I had already given myself some form of isolation when I had thought I had been exposed by being near some high-profile people. I went into my house quietly, did not tell anybody and hibernated for some days. My love for Afang did not make this easy as I always would come downstairs to the kitchen to splurge on the delicacy. So when President Muhammadu Buhari in the

most boring speech I have ever had the misfortune to listen to announced the 14-day lockdown, I knew this was it. My people, we are expected to be indoors for 14 days with the hope that by the time we come out, those who have the illness would either have been cured or would have found themselves to the huge pearly gates in heaven and all will be well.

You know Nigerians na, all sorts of permutations have

come out of this announcement and social media have gone on overdrive with jokes, comments, and all sorts. For me, the good thing in all this is that we seem to be handling this particular crisis very well. The fatality rate at two is nothing compared to the figures we are seeing internationally. Even these two sef were technically not due directly to the virus but to other underlying issues. So I am in full support of the lockdown if it will reduce or totally eliminate the incidence of communal spread of the virus. So guys, let’s stay at home, it is such a small sacrifice to make at this time. Let’s stay safe.

Tinubu

Williams

Odusile

way Nigerians will rally round his rallying cry in a collective fight against this scourge. But no be wetin we vote for, na another time that one go happen. We just thank God that at least somehow somewhere, we seem to have this one under some kind of check.

video, I think we should hand them over to those soldiers who have been going about slapping people who have been defying the lockdown. Kai. They yab you baba o. No vex. Kai.

MR. PRESIDENT – ANOTHER MISSED OPPORTUNITY Mbok, did you watch that broadcast by our President on the virus? The one where he announced the lockdown on Lagos, Ogun, and Abuja and where he also announced other palliatives targeted at softening the effect of this wahala on the people? Mbok, if you ask me, that was one huge missed opportunity.

Before I even go further, let’s even agree that the style that we have seen so far has been that of a dour, stiff and less talking one and as such, we were not really expecting anything different this time around. But guy, this na national emergency and the people were looking up to a roaring performance with which they could rally round and build hope.

But instead, what did we get?

A very cold performance that left people in their continued state of helplessness. This was an opportunity for the leader to sow sufficient warmth, power and strength. This speech should have been one of exhortation and a cry for war against this marauding force that is threatening our very well being. Kai, I trust myself. If na me ehnn, I will not read any speech o. I will speak from the heart, I will look straight into the eyes of Nigerians and like Winston Churchill or I no even remember who talk that thing sef…… ‘we have nothing but fear itself to fear’. That is the kind of speech we were waiting for not the talk down we received. When it was over, I just look the TV and take am back to wrestling. My brother, in times like this, we expect leadership.

We are not expecting the President to find a cure or to magically turn himself into the best doctor in the world but stand as an epitome of national strength; you will see the

MR. ASIWAJU TINUBU – TAKE YOUR MONEY BACK I have sent the hilarious video to your man and my brother Mr. Tunde Rahman. The video is just too hilarious that I have not stopped laughing even pooping my pants.

Two young comedians one na MC Jollof (in case you are looking for who to catch) standing beside a stream complained in very clear terms as to the inadequacy of your N200 million.

They said, ‘even small boy billionaire Tony Elumelu wey no dey contest sef drop N1 billion’. Mbok, I laugh wan die. They further went on to ask that during an election, wasn’t it bullion van that entered your house abi was it N200 million the bullion van carried.

Now the clincher, the one that almost gave me an asthma attack was when they asked for your account number to return the money.

One asked the other, ‘how much you get there’ the other started trying to bring the N200 million from his pants by this time I was rolling on the floor shouting like one in an epileptic foot. When he could not find the money, the other one in faux anger asked for a POS so he would swipe the money back to you and concluded that ‘you just waste the big man title and declared that going forward you were no longer the Jagaban but Jag. This clean humour almost killed me.

It seized my breath and threw me on the floor, making me writhe in pain so I watched it over and over again. Kai, Mr. Tinubu I hope you get to see the

DEFENCE HEADQUARTERS – LET’S BE GENTLE So we have seen the statement that you will enforce the lockdown and we are very happy. The lockdown must be total if we are going to have any prayer to escape this wahala.

But that said, the videos of bands of soldiers going around unprotected and beating the living daylight out of obviously stubborn Nigerians is cringing and fear worthy. The way these soldiers chase at these Nigerians I tell you if they see the Coronavirus in person, they will run towards that one o. The soldiers that we have been seeing on the videos are on their own mission o. Be like say, they really have something against the civilians who run foul on them.

You see my brother Defence Chief or is it Army Chief, there are very civil and courteous ways of enforcing this ban without turning our offenders into punching bags and even endangering the soldiers sef. I just watched one now and I am hoping that they are not Nigerian soldiers or even real soldiers for that matter. The beating they gave this motorcycle man and his passengers, I tell you if the man sees the isolation centre to run into to save his head, he will just run there and quarantine himself. I assure you the beating he got that day, the virus will not do half of that.

This is a gentle plea, we are going thru enough and so adding this level of ---make I no talk into the equation will not be too good my brother General Sir. Please kindly let your soldiers know that even ‘offenders’ of the lockdown who in most cases are

Buhari

Momodu

just illiterates who do not know why the streets are empty or just poor people looking for what to eat can be gently told what to do instead of this beating and slaps. It’s not good, abeg.

No soldier should come and slap me o, he will buy my coffin on the spot.

There is no begging.

FAYO WILLIAMS – DOING HER LITTLE BEST I have known this beautiful lady almost all of my life. She is Yemi Banjoko’s sister-in-law and a prominent pharmacist. Well while the rest of us are doing armchair analysis and criticism, she is designing an online competition that is aimed at engaging over one million children who are out of school as a result of this pandemic.

A major player in the sector and a member of the board of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce, she has designed a matrix with her team that would engage our young ones, remove their minds from the serious issue of the pandemic, focus their tiny minds on the productive scholarly pursuit. Already very serious huge corporates from the financial sector have begun to show interest in this initiative which would soon see its launch in the coming days. Kudos madam.

OONI OF IFE – LET’S TRY JUJU! Well, you see me, I have seen this alternative medicine work wonders and that is why I will not just jettison the respected ruler’s suggestion. I have seen them treat broken limbs simply by strangling a chicken. I have seen them heal sexually transmitted diseases and show the patients the thing in bowls swimming in anger. Their problem is that of standardization which leads every practitioner to be on his own

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ͳ˜ ͰͮͰͮ ˾ T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R

LOUD WHISPERS lane and not being able to pass down the knowledge or better package the thing. Even this Ooni’s own, he has given us a long list of herbs that can do this thing but with no dosage or any other passable information apart from just mentioning the leaves.

What that means is that all man to his babalawo.

Well, I have heard very strong testimonies on the efficacy of these herbs on illness like diabetes and blood pressure. The most common one is erectile dysfunction. If you go to Mr. Biggs near the Mobil filling station at Maryland in Lagos, there is the head office of all the mallams who sell sex-enhancing herbs. So you drive in, they will come by your window and point one big stick at your face asking if he no fit stand. My people, thousands of Nigerian men swear by these sticks hence my fervent belief in Ooni’s cure. Let him just please come out with more information that can be empirically tested and clinically passed before we start having monkeypox after curing coronavirus of the same patient. Troubling times.

DELE MOMODU – GIVING BACK TO SOCIETY It was Mudi who called me out of the blue screaming, ‘Have you seen Chief Momodu’s video?’ My heart missed like 12 beats because any statement/video now na coronavirus positive result o. Sadly so o. From Makinde to El-Rufai to so many other people including my very dear friend whose mother had come down. So forgive me when I first hesitated to open the video. Anyways after reading my psalms, I opened the video and there was Chief Momodu looking very healthy in this beautiful adire talking about the importance of education in society.

To mark his 60th, he had decided that he would be giving 20 students an unspecified amount of cash. He went ahead to respond to critics who wondered why students. In his response, he repeated the oft-told story of his indigent pedigree. I don here the story tire that I can write a volume on it. Anyways, this is the right step in the right direction.

Well done my lord and as I see Chief Adenuga picture on the table, it tells me that with these kinds of friends, the money to the students no go be small gbemu.

TUBABA – DOING US PROUD A cursory look at the list of donors to the Coronavirus campaign fund threw me into some kind of pre-meditated boredom. The same names, I just tire. The same Tony, Otedola, Adenuga, Aliko I just drop the list and continue with the snail in the Afang soup I was trying to devour. You know with these snails if they are not well washed you will be tasting sand or something like that and you now say this virus can come from anywhere o. So I dropped it and took the list again.

Something had caught my attention but the snail had distracted me. So I looked closer and there nestled at the bottom was Tuface Idibia N10 million. I screamed.

My guy, my boy. My Nigger. This man has made me proud with his gorimapa head. I reached out to his wife, my sister Annie and as usual, she did not take my call. What is even wrong with that one sef? Last I saw him was at Ita Giwa’s recent birthday party. I was struggling for a plate to attack the buffet table this time, I wanted to do the Ekpang Nkukwo, a different take from the usual afang

just sit down on their big or dry bottoms depending and be saying how the system is not working and criticizing instead of contributing their own. I welcome this and really do appreciate it on behalf of all wellmeaning Nigerians. It is noteworthy that the President has singled him out for special mention because amongst these heavyweights, him own na him be the real widow’s mite.

Chukwumerije

Tuface

when Tuface walked in with a mic serenading the birthday girl and cut me off. So there was I standing with a plate with cameras all over my face and the man singing to the Senator.

The next day, I saw the footage on social media and major blogs with me still standing there with plate na wa.

I forgive am sha with this one. This is noteworthy because most people

ADA AMEH – WEEP NO MORE This actress recently caused a small stare by going on social media to decry the lack of power as we embark on the lockdown.

Kai, be like she hadn’t even taken her bath and was really frustrated with the way the things she had tried to stock up were getting messed up in the refrigerator. The woman screamed o, ‘which kind country is this o’. The simplicity of the whole thing made me really laugh. My question when I see things like this is, ‘do we think these things are being done deliberately. So someone will just sit down in his office and say, ‘Oya, let’s switch off the light in Shomolu for two days because there is one yellow girl there

Ada Ameh

who is cheating on me’. Mbok, life is not that simple o.

While the actress was worried about her fresh fish, the Discos are mired in billions of debt owed huge financial institutions that they had taken to acquire the firms. They are also being bogged down by infrastructural decay that cannot be solved in this lifetime and a price regulation regime that stifles their margins. So my sister different strokes for different folks. But for the Discos at least these 14 days, make una try before Mummy Ameh fish spoil finish for the fridge. Make una no vex. I cannot laugh.

TOKE MAKINWA – IN A DETACHED WORLD If I ever choose to marry again and incur the wrath of the Duchess, it is with this belle. Ms. Makinwa is fine o. The other day when I appeared on her radio station to plug my play, 3some, I was just staring like a nitwit.

She was sweet, fragile and sexy.

She was a brilliant interviewer and beauty. I just dey look am I could not answer her questions. The staring was too much. Well recently, she has been talking about all sorts of thrash I tell you. In this time of Coronavirus where she should use her celebrity and huge followership to pass the message on or even support like Tuface and the rest, she has been talking about sex toys and all whatnot.

Me, I am just looking at this one.

Because she is fine, I will not say much. You know I have a soft spot for fine girls, but even at that, this level of detachment is idiotic and this is not meant to be an insult but a sweet way of saying you are not doing the right thing, mam. Please quickly change and let’s use your huge popularity to save and touch lives. This is not the time to be talking about sex toys and the rest. Except you don’t want me to consider you sometime in the future.

DIKE CHUKWUMERIJE – TALKING AMISS This young man is a talker. He says he is a poet and if you listen to him talk, you will almost abandon your madam in the other room for the sweetness of his words can give you the sense of euphoria you can only get from the other room. But that is where it ends with all this kind of talk. It is just breeze that gives you the feel-good feeling that moment and when you leave the venue of the talk and enter Lagos traffic everything will just evaporate from your ass. That is how the grandfather talker Fela Durotoye getting drunk from his own sweet words jumped into politics and thoroughly embarrassed himself on national TV when he saw that politics was a lot different from motivational speaking. I have just seen a statement credited to Chukwumerije on his take on this Coronavirus. He lampooned the system which is his right.

But where he lost me was the point where he was said to have ascribed the discharged patients to an invisible immunity thereby deriding the efforts of the medical staff who have sacrificed massively to keep this scourge at bay. As of Thursday morning, we have recorded just about 174 patients with 9 discharged and only two deaths when America and European countries are counting in thousands and yet our people can still not see anything good in this country.

I am not talking again because this is a national newspaper but I challenge this person and his ilk to call or text me on the number above the page let me give them a real piece of my mind in a language they will understand. As far as I am concerned, we are not doing too badly based on the statistics I am seeing o. thank you.

ARTS & REVIEW A

PUBLICATION

05.04.2020

TRAPPED IN TRANSIT...IN A TIME OF CORONAVIRUS Bob-Nosa Uwagboe

EDITOR OKECHUKWU UWAEZUOKE/ okechukwu.uwaezuoke@thisdaylive.com

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ARTS & REVIEW\\VISUAL ARTS

Małgorzata Paszylka-Glaza, the curator of the Department of Modern Art at the National The artist beside two of his paintings dispalyed at the museum Museum in Gdańsk in Poland

TRAPPED IN TRANSIT... IN A TIME OF CORONAVIRUS Stuck in Gdansk, Poland at a time the outbreak of coronavirus forced the Polish government to decree a lockdown, Nigerian artist Bob-Nosa Uwagboe rues his suspended solo exhibition and art residency programme in the port city while looking at the brighter side of his ordeal. Okechukwu Uwaezuoke reports

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omewhere in Gdansk, Bob-Nosa Uwagboe will be spending another day – his 24th day today – in limbo. He has been in the Polish port city as the guest of the National Museum since Friday, March 13, a day before the planned opening date of his solo exhibition, titled Transit.

Talking about the exhibition Transit, it is a visual chronicle of experiencing in this gross material part of creation against the backdrop of the fundamental principles that govern human existence. It is to these principles that earth-men owe the things that make them humane, he muses. “The images are my visual representations of the consequences of our transgressions against the society in which we co-habit and also document the depreciation of human values as well as man’s inhumanity to man.”

But, no thanks to an inexorable weaving of fate, the exhibition’s title has turned out to become a metaphor for his present condition. The exhibition and the complementing art residency programme have had to be suspended after the Polish government announced a lockdown – which would linger until Saturday, April 11 – to checkmate the onslaught of the coronavirus pandemic, a.k.a. COVID -19.

Since he arrived in the Eastern European country, the 45-year-old’s daily activities have blurred into a numbing sequence of sameness, which sees him rising from bed sometime between 10 am and 11 am, working out shortly afterwards, having a warm shower, engaging in a cerebral colloquy with his curator over breakfast, chatting and making video calls with his wife and son back in Nigeria as well as with friends, listening to reggae music (his core source of inspiration), going for a short walk with his curator and then getting back to his lodgings for another round of robust conversations with his curator over dinner.

“I went into isolation soon after my arrival due to the Polish government’s stay-at-home order,” he narrates. “The weather hasn’t been friendly for me since it has been very cold. But then, I have to adjust. As for the cuisine, which is purely European, I’m already familiar with it since my wife experiments with different continental dishes back home in Nigeria.”

“The coronavirus complicated the situation,” the curator Małgorzata Paszylka-Glaza corroborates. “The exhibition

at the National Museum in Gdansk is ready and waiting for the public. The residency, which was specially organised for Bob-Nosa Uwagboe, is rather time-bound and is an element accompanying his exhibition. First of all, I want to extend the exhibition time. The audience in Poland should definitely see this exhibition because it is unusual. Bob-Nosa's paintings and drawings look completely different in the space of the museum.

They are even more universal, full of power, of colour and truth about the world. If I succeed, I will try to extend the art residency programme, whose purpose is to get him to know, and socialise, with Polish artists working in Gdansk. For now, Bob-Nosa is ‘condemned’ to my company and he endures it very bravely.”

Notwithstanding his curator’s laudatory remarks about his fortitude, Uwagboe admits feeling trapped on account of the prevailing uncertainties. “This has been a lingering experience that, for me, only climaxed during this period of COVID-19,” he says. “I’ve been in this mood for a while, feeling caged and disillusioned. I have consistently expressed this mood in my visual language, which is art. So, I hope to document my current COVID-19 experiences in my next body of work.”

It all began in 2018 in Berlin, Germany. A Berlin-based Polish amateur artist and art aficionado Marek Brodecki was drinking coffee with a female friend, Iwona Kohnke, a real estate luxury agent who also loves art, at the legendary Café Cinema – a watering hole for artists, filmmakers and locals located at the entrance of a courtyard on Rosenthaler Straße. They were flipping through the images of Bob-Nosa Uwagboe’s paintings as they sipped their coffee.

Then, it occurred to Marek that his friend back in Poland, Małgorzata Paszylka-Glaza, who works as the curator of the Department of Modern Art at the National Museum in Gdansk, would make a big deal out of these paintings.

“They liked his magical colours,” Małgorzata PaszylkaGlaza recalls. “They sent me pictures of these paintings and I saw something more than just strong, energising colours. It was the beginning of one of my most interesting and intense curatorial adventures.”

But, what was it about these pictures that immediately aroused her interest? Could this have something to do with their authenticity, uncompromisingness and strength? “I

discerned great determination, courage and truth in these works,” she enthuses. “These were the works of a conscious and mature artist, who speaks about universal things with the universal language of art.”

With no previous experience of contemporary art in Nigeria or Africa, she had set out to Lagos in November last year when the city’s aficionados were swarming around the ART X Lagos venue. While still in Nigeria’s most populous city, she was able to visit its modern art galleries and the local art community with the help of Bob-Nosa. “For three years, I have been cooperating with artists from all over the world (including France, Germany, Iran and UAE-Dubai). The cooperation with Bob-Nosa is the next stage of showing important artistic phenomena in the world to the Polish audience.”

No doubt, she discerns a great talent lurking behind Bob-Nosa’s paintings. “He is an artist with enormous artistic potentials and a very unique, consistent and mature artistic vision. His art is so mature that it should already be shown in the museum. The museum is a specific exhibition space for very socially conscious artists and Bob-Nosa is just such an artist.

Before the exhibition, I always meet the artist and get to know his place of creation. Bob-Nosa's studio in Lagos delighted me. This space is an artistic microcosm. Long conversations with Bob-Nosa and joint work on the selection of works for the exhibition in Gdansk, Poland, confirmed my curatorial intuition that Bob-Nosa is an artist with great talent. The world should know his art.”

Coming to Poland – and indeed Europe – for the first time excites the Edo State-born dreadlocks-sporting artist. Indeed, which artist wouldn’t be excited about having his works displayed in a reputable museum with a long history of art appreciation? “It was a dream come true for me, working with an amazing, experienced curator with over 25 years of practice in the field.”

His previous trips outside Nigeria had taken him to Kenya, Cameroon and Argentina. But, none of those compares to this current one, which coincides with a time of a global pandemic.

“The beautiful side of this experience, in my opinion, is that it makes the powerful powerless,” he says. “It’s put a stop to all human activities for man to reflect inwardly. The earth needs to heal itself again, for it has been over-abused.”

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Coronavirus Lockdown: Public Safety Over Legal Quibbling Tunde Rahman

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oronavirus is biting nations hard. Across the globe, the number of infections rises daily; lives and nations are being torn apart. Global cases exceed one million mark with over 50,000 deaths. In Nigeria, COVID-19 cases had risen close to 200. The daily increase is worrisome. If we do not quickly arrest the rate of increase, we might soon face what is unanswerable. Just a few weeks ago, America faced 15 deaths. Now, it has suffered over 6000. Nigeria has lost two people to coronavirus. We must do all that is possible so we do not lose any more. No one country is immune to this dangerous disease.

Only those nations that have moved quickly and decisively have avoided the full brunt of this disease. For example, despite its proximity to China, Vietnam has experienced surprisingly few cases. This is because that nation moved quickly to shut its common border with China and to lockdown areas susceptible to the viral invasion. It is more beneficial to public safety that we act more in accord with the Vietnamese model than we dawdle and tarry like many other nations have done. Those that tarried are the new crises centers that are experiencing rapid increases in cases and fatalities.

But for the serious preventive and containment measures by the federal and state governments, including the restrictions on people movement and the lockdown in some states and Abuja, perhaps we would have been talking about even grimmer statistics of the pandemic. We have all seen the consequences of vacillation and delay as exemplified by the cases of some European countries, notably Italy and Spain. By the time Italy realized what was upon it, the huge fatalities had become inevitable. Coronavirus has killed more than 30,000 in Europe, more than three-quarters of the deaths recorded in Italy and Spain according to the AFP. By Wednesday, a total of 30,063

deaths were recorded in Europe (12, 428 of them in Italy) out of 458,601 cases, making the continent the hardest hit by COVID-19.

No stone should be left unturned in combating this clear and existential danger. In his broadcast to the nation last Sunday, President Muhammadu Buhari ordered a lockdown in Lagos, Ogun State and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja for two weeks. Underscoring his seriousness in tackling the pandemic, the president also used his executive powers to approve new COVID-19 regulations.

President Buhari, in my view, deserves commendation for his resolve and actions taken so far to tackle this public health crisis. Despite acting to save lives, the president came under immediate criticism for the lockdown by some commentators including Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka and lawyers Messers Femi Falana and Ebun Adegboruwa, claiming he lacked such powers to act as he did because the nation is not at war.

First, his critics claimed he had done nothing and had not spoken to the nation. When he acted and spoke, they cried he did too much.

But I ask what lesser thing would they have him do? Why would they seek for him to do less to ensure public safety? It seems that some people have taken on themselves the vocation of perennial complainers. Whatever is done would not meet their approval. The water is either always too hot or too cold. Without complaining they have nothing to contribute.

They proffer no solutions; they only complain about measures intended to safeguard the people.

The entire world faces an unprecedented public health emergency. As in all other nations, extraordinary measures are required in Nigeria. By virtue of his position, our constitution and public health laws, President Buhari is cloaked with the emergency powers similar to those of other world leaders. All such leaders were enabled to issue lockdowns by virtue of their executive powers. Yet, somehow these domestic critics claim that in

times of emergency that the Nigerian president lacks the essential executive powers provided to every other world head of state. This view is indefensible particularly given this situation.

This is not the time, in my view, to be pettifogging or to engage in empty legalism for the sake of empty legalism. Confronting COVID-19 demands that nations embark on innovative measures, some of which may abridge rights during the period of emergency.

Moreover, in their rush to complain, they blinded themselves to the fact that the president is expressly empowered to act as he did.

The Quarantine Act allows the president “to designate any local area, indeed any part of the country as a place that may be infected or under the threat of a communicable disease and then make regulations of any kind.” Thus, the lockdown is a measure defensible under our national laws and one recommended by international health experts as among the most effective public health measures a government can take to halt the spread of the virus at its early stages. Thank goodness the vast majority of ordinary people understand the gravity of what we face. They endorse the presidential action because they know it is intended to protect them.

Acknowledging the exigency of this intervention, some have even further recommended that the stay-at-home order be extended to other states with frightful cases of coronavirus in order to prevent further spread. This recommendation is particularly relevant to Osun State. Narrating his predicament in a television interview, Governor Adegboyega Oyetola said some indigenes of the state residing in Cote D’Ivoire and Burkina Faso had chosen to return home in the wake of COVID-19 outbreak.

They came into the country through the Seme Border. Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State provided them escort to guide the returnees to the border with Osun to eventually enter the state. They were quickly quarantined by the Osun State Government at the state’s Isolation Centre in Ejigbo and subjected to COVID-19

tests. Lo and behold, out of the results of initial 24 samples returned from a total of 127 persons who arrived the state, three had tested positive

by Tuesday. By Wednesday, the number had risen to 12; 20 by Friday and still counting at present.

From all intents and purposes, the state may be battling a coronavirus situation comparable to the case of FCT, Abuja, if not Lagos. This is where Osun needs the Federal Government’s decisive intervention. The coronavirus pandemic has further demonstrated how the world is interconnected. The disease, which emanated from one region of the world, has snowballed to endanger the entire world. The challenge for Osun, as I see it, is how to cope with such a gargantuan health crisis. It is high time the lockdown was extended to cover Osun and other states facing similar problems. Governor Oyetola had earlier put in place a curfew that covers the entire state in a bid to contain further spread of the pandemic, but state laws may not cover inter-state movements. Here again, we are confronted with another obstructive legal jigsaw.

Point is Osun needs the Federal Government’s critical intervention. The state urgently needs funds and food and medicine supplies.

Only the federal government can provide this scale of assistance. The complainers will complain not so much because of the quality of the decisions reached but because they were not included or consulted in the decisional process. This is the way of politics as practiced in normal times.

These times are anything but normal. This type of politics has no space now. Now is time for people to offer helpful suggestions that will save lives and society. We should listen to good ideas no matter from what corner they come.

But to complain for complaining sake is to be insensitive to the danger that we all face.

––Rahman, Media Adviser to APC National Leader Asiwaju BolaTinubu, was formerly Editor,THISDAY on Sunday Newspaper.

Where is Ogunde?

Adedara Oduguwa

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n Tuesday February 18 2020, while on a desk study, I came across this news on the wall of The Punch Newspaper: “Reps order 400 exotic cars, reject Nigerian brands.” All the360 House of Representative members want 400 units of Toyota Camry 2020 priced between N26.75m and N35.75m totalling N6billion --- excluding the cost of shipping, import duty which is 70 per cent of the net cost and other clearing charges and taxes .

The lawmakers rejected Innoson Vehicles Manufacturing, a Nigerian brand based in Nnewi, Anambra State. This is in a country where unemployment rate is 33.5 per cent in 2020 according to the National Bureau of Statistics. This unemployment rate contributes to the high rate of crime like mass murders, insurgency, militancy, armed robbery, kidnappings, fraud, ritual killings, suicide and drug abuse among others. Indeed, Nigeria was declared ‘the global poverty capital by the World Bank in 2018.

Then, I was tempted to ask, “Where is that Doyen of the Nigerian theatre, Hubert Ogunde? Where is the people’s voice?

Where is that Colossus who spoke sense to the powers-that-be?

Many youths of today might not be very familiar with the name, but for those born in the 50s,60s,70s and early 80s, Hubert Adedeji Ogunde was a Colossus whose many works of art queries government officers’ malfeasance and bungling.

Ogunde was jailed several times for standing on the side of his employer --- the masses.

Ogunde was born on Monday, July 10, 1916 to Mr. Jeremiah Dehinbo Ogunde and Mrs. Eunice Owotunsan Ogunde, in the small ancient town of Ososa in the heart of Ijebu Province (presently under Odogbolu Local Government).

That son would grow to become a teacher, police officer, teetotaler, human rights activist, seer, folklorist, actor, playwright, musician, dancer, dramatist and nationalist. The 4th of April 2020 makes it 30 years since his transition.

Ogunde was completely fearless and selfless. He would not sing or act to please. For instance, in 1944, Ogunde added his voice to the agitation for independence by writing thoughtprovoking opras. The colonial masters were infuriated by such plays as, Israel in Egypt (1944), Nebuchadnezzar’s Reign and Belshazzar’s Feast (1945), Worse than Crime (1945), Strike and Hunger (1945), Tiger’s Empire (1945), among many others.

Ogunde was arrested, jailed and humiliated. He earned himself series of bans for standing for the truth and what was

Ogunde right.

Moreover, Ogunde was an outspoken political commentator, ready to take great risk --- including the destruction of his Theatre --- to fight for the freedom of his people from colonial rule.

According to an Editorial in Zik’s West African Pilot Newspaper (1947) “Ogunde’s preoccupation with the projection of the cultural as well as the political identity of his people were enough for the nationalist movement to brand him ‘a genius’ who did not seek ‘wealth or fortune’ ...nor self inflation or any other artifice of fame; a genius who was once a poor police officer, perhaps sharing with three others a ‘ten by eight’! A day came when he sat down and composed nature airs and dramatized them and by 1947, had become ‘Nigeria’s Theatre King’ ... It takes courage to take risks and determination to forge ahead in spite of man-made handicaps. Good luck to Hubert Ogunde.”

While many artists, musicians, writers, clergymen, journalists and social commentators of today are working as mouth-pieces for the government in power and economic profiteers, artists of the old were mainly into the ‘Complementary Institution’ saddled with the responsibility of talking for

the people and checking abuse of power. Sadly, that role is today bedevilled by corruption and monetization which has seen the Complementary Institution compromised and sucked into the pit of misrepresentation. It has thereby become a tool to torment the poor, who look up to be saved by the Complementary Institution.

Today, British rule is gone; but we are now under new colonial masters --- the egocentric elite. These are mainly politicians who rule through the shackles of poverty, insecurity, poor infrastructural facilities, death traps called roads, darkness called light among other evils.

The institution Ogunde left behind is now a shadow of itself. Musicians of today now preach Malianism, a term used to describe people following the doctrine of non-compliance to social norms and ethics. A Malian does not wear belt, a Malian does not graduate from school, a Malian does not respect elders, a Malian does not marry for love. Musicians and dramatists of today act to please and, or for gain. They are now tools for illegality, incompetence, mediocrity and ignorance.

After Nigeria gained her independence in October 1, 1960, Chief Obafemi Awolowo who was the leader of the Yorubas and former Premier of the defunct Western Region was conspired against. He was jailed 10 years over a trumped up charge of ‘treason’. Awo’s detractors were so happy. It was during this period of jubilation that Ogunde and his troupe were invited by the new Western Region government headed by one-time best friend of Chief Awolowo, Chief Ladoke Akintola, to present plays. Chief Ogunde unveiled two plays; Yoruba Ronu (Yoruba Think) and Otitokoro (Truth is bitter).

Yoruba Ronu was a prophetic play that lampooned the government and foretold the political future of Chief Akintola and his followers. In 2017, Adedara Oduguwa translated the Yoruba Ronu into English in his unpublished book Hubert Ogunde: Odyssey of a Renowned Nationalist. The summary: There lived a king in Yorubaland named Fiwajoye. This king was so powerful and popular among the people of his kingdom. It was a time of plenty.

But his second-in-command, Ekeji-Oye was envious and wanted the king to be dethroned so he could be king.

Ekeji-oye therefore betrayed the king and the Yorubas into the hands of an enemy,Yeye-Iloba, who conquered the king and his people. After a harrowing servitude during which King Fiwajoye and his people were maltreated and humiliated, the Yorubas fought and won back their freedom. And the fortunes of the Yorubas were restored several folds.

(See concluding part on www.thisdaylive.com)

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CICERO

Editor:Olawale Olaleye Email:wale.olaleye@thisdaylive.com, SMS: 08116759819

IN THE ARENA

Covid-19: The Poor Is alsoVulnerable As the nation races against time to stem the spread of the Coronavirus disease, Samuel Ajayi writes that there is a need to disabuse the minds of the ordinary Nigerians, who erroneously think the virus is for the rich, thereby refusing to adhere to the rules to mitigate its spread

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s the Coronovirus pandemic ravages the world, the import of its severity in Nigeria was brought home when former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, announced that his son, Mohammed, had tested positive for the dreaded virus.

Luckily, Mohammed’s wife and kids tested negative. After this, the Banchi State governor, Bala Mohammed, announced that he had tested positive for the virus and as a result, he would be going into self-isolation.

Just when that was yet to sink in, the Ekiti State governor and Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, announced that he had come into contact with two people, who had tested positive for Covid-19 and as a result, he would be going into self-isolation before his test result would come out. Luckily for him, he tested negative for the virus.

As this was going on, the Kaduna State Governor and former minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, announced in his personal twitter handle that he had tested positive for the virus.

Following that, the Oyo State governor, Seyi Makinde, also announced that he had tested positive for the virus. The biggest ‘fish’ so far was the Chief of Staff to the President, Mallam Abba Kyari, who also tested positive for the virus and was believed to have contracted the disease after a trip to Germany, where he had gone to hold meetings with officials of Siemens over the power situation in the country.

In all this, the trend seemed to suggest that the virus was ‘targeting’ the high and mighty. But that is an assumption that might end up putting the larger populace at risk. There are fears during the week that this assumption was gaining currency among the common people in the country, who feel that the COVID-19 virus might be reserved for the high and mighty alone.

Governor Sanwo-olu undergoing Covid-19 screening Perhaps, the assumption was not without basis.

Reason being that most of those who tested positive were those According to him, the way the virus has ravaged countries who came into the country after trips to the United States and the with strong health systems has shown that the nation might have United Kingdom. a massive problem on its hands should there be an explosion of In fact, the biggest talk of the town as per the importation of the virus. “We have to get people to observe the guidelines and Coronavirus into the country was the 80th birthday bash of the rules set out to curb the spread of the virus,” Samuels said, adding: nation’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Retired Justice “Should we have a major outbreak in the country, we might not be George Oguntade. able to cope with it since our health system is not that strong to deal Many crème de la crème of the Nigerian society attended, includ- with such large scale health emergency. ing former and serving governors, National Assembly members “If you see what COVID-19 is doing in countries with strong and so on. A top former lawmaker in Lagos State said caution was and functional health systems, then, you will agree with me that we thrown into the winds, as Nigerians who attended the bash did not must ensure that there is no major outbreak of the virus among the observe any social distancing as they hugged and mingled carelessly. general populace.”

Perhaps, with this in mind, it might be ‘safe’ for an ordinary Samuels might just have a point. For instance, if there was Nigerian to assume that Coronavirus was for the rich. But that anything most Nigerians, especially those in Lagos, have not kept, it would be a criminal assumption and disaster-in-waiting. The is social distancing. People still mingle and mix in open and public reason is that the disease, even in countries with functional and places despite the risks involved in such practice. well-established health systems, has shown that it is no respecter of For instance, the Lagos State government had to seal up, a anyone and it does not discriminate. mosque in Agege, a suburb of Lagos after some of the adherents of Dr. Jay Osi Samuels, Harvard-trained health development expert, the Islamic faith, who had gathered to pray at the mosque attacked who is well versed in public health, told THISDAY recently that security operatives, who had come to enforce the stay-at-home order. the nation must do everything possible to ensure that the general In Katsina State, at least one person lost his life during a clash populace adhered strictly to the guidelines set by the World Health between security agents and some Muslim worshippers, who Organisation, WHO, to stem the spread of the virus. insisted on having their normal Jumat service, despite the legislation

against gathering of people if they are more than 20 in number.

Churches are not left out. Some top Christian leaders and Pentecostal pastors were heavily criticised for going ahead to hold their normal Sunday services despite the advice against such so as to reduce the coming together of large number of people in a single place. In fact, one pastor was arrested in Abuja last Sunday for flouting this order.

While there is little or no vehicular movement in many parts of Lagos, the lockdown does not seem to affect human traffic. In most parts of the state, people were seen moving around and most road have been converted to soccer fields by young people, both male and female, who are apparently killing boredom.

Even shops that were not selling essential goods had started opening for business while commercial motorcycle operators have roundly flouted the stay-at-home order as they have been using the opportunity of the ban on vehicular movement to cut quick business by taking people to their destinations.

While security agents have been accused of high-handedness, the nonchalant attitude of the general populace towards the Covid-19 virus is a major threat to the containment of the spread.

And the belief that it is a virus for the rich and the mighty does not help matters. This is why states are racing against time to prevent a local epidemic.

P O L I T I CA L N OT E S

Buhari’s Personal Example is Noteworthy

A Buhari addresses the nation

short – less than 50 minutes – video of President Muhammadu Buhari circulated last week, where the president had reeled off some of the efforts of his administration in containing the spread of the pandemic, Coronavirus otherwise called Covid-19.

Towards the end of the video, the president was seen teaching personal hygiene as he approached a wash hand basin for real time practical. That’s by all definitions and standards, a worthy choice of personal example. When leaders go ahead of the

led and do the needful, compliance is very likely 100 per cent or a little less.

It was the same point that was made, when the president was slow in addressing the nation on the ravaging virus, even though his unthinking rash of supporters didn’t see anything bad, for as long as he had delegated the jobs.

But leadership is beyond that. If he delegated authority as expected in leadership, what about responsibility? This is why his late response to some of these things was though disappointing, however, commendable in the final analysis.

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ APRIL 5, 2020

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BRIEFINGNOTES Maj-Gen. Olusegun Adeniyi’s Long Goodbye The recent ‘punitive’ redeployment of outspoken Major-General Olusegun Adeniyi,Theatre Commander of Operation Lafiya Dole, to the Nigerian Army Resource Centre (NARC), a military facility for strategy and innovation based in Abuja, might be the beginning of a valedictory phase of his audacious martial odyssey, writes Louis Achi

“N

ever forget that no military leader has ever become great without audacity.” This was the Prussian General and military strategist Carl von Clausewitz’s observation on military leadership.

On his part, the 16th US President, Abraham Lincoln noted that, “To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.”

These two historical perspectives address human behavior under intense trial. They also have a bearing on last week’s redeployment of Major-General Olusegun Adeniyi, Theatre Commander of Operation Lafiya Dole, to the Nigerian Army Resource Centre (NARC), a military facility for strategy and innovation based in Abuja, as a “research fellow”.

Flowing from a directive by the Nigerian Army High Command, in a circular that went out last Monday, dozens of top generals were asked to swap positions with effect from April 1.

Although in a related statement, Colonel Sagir Musa, army spokesman, told Nigerians the postings were a routine exercise intended to reinvigorate the system for greater professional effectiveness and efficiency, its timing and template spawned insinuations that Major-Gen. Olusgun Adeniyi was a key target.

The redeployments came a few days after MajGen Adeniyi was seen in a viral video complaining about the brazen nature of Boko Haram attacks on troops. He also complained that insurgents were outgunning troops and that an intelligence failure was responsible for an attack that left dozens of soldiers killed penultimate week.

The video became an instant hit on the social media, sparking outrage and a relentless criticism of President Muhammadu Buhari and other senior military and government officials overseeing the war efforts. Adeniyi was replaced with MajorGeneral Haram is F. Yahaya, the General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the Army’s 1 Division in Kaduna.

Adeniyi, who assumed command of the military’s counter-insurgency operations in the Northeast, in August 2019, had never left the top echelon of the Nigerian Army in doubt as to where he stood on pressing military issues concerning his brief, men and command. A gung-ho soldier, he has always betrayed a stern focus to conclude the lingering anti-insurgency campaign.

It was Adeniyi, who articulated a rationale and canvassed the creation of a Nigerian Army Aviation component to help its operations in the counterinsurgency warfare against Boko Haram in the Northeast. He pushed the position while receiving the National Assembly’s Joint Committee on the Army, led by Senator Ali Ndume of Borno State, which visited Maiduguri late last year, on a two-day oversight assignment of the frontlines.

In Adeniyi’s words then: “The only thing that needs to be given to the Army now is Nigerian Army Aviation with its own helicopters. There is a way you solve a problem that will change the game.

The army needs combat helicopters to end the Boko Haram war. If we have it, it will not be deployed like air force assets, air force jets, which are for bigger strategic goals.

“These helicopters will sleep with us in the trenches; they will be with us in the frontline.

These helicopters and the rifles are dispatched together. I know this has been on the table for years.

When this is done, Nigeria can forget about the deadly Islamic sect.”

Maj.-Gen. Adeniyi Adeniyi who further clarified the army’s request for its own combat helicopters, separate from those of NAF, explained that unlike the Air Force jets, the Army Aviation helicopters would perform more critical roles during attacks. In retrospect, obviously, Adeniyi could not have canvassed such big policy, big budget initiative without specific clearance from the Chief of Army Staff, Lt-General Tukur Buratai.

In both conventional and asymmetric warfare, no military commander worth his salt would tolerate the decimation of his troops on account of poor morale, inferior equipment, denial or inaccessibility of accurate intel. The army boss, himself a brilliant veteran of many bruising campaigns, can certainly not stomach such too.

Adeniyi would have failed his command and superiors if he failed to voice out serious shortcomings in his field campaigns. Beyond shadowy insinuations that his complaints were unauthorised, not properly channeled or inappropriate, a fundamental context from which to read his grievance is that the nation’s anti-insurgency campaign is apparently failing.

Witnessing his soldiers being killed and backed to the wall, his outcry indeed required some courage. Although redeployed out of the crisis theatre, his core message should provoke serious introspection from the army high command.

The Nigerian Army is the largest component of the Nigerian Armed Forces, and is responsible for land warfare operations. Lt-Gen. Buratai, the army boss is not a frivolous soldier either and enjoys the

reputation of being a very focused and disciplined professional. He has brought these qualities to bear on his command, under obviously very challenging conditions.

But as the bloody, costly anti-Boko Haram counter-insurgency new-to-country war drags on for 11 years, the imperative of reviewing engagement strategies come to the fore. Reports of internal sabotage and leaked intelligence are worrisome and must be plugged. Actions at this level clearly require some audacity from the army high command.

Adeniyi’s redeployment comes under the jurisdictional purview of the COAS. No debate about that. But in what ways his reassignment would affect the battle progression, momentum, morale and tenor of the insurgency remains to be seen.

As he settles into his new duty space as a “research fellow,” he could rest easy, knowing that he had boldly played his role in the turbulent evolution of a new Nigerian state. He would also know that his long goodbye to the profession he loved has subtly kicked-in.

And just as the 16th US President, Abraham Lincoln aptly noted that, “To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men,” in the face of paucity and debatable quantity/quality of arms/equipment, the top leaders of the army need to speak out.

To secure the lives and limbs of the nation’s gallant soldiers from needless decimation is certainly not merely a pious wish but an imperative and necessity for civilised survival.

NOTES FOR FILE

Who are These Military Dregs?

Buratai

A certain video of some soldiers went viral in the week, where the soldiers – two of them – protested against the alleged killing of one of them by a mob in Warri, Delta State, after the deceased soldier allegedly killed a male civilian for defying the stay-athome order by the federal government.

But in protesting on behalf of their colleague, the soldiers warned the people of Warri of what was about to hit them, including raping their wives, mothers, sisters and infecting them with HIV. For all it is worth, it was in every way a criminal low from a people assigned to maintain peace and order to dish out such threat in a video and release it to the public.

Even more disappointing was the attempt by the Nigerian Army to deny that they were Nigerian soldiers. But they forgot that the soldiers were specific about the incidence and where it

took place, which showed clearly they were Nigerian soldiers.

Therefore, the military leadership cannot sit back and pretend this never happened. Such high level of indiscipline and irresponsibility cannot be glossed over under whatever guise. An example must not just be made of them but seen as having been made. Those who made that video clearly, are the dregs in the military and must be tamed effectively before they contaminate many others. Thankfully, the military has since announced that the dregs in the viral video have been arrested and will be subjected to appropriate punishment. No doubt this swift action is commendable. We are happy that the military reversed its earlier position and swiftly took action against the culprits. The nation is eagerly awaiting their punishment to serve as a deterrent to others.

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THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ APRIL 5, 2020

CICERO/ONTHEWATCH

Governor Akeredolu at the scene of the explosion

The Akure Explosion and Its Many Controversies The recent explosion in communities near Akure, the Ondo State capital, has continued to generate controversies like a similar one in the past, writes James Sowole

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ike in many incidences, the early morning explosion that rocked Eleyowo/Iluabo communities in the suburb of Akure, Ondo State capital on Saturday, March 28, 2020 came with controversies caused by stereotypical nature of many Nigerians that truth could never come from the relevant authorities.

The explosion, which inflicted injuries on no fewer than 13 persons and caused destruction of not less than 70 buildings including churches and schools with many up to the foundation level, created a big crater that cut the ever-busy Akure-Owo Highway into two.

The heavy sound that came with the explosion, affecting the ceilings of houses that were kilometers away from the site of the blast, made many people, no matter how informed, to conclude that it was a serious matter.

As soon as it was morning proper, several uncomplimentary comments bordering on the security situation in the country began to fly around against the federal government.

Self-appointed “investigators” were quick to conclude that Boko Haram perpetrated the act within few hours after the explosion.

As expected, men and officers of all security agencies including the Army had stormed the site for on-the-spot assignments.

Based on the information at its disposal, the Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr Undie Adie, whose men had been at the site shortly after the explosion, addressed journalists on the possible cause of the explosion.

Adie said it occurred when a truck conveying explosives from Ibadan, Oyo State to Edo State developed fault and caused the blast that caused destruction of such magnitude.

The police position was also reechoed by Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, who was on site with his deputy, Agboolla Ajayi and some of his aides.

The police further claimed that the explosives had been legally moved and the truck escorted by security officers, whose expertise saved what could have resulted in heavy casualties.

However, the explanation of the police was not taken hook, line and sinker by some stakeholders, who said further and serious investigations must be carried out.

A foremost pan Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, in a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Yinka Odumakin said though it had nothing to contradict the account of the police, it demanded an inquiry into this disaster in accordance with Ordinance and Fiream Acts to be able to determine the type of ordinances that exploded.

“The inquiry should be able to ascertain the following: the identities of those transporting the ordinances; the origin of the ordinances; who assigned the escorting policemen and under what circumstance; and where was the destination of the Improvised Explosive Devices,” it said.

The organisation also expressed dismay on the rate and frequency of explosion in the Southwest region of the country, saying, “While we wait for answers, we must express our displeasure with the rate of explosions in Yorubaland in recent time. First was the blast in Ekiti State in early February with investigation blaming it on ‘human error’.

“This was followed by the massive explosion in Abule Ado in Lagos, which was attributed to some spurious pipeline explosion, which we rejected because the longrange impacts of that explosion could not have come from pipeline explosion.

“Till date we don’t know the owners of the articulated vehicles found on the scene of the Lagos explosion while the number of casualties and level of suggested damage done to Catholic owned Bethlehem School suggested deliberate targeting,” Afenifere said.

Sharing Afenifere’s position, the Are Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, Gani Adams, also alleged that the recent three blasts, which occurred in three states in the Southwest, were beyond ordinary blasts, contrary to the claim by government.

Adams, in a statement, claimed that the Akure explosion was not an ordinary blast, but a suspected bomb blast, which must be duly investigated.

“It’s unfortunate that such incidences are coming at this trying period of coronavirus across the globe,” he said, emphasising that, investigation at his disposal had it that those behind the bomb blasts are now targeting other Southwest States hence the need for all Governors and indigenes to be at alert.

“We are not convinced that all these are ordinary blasts, but a bomb and therefore, it is important and necessary for government to carry out proactive investigation on these incidents, which occurred in a spate of three weeks in Lagos, Ekiti and Ondo States,” Adams declared.

While buttressing his claim with the Lagos blast, Adams said from records, a pipeline fire is expected to burn houses, and not uprooting houses from foundation as it occurred in Lagos, adding that, in view of that, it was beyond pipeline burst, but bomb blast.

He also posited that the Ekiti incident was of same pattern, which should not be attributed to ordinary blast, stressing that the incidences are becoming rampant in Southwest, and therefore, the government should not fold its arm, before the situation gets out of hand.

“I was at the Lagos incident, and I am not convinced

that it’s ordinary pipeline fire. From history, if there is pipeline incident, fire will only consume buildings, destroy properties and not pulling down buildings to its foundation. Also, on the Ondo State incident, we are not convinced by the submission of Commissioner of Police.

“Southwest Governors should be vigilant. Information at our disposal has it that, other Southwest states are the next target. Federal government should diligently investigate the incidences,” Adams declared.

Another major controversy that greeted the Akure explosion was on cause of the incident, which they described as natural phenomenon. Some experts led by a Professor of Geophysics and Earthquake Engineering at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Adepelumi Adekunle, said the explosion was caused by a giant rock from space known as meteors.

A meteor is what happens when a meteoroid – a small piece of an asteroid – burns up upon entering earth’s atmosphere, creating a streak of light in the sky.

The expert said the meteors impacted the location from “an angle of 43 degrees”.

Contradicting the explanation of the governor and the police, Adekunle said there was no evidence of a buried vehicle, buried ordinance or explosives from the site, and that “foreign rocks and strange metallic objects” were found within the crater created.

“My Research group carried out a detailed analysis of the impact site. A circular impact crater with 21m diameter and 7.8m depth was found, which suggests a natural phenomenal.

“Water was found oozing out from the edges of the crater. A preliminary insitu vibration, noise, seismicity, water analysis, radioactivity studies, rock and soil investigation were carried out.

“Our findings suggest that the impact of the blasting covers 1km radius of the surroundings of the crater. No evidence of fire or Burning of anything was found within the vicinity.

“No evidence of radioactivity radiation was found within the crater and immediate vicinity. The field evidence point to a conclusion that a meteoric from an asteroid belt that travels at a great speed from space impacted the location at an angle of 43 degrees created an ejecta at South-Western part.”

He also said a crack opening that vary in thickness from 3mm to 4 metres occurred on the wall of most of the buildings in the area, “but not at the base of the buildings”.

Backing the claim of the experts, the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA), said the blast could be a natural phenomenon of a suspected fall of a meteoric from an asteroid belt on great speed from space.

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ APRIL 5, 2020

FROMTHECOURT

Judiciary in the Face of COVID-19 The directive that the judiciary should attend to matters that are urgent, essential or time-bound during the lockdown, further underscores the importance of the third arm of government in governance. Davidson Iriekpen writes

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uring public holidays, shut down of activities or restrictions of movement in any society, some category of workers are usually exempted as their absence from their duty posts might have negative consequences on the society.

These workers who are usually referred to as essential workers, are people, who still go to work.

They keep the states running due to the services they provide. They include those who work in medical field, security and law enforcement agencies, communications and public utility organisations, among others.

But never has anyone considered judicial workers as part of the essential workers except when special considerations are given to mobile courts.

However, with the shutting down of public and private offices to contain the spread of coronavirus otherwise known as COVID-19 in the country, the judiciary has been added to this category of personnel that would operate during this period of national lockdown.

While other arms of government – executive and legislature - have long shut down, to resume when things improve, the same cannot be said of the judiciary that has been directed to work skeletally due to the urgency of some applications and law backing some time-bound cases. This, in the new equation, has further underscored the importance of the third arm of government in governance and administration.

A circular by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Tanko Ibrahim Muhammad, penultimate week announced, a partial shut down of the courts from March 24, 2020.

In the circular signed by the spokesman of the Supreme Court, Dr. Festus Akande, all judicial officers were not only directed to comply with the guidelines issued by the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and other relevant bodies towards containing the spread of the deadly CJN Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad coronavirus, but asked to suspend court sittings, except in matters that are urgent, essential or time-bound or time-bound according to extant laws,” Malami said the according to the extant laws. directive issued by the CJN was in tandem with the COVID-19 Titled “Preventive measures on the spread of coronavirus Regulations 2020 made pursuant to Quarantine Act 2004 by the (COVID-19) and the protection of justices, judges and staff of President Muhammadu Buhari. courts”, the circular which was to all heads of courts, said the It was in view of this that the Supreme Court, penultimate need to comply was of utmost importance, because the disease week, decided to deliver judgment in the application filed by which is spreading wide and fast has no known cure yet. the Abdullaziz Yari faction of the All Progressives Congress It added that the matter was of grave concern to the judiciary (APC) seeking the review of its judgment on the governorship hence the need to reduce crowd in the courts and order tussle. judiciary environments.

The court had on March 17 reserved ruling on the APC “Consequently you are expected to take all necessary steps application for the review of its judgment, which nullified the to ensure that the safety of management and staff within your party’s victories in the general election held in 2019 in Zamfara jurisdiction by averting large gathering of people in view of the State. risk it may pose.

THISDAY gathered that owing to the law, which stipulates “As you all know, all federal judicial bodies are expected to that appeals at the apex court should not exceed 60 days, continue work, however, as much as possible, efforts must be the court, not knowing when normalcy would return to the made to ensure that members of the public coming for official country, decided to deliver on March 28 in order not to be matters/meetings/conferences within your jurisdiction do not caught up by the effluxion of time. exceed the recommended number.

Due to the CJN directive, some courts sat across the country “All the guidelines issued by the NCDC and federal heads/ to hear some urgent applications. In Lagos, for instance, a Fedauthorities must be complied with to ensure concerted and eral High Court presided over by Justice Mohammed Liman coordinated efforts in the prevention of the spread of the last week granted post-conviction bail to a former Director of disease,” part of the circular read.

Finance and Account at the Abia State Government House, Mr. This directive essentially places judges and judicial workers Jones Udeogu, who was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment as essential workers. It was against this background that the last December.

Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Udeogu was convicted of N7.1 billion fraud and jailed Abubakar Malami (SAN), directed that courts should attend alongside his principal and former governor of Abia State, to matters that are urgent, essential or time-bound even during Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, who bagged 12 years in prison. the lockdown.

But Udeogu’s lawyer, Chief Solo Akuma (SAN), approached The directive by Malami was communicated in a letter the court with an application that his client was suffering from addressed to all Heads of Courts dated April 1, 2020 conveying prostate cancer and tuberculosis. the COVID-19 Regulation 2020.

The lawyer added that his client was diagnosed with According to a statement by his media aide, Dr. Umar prostate cancer three years ago at the Abia State University Gwandu, the minister said the measure is in line with the Teaching Hospital and that in the course of carrying out tests present administration’s pursuit of speedy dispensation of on him, the hospital also discovered that he had tuberculosis. justice in the country.

He said Udeogu was still making arrangements to book a date “Speedy dispensation of justice is a cardinal principle of for surgery, when he was convicted and sent to prison last Justice Sector Reform of the present administration,” the December. statement read, adding that the judiciary should ensure that In an affidavit filed in support of the post-conviction bail “time-bound cases are treated with dispatch and accorded the application, one Lazarus Agu said the correctional facility, required attention.” where Udeogu is serving his jail term “does not have the facility The letter with reference: “Further to the letter Ref. No. to provide the type of medical attention Udeogu requires to NJC/CIR/HOC/11/631 dated March 23, 2020, by the Chief survive the ailments he is suffering from.

Justice of Nigeria, Hon. Justice I. T. Mohammad, directing After listening to the application, Justice Liman, granted suspension of court sittings for an initial period of two weeks convict a N50 million post-conviction bail pending the determiat the first instance, except in matters that are urgent, essential nation of his appeal.

Also, Justice Liman sat to hear an ex parte application by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) seeking the temporary forfeiture of N293million, six parcels of land and 30,000 MTN shares recovered from a former Commander of the military Joint Task Force, Operation Pulo Shield, in the Niger Delta, Maj.Gen. Emmanuel Atewe (rtd).

The EFCC had alleged that the assets were part of the proceeds of N8.5billion, which Atewe allegedly diverted from the military operation between September 5, 2014 and May 20, 2015.

The EFCC, which has been prosecuting Atewe since 2016 alongside a former Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Patrick Akpobolokemi, Kime Engozu and Josephine Otuaga, urged that the assets needed to be urgently protected before they are dissipated.

After listening to him, Justice Liman granted the prayers and ordered temporary forfeiture to be published in a national newspaper. The judge adjourned till April 20 for anyone interested in the assets to appear before him to show reasons why they should not be permanently forfeited to the federal government.

The Supreme Court, last Friday, also sat to strike out the fraud charges filed by the EFCC against a former governorship candidate of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Kwara State, Mohammed Dele Belgore (SAN).

The apex court allowed the appeal against the ruling of the lower court delivered by Justice Rilwan Aikawa sitting at the Federal High Court in November 2018.

Belgore had filed a no-case submission after the anti-crime commission closed its case in the N450million fraud charge.

But the trial court dismissed the no-case submission. Dissatisfied with the ruling, Belgore appealed in Lagos, which also dismissed the appeal.

But Supreme Court, Friday, allowed the no-case submission and struck out the charge. It opined that the offences for which the defendant was charged could not be tried in Lagos but in Kwara State, where they were committed.

By and large, it is trite to say that the Nigerian judiciary is living up to billings at this critical time in global history and in spite of its obvious inadequacies, has always played its part for collective good.

This also highlights the importance of granting the judiciary its pride of place as an independent arm of government that does not have to go cap-in-hand to the executive for survival, knowing full well that it is as important as the two other arms.

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THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ APRIL 5, 2020

ENGAGEMENTS

with ChidiAmuta e-mail:chidi.amuta@gmail.com

Democracy, Politics and Virus

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aceless as it is, the Coronavirus may ultimately turn out a rather political virus. It has thrown up new challenges about the management of life (rate of infection) and death (reducing fatalities). Of all emergencies in recent human history, perhaps this virus has engaged the attention of politicians and world leaders more than anything else.

Its summons is instant and ever urgent. It has even re-written a few national budgets and re-arranged the stock markets of the world at a rate and in ways never before anticipated. On the average, the developed economies of the West are committing anywhere between 8-25% of GDP in emergency intervention to protect their populace from the worst economic hazards of the corona pandemic. Neither the onset of national elections nor even a full fledged war has electrified political leaders into such desperate frenzy as this virus. Hopefully, when it is all over, the coronavirus will have fundamentally redefined politics as the management of resources to meet the expectations of the greatest majority.

The virus may not have discriminated along racial, ethnic, ideological or even national boundaries, yet it is keeping politicians busy justifying their mandates and scoring instant results for their constituencies. Whether we like it or not, the Coronavirus is making a difference among the leaderships of the world. Gradually, it is beginning to emerge as a barometer of efficiency among leaders of nations.

Quite unexpectedly, democracy as the dominant political idiom of our age has come under a testy stress in different places in terms of how different systems have dealt with the corona virus. The critical question in this regard is: can democracy justify its preponderance when leaders are challenged to protect their peoples from an unseen and unexpected situation?

The virus took off in authoritarian China.

It devastated a province with an estimated population of 60 million inhabitants, leaving an official casualty figure of 3,312 which is still open to controversy. Yet, that authoritarian state was able to summon its traditional dictatorial ethos to push back the virus with astounding results. It put up four mega hospitals in a few days, tested and treated a record number of cases while locking down and quarantining an area nearly the size of Nigeria. In a matter of weeks, the virus receded, literally chased away by the iron will of a people energised by a determined leadership.

Today, China is healing rapidly and is on the path to reasonable recovery from the virus.

China’s rate of recovery from the virus, though still incomplete, remains almost miraculous in a world where the ravages of the pandemic are still unfolding with mounting fatalities.

China has returned from 95% business closures to nearly that percentage of resumption. The people of Wuhan, the most affected area, have been summoned out of quarantine and back to life and work. China has learnt the lessons of lockdowns, emergency healthcare research and delivery and returned to work as the largest single producer and exporter of medical goods against the virus. A fortnight ago, Spain ordered $500 million worth of medical resources from China. From all over the world, orders for medical supplies estimated at over $25 billion are being processed and supplied.

No one has heard from North Korea. But the hermit kingdom would seem to have contained the spread of the coronavirus into its iron clad enclave or at least may have managed to contain information about the activities of the virus within its borders. Even the most exaggerated western speculations on the virus in North Korea put the fatality rate at less than 100 mostly among frontier soldiers and service personnel.

Russia, itself an illiberal democracy, has not fared badly either. Despite sharing a common long border with China, Russia has recorded a total of 3,548 cases and only 30 deaths. Its lockdown and social distancing and isolation regime remains one of the most aggressive and draconian in the world.

Meanwhile, the hallmarks of liberal democracy, the United States and Western Europe, have been devastated by Coronavirus. Italy has

Emergency room nurses wear face masks at Second People’s Hospital of Shenzhen in China recorded 13,155 deaths; Spain has lost 9,387, USA has lost 5,112, France has 4,032; Great Britain 2,352 and Germany has lost 931 lives. As of the time of this writing, a plane load of medical equipment and supplies was on its way from Russia to the United States to support the government. The usually boisterous and ebullient Donald Trump has become a bit sobre and somber these days, humbled by an ordinary invisible virus!

But it is not a simple division between democracies and non democracies. It is not even a simple East-West line of demarcation. The younger Asian democracies have fared better than others in managing the virus and its outcomes. South Korea with a population of 51.5 million has had only 144 deaths; Taiwan with a population of 24 million has had only 4 deaths. Singapore, a city- state with a paternalistic political system and a population of 8 million has had only 2 deaths.

One explanation of the relative success of the East Asian young democracies over the older western democracies in managing the coronavirus emergency is the speed and relative efficiency of their bureaucracies.

The less cumbersome a bureaucracy, the more speedy they tend to be in their responsiveness to the needs of the people.

However, it would seem that the real distinction among nations in terms of the results they have scored in managing the pandemic may be that between liberal democracies and the illiberal democracies. The distinction is between democracies that observe the full gamut of freedoms and liberties on the one hand and the ones who observe the ritual of elections but constrain the classical freedoms of democracy.

The illiberal democracies tend to reduce their primary obligation to the people to security defined in terms of physical security and security from disease, hunger, deprivation. They place basic freedoms beneath security so defined. In this regard, the illiberal democracies are better able to enforce social distancing, lockdowns and quarantines than the liberal citadels.

So far, not much attention has been paid to the relative low infection and fatality rates in sub Saharan African countries. Our numbers may be dodgy and unscientific.

Our testing regimes may be unreliable and clinically deficient. We may not know exactly the rate of infection in Africa yet. But one thing you cannot hide from Africans is mass death and any disease that afflicts people in droves. In rural and crowded poor urban Africa, the coronavirus is yet to make devastating land fall. In a slom, social distancing is alien and foolish. May be it is the heat in our climate. Maybe it is something about the myth of the virus being afraid of hardy black genes except those of black people living like white people in air conditioned large houses. No one knows exactly.

But so far, Nigeria with an estimated population of 200 million has less than 200 reported cases and a fatality of less than 3.

For us in Nigeria,however, the coronavirus has more important political meanings and messages. It has thrown up the question of leadership. It is in a time of national emergency that politicians are challenged

to display the essential leadership for which they step forward to be elected. The jury is still out on the quality of leadership that the Nigerian federal government has so far provided since the coronavirus surfaced. In spite of the palpable early threats and increasing fatalities in China, Europe and the United states, the Nigerian government was slow in ordering a closure of the nation’s borders to flights and movements of persons from Europe, the United States and parts of Asia. Even when that decision was made, its implementation was haphazard and disorderly.

The psychological aspect of leadership in a national crisis did not seem to interest Abuja. President Buhari was quite reluctant to address the nation on the desperate public health emergency that was already ravaging the world. A cross section of the populace was unanimous in calling on the president to address the nation, to minimally show concern and empathy in the face of an unusual public health emergency. Nigerians needed a reassurance that something was being done to protect them from a clear and present life and death danger. It took that level of orchestration and over three weeks for the president to finally make a recorded broadcast.

Yet such reluctant leadership fell far short of global standards in such an emergency. Over and above a ceremonial national anthem broadcast event, leaders all over the world have mostly entered the trenches to reassure their peoples on a daily basis with facts and figures on what is being done to protect their lives and alleviate the economic hardships attendant on the pandemic. As we speak, Nigerians are still at a loss as to where and how to obtain basic testing for the virus and how to access medical care in the event of an infection. Ignorant state governors are ordering lockdowns without simole first aid kits in their public hospitals!

Nonetheless, the coronavirus has a political dividend for Nigerians in general and Mr. Buhari’s lack luster presidency in particular. Prior to the coronavirus, Mr. Buhari had settled into the unenviable legacy of being the most disastrous elected leader in Nigerian history. He seemed content with leading a divisive administration in which Nigerians were divided along all conceivable lines. A worrisome North-South divide had emerged and was being furiously orchestrated by both Buhari devotees and their equally strident southern antagonists. A clamour for re-structuring of the country into a truly functional federation has gained currency. Even more sinister, a Christian-Moslem divide had been further weaponized by the unrelenting assaults of Boko Haram and the opportunistic criminality of fundamentalists and political zealots.

The onset of the coronavirus has reunified the nation against a common unseen enemy. In a National Assembly that is largely averse to issues- driven debate, the virus has forged a bipartisanship hitherto unseen on any national issue. The legislature has been frightened into a solidarity with the executive on any measure that would protect the nation against this virus. There is no certainty that this solidarity will survive the end of the virus threat. The unseen enemy may vanish with these intangible political benefits.

It is not just at the national federal level that the coronavirus has made a leadership proposition in Nigeria. At the sub-sovereign level of state administration, one state government out of the 36 and the Federal Capital Territory has emerged as an example of outstanding leadership in a time of crisis. Building upon the pioneer role of Lagos in the fight against the Ebola virus in 2013-2014, the current administration of Lagos state has stepped up to the plate. It has provided timely information on the virus, set up identifiable testing centers and isolation facilities.

It has created isolation wards in designated public hospitals with real time updated information on infections, admissions, discharges and contact tracing efforts while admitting its limitations. At a time when the nation’s borders are closed and airports are shut, Lagos has emerged as a decisive destination in the nation’s fight against the coronavirus by sheer dint of the quality of its political leadership.

Nigeria has joined the ranks of locked down republics. But the long term political and economic implications of the coronavirus emergency are brewing underneath the present silence of fear. Oil prices will rebound as the world economy recovers thereby assuaging the more dire economic predictions. But like most things in the Nigerian public place, the legacy of the coronavirus is likely to be political. The scramble for power in 2023 may just have found a single most memorable campaign subject.

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T H I S D AY, T H E S U N D AY N E W S PA P E R ˾ RIL 5, 2020

SPECIAL FOCUS ON LAGOS COVID-19

Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Professor Akin Abayomi (left); Head of Service, Hakeem Muri-Okunola; Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu; Director, Airport Operations, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Captain Murktar Muye; Station Manager, South Africa Embassy; Mrs. Joy Onyeadi and others, during an assessment of coronavirus screening procedure at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos… yesterday

COVID-19 and the HealingWand from Lagos While more cases of COVID-19 are still been recorded in Lagos State, the successful treatment of 23 persons from the Infectious Disease Centre in Yaba has given hope to many that the virus can be defeated. Martins Ifijeh takes a look at what the Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu led government is doing right that has resulted in the large discharge patients

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ver wondered how much of a death sentence COVID-19 has become in otherwise developed countries where casualties are recorded in thousands and several hundreds every day? Ever imagined how COVID-19 patients of those nations feel when they are diagnosed of the infection and what goes through their minds knowing they may not come out of it alive?

Well, for Lagos State, the epicenter of the disease outbreak in Nigeria, you should wonder no further. There is a magic wand at the Infectious Disease Centre, Yaba which ensures confirmed cases are discharged hale and hearty after their isolation and treatment journey.

At the last count, 23 former COVID-19 patients isolated and managed at the infectious disease centre in Lagos have gone home to their families and communities after their viral loads came back negative, which means the coronavirus infection is no longer in their body system.

To be clear, Lagos currently has 109 cases of the virus from the total 210 confirmed cases in Nigeria, and so far, 24 of the Lagos cases have come out with an outcome, that is 23 discharged patients and one death, while 85 confirmed cases are still being managed at the isolation centre by a team of healthcare workers under the supervision of the Lagos State and federal government through the their various ministries of health, and the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

While pundits say the preliminary success recorded in the management of the disease so far is as a result of

leadership by the Governor, Babajide SanwoOlu, other schools of thought believed it is a combination of factors, which include expertise of healthcare workers, early tracing of positive cases by the NCDC, their quick isolation and management, the experience of the commissioner for health who is actually a biosecurity expert and a virologist, and the cooperation of the patients and their family members.

Sanwo-Olu

Although the road to victory is still miles away, especially if epidemic timelines are to go by, one person who so far has shown leadership since the COVID-19 outbreak started in Nigeria on February 27 is Governor Sanwo-Olu, who upon confirmation of a case in the state, quickly assumed the position of Incident Commander on COVID-19 Response, pushing himself to the frontline.

Acknowledging that the most important intervention against epidemics is dissemination of information, he, along with the ministry of health commenced daily briefing, daily informing the 23 million Lagos residents on situation of things, what to do to prevent the disease, and how exact protocol to follow should residents presume they may have been infected; a move that both the NCDC and the Federal Ministry of Health, as well as other states have not done till date.

While initially reports suggest the state’s isolation centres were not 100 per cent habitable for COVID-19 patients, indications show they were even better equipment than Abuja and most other states, such that the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari had to request for an evacuation from the isolation centre in Abuja, the seat of power, to Lagos, apparently due to the difference in professional handling from the state; a move that could only be traced to leadership by the governor.

What is the governor doing right that other states, including Abuja must emulate if

the country must jointly win the war against the dreaded pandemic? On specifics, information dissemination, assembling best hands in the health sector, ensuring every sector, from finance, to education to security, all join forces together to defeat the pandemic.

Healthcare workers

All discharged patients who were willing to speak to the media were unanimous in one thing; that their lives were saved because of the professionalism of health workers. To be clear, they said the health workers do not only give them drugs, but shares informations on roles of each drug, why they must take them, and in general gave them hope.

Governor Sanwo-Olu at every point of discharge of patients often first acknowledge the role played by the health workers, who are putting their lives in the line of duty to save COVID-19 patients.

The virus is said to be highly contagious, but “Our health workers have been trained on giving their all to save those who needs care,” Dr. Abayomi had said during one of the interviews.

Abayomi

There is no better time to have a bio security expert and a virologist as the commissioner for health in Lagos State than now when the state has become the major burden of biosecurity challenge caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Abayomi who has spent most of his career years studying the concept of emerging infectious disease, the development of laboratory capacity in Africa, and the geographical variations

of disease patterns, is now in a terrain familiar to everything he has read and practiced for several decades.

Until his appointment as the Commissioner for Health in Lagos he was a Professor of Clinical Medicine at the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), Emeritus in the Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Stellenbosch in Cape Town, and Principal Investigator of the Global Emerging Pathogens Treatment Consortium or GET, which was established at the height of the Ebola Outbreak to address bio-security concerns in Africa While the road to victory is still long in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, time will tell if he will be able to bring his experience to bare in the total fight against COVID-19 when history of the outbreak is being written in the state.

NCDC

It is no longer news that one of the ways to defeating disease outbreaks of this magnitude is to timely identify, isolate and treat infected persons; an approach the NCDC has taken in Lagos State and many other states, which ensured most of the confirmed cases were identified on time, evacuated from their homes and taken to the infectious disease centre for onward management by health workers.

This, no doubt has helped many of the patients as their diseases were identified on time while treatment commenced.

With 85 COVID-19 patients still at the isolation centre in Lagos, it is only a matter of time to know if the state will truly win the fight against the scourge with fewer casualties.

THISDAY, THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ͽ˜ 2020

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SUNDAYSPORTS

Edited by: Demola Ojo email:Demola.ojo@thisdaylive.com

Premier League Stars Warn £500m Wage Cut Will Harm NHS

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he Professional Footballers’ Association yesterday said that proposals for a 30% pay cut for PremierLeagueplayerswouldbe detrimental to the UK’s National Health Service. The PFA also called on the league to increase its own £20m charity pledge.

The league wants players to take a 30% salary cut in order to protect jobs. amid the coronavirus pandemic. But the union says that equates to more than £500m in wage reductions, and a loss in tax contributions of more than £200m to the UK government.

The union also questioned Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s public criticism of footballers’ salaries during a news conference on Thursday.

“What effect does this loss of earning to the government mean for the NHS?” the statement read. “Was this considered in the Premier League proposal and did the Health Secretary factor this in when asking players to take a salary cut?”

The PFA said that all Premier League players “will play their part in making significant financial contributions in these unprecedented times”.

England manager Gareth Southgate is reported to have made such a gesture by agreeing a 30% pay cut, although the Football Association refused to comment when BBC Sport put it to the governing body.

Top-flight professionals have been coming under increasing pressure to take a drop in pay, especially with five Premier League clubs - Liverpool, Newcastle, Tottenham, Bournemouth and Norwich - now placing some non-playing staff on furlough leave under the Government’s coronavirus job retention scheme.

However, clubs themselves are understood to have financial concerns, with Burnley saying yesterdaytheyfaceashortfallof£50mifthePremier League season was not completed. Brighton chief executive Paul Barber, meanwhile, said on Friday that the Premier League is not ignoring the plight of the general population during the coronavirus pandemic.

The PFA statement came hours after a conference call with the Premier League and the League Managers’Association(LMA),themanagers’union, to discuss the wage cut plans. Yesterday’s call, which featured a Premier League presentation of the wage cut plans, was concluded in less than an hour with no agreement reached.

The Premier League is not mandated to make

Liverpool have a 25 pont lead at the top of the Premier League with nine games to go and need only two wins to be champions

a decision on wage cuts, as it has to be agreed by the players and coaches. Clubs and players are now set to discuss the plan, with talks set to go into next week.

As part of the proposals, the Premier League would advance £125m to the English Football League (EFL) and National League, and give £20m towards the NHS. The PFAsays it is happy to continue talks with the Premier League, although it added: “£20m is welcome, but we believe it could be far bigger.

“The EFL money is an advance. Importantly, it will aid cashflow in the immediate, but football needs to find a way to increase funding to the EFL

and non-league clubs in the long-term.

“Many clubs require an increase in funding just to survive. We believe in our football pyramid and againstresstheneedforsolidaritybetweenallclubs.

“Goingforward,weareworkingtogethertofind a solution which will be continually reviewed in order to assess the circumstance of the Covid-19 crisis.

“TheplayersaremindfulthatasPAYEemployees, the combined tax on their salaries is a significant contribution to funding essential public services - which are especially critical at this time.”

During yesterday’s conference call, the Premier League warned that it faces a £762m financial pen-

Bryant Inducted Into Hall of Fame Kobe Bryant will be posthumously inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.The five-time NBA champion died, aged 41, in a helicopter crash in January alongside his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others.

Los Angeles Lakers great Bryant retired in 2016; he was the NBA MostValuable Player in 2008, was Finals MVP twice and earned 18 All-Star selections. He was in the United States team that won Olympic gold in 2008 and 2012.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver said Bryant’s death was “unspeakable” and the league was keen to“honour”him.“Kobe

Bryant is synonymous with NBA All-Star and embodies the spirit of this global celebration of our game,”Silver said.

“He always relished the opportunity to compete with the best of the best and perform at the highest level for millions of fans around the world.”

Tim Duncan, a five-time NBA champion with the San Antonio Spurs, and Kevin Garnett, who helped the Boston Celtics win the championship in 2008, were also inducted into the Hall of Fame.

The Hall of Fame is named after Dr James Naismith, the Canadian physician who invented basketball

Bryant

Ecclestone: 2020 F1 Championship Should be Cancelled Bernie Ecclestone says this season’s Formula One championship should be cancelled because it appears unlikely that enough races can be completed for it to be valid due to the coronavirus crisis. The opening eight rounds of the 2020 season have been either cancelled or postponed, with doubts over a number of the other 14 races as the pandemic continues to overshadow the sporting calendar.

A minimum of eight races are required for the championship to be valid, but former F1 chief executive Ecclestone believes that will

not be possible.

“We should stop the championship this year and start again next year, hopefully, because I can’t see it’s going to be possible to get the right amount of races in that count for a championship,”the 89-year-old told BBC Radio.“There’s got to be eight from memory, and I can’t see them getting that in. It’s a difficult situation.”

Lewis Hamilton was this year aiming to match Michael Schumacher’s record of seven drivers’ titles, though there have been sug-

gestions a truncated season would diminish the achievement.

But Ecclestone, set to become a father for the fourth time, said: “I don’t think it will make a lot of difference to Lewis. He would win whatever the race number, whether it be eight, 16 or 20.

“If it’s a world championship and he wins, it would go on his record and say he has won a world championship. The terrible thing is he would win all eight races. It wouldn’t be a super championship.”

altyiftheseasondoesnotresume,andbroadcasters demand refunds on games they could not show.

It added that hundreds of millions of pounds couldbelostinsponsorshipandmatchdayrevenue because the season has been suspended, and that thecampaignwillalmostcertainlybeplayedbehind closed doors if it resumes.

SpeakingtoBBCRadio5LiveonFriday,England defender Danny Rose - on loan at Newcastle from Tottenham - said that Premier League players were keen to give up a portion of their wages to help good causes, but felt their “backs are against the wall” regarding the pressure they had faced to accept cuts.

FIFA Plans to Raise Age Limit for Olympic Men’s Football Fifa could raise the age limit for the men’s football tournament at next summer’s rearranged Olympic Games in Tokyo to 24 from 23.

The sport’s governing body has recommended moving the limit to accommodate players eligible for this year’s Games, which were postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic. Players born on or after 1 January 1997 will be allowed to play.

It is yet to be approved by the Fifa Bureau. The Bureau is a reduced version of Fifa’s decision-making Council.

The tournament is due to start before the opening ceremony on July 23, 2021.

Three allocated over-aged players will still be allowed to be selected for each nation. The women’s competition at next year’s Games has no age limit.

Meanwhile, Fifa has also recommended calling off all men’s and women’s international games scheduled for June 2020 because of the ongoing crisis.

Sunday April 5, 2020

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Price: N400

MISSILE Odinkalu on Management of COVID-19 Fund “Nigeria has a long history of mismanagement of funds for public health interventions, for which there was historically no accountability. Will it be different with #COVID-19” – A former Chairman of the Governing Council of the National Human Rights Commission, Dr Chidi Odinkalu while calling for accountability in the management of COVID-19 fund.

SIMONKOLAWOLE Human Race under Siege SIMONKOLAWOLELIVE!

simon.kolawole@thisdaylive.com, sms: 0805 500 1961

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his is one of the most profound statements about the human race you will ever come across: “We were all humans until race disconnected us, religion separated us, politics divided us and wealth classified us.” I don’t know the author (I’ve seen it attributed to Susan Boerner, the American artist) but I know one thing: as the entire world comes under attack from COVID-19, humanity is collectively in severe distress and disarray — irrespective of race, religion, class and ideology. We are all in panic mode. We are desperately looking for a solution and we don’t care the race or religion of who finds it. We do not have enough time to be analysing our artificial divides.

Have we ever seen any threat of this magnitude to the human race? Well, in fatality figures, COVID-19 is a non-starter. With 61,000 recorded deaths since December 2019, COVID-19 does not come anywhere near the worst plagues — yet. The Black Death, also called the Great Bubonic Plague, claimed no fewer than 75 million lives — possibly up to 200 million — from 1331 to 1353, a period of 22 years. The Spanish flu infected 500 million (about 25% of world population then) and killed at least 17 million from 1918 to 1920.

The bubonic pandemic, which started in China in 1855, killed 12 million — with India alone accounting for 10 million deaths. COVID-19 fatality figures are far behind.

But COVID-19 is slowly destroying the world in a different way. Has there ever been a time in world history when churches, mosques, synagogues and temples were closed at the same time? Has there been any other time when virtually all airports were closed to commercial flights? Has there been any other time when cinemas were shut down across the world? Has there been any other time when we stopped shaking hands? Has the world ever been under a lockdown? Has there been any other time when the rich and the poor, the mighty and the humble, the wise and the stupid, and the genius and the idiot are all running away from the same enemy, an unseen enemy?

In our judgment as human beings, our biggest threats are the terrorists who have held the world by the throat for decades, threatening to bomb us out of existence. In our estimation, our worst enemy is the climate change that could see the world disappear under pressure from ultra violet rays and seas of flood from the melting Polar ice. In our wisdom, our mortal enemy is the arsenal of nuclear weapons that the super powers have accumulated, enough to destroy our planet 10 times over — with plenty to spare. But here we are being chased by a virus that is not visible to the eye. God has indeed confounded the wisdom of the wise and frustrated the intelligence of the intelligent.

No, I am not saying God sent COVID-19 to punish or destroy the human race as some people have sensationally claimed. I am not theologically deep enough to confirm or disprove such claims. And I am not interested in eschatology — the study of the “end of the world”. That is not my problem. But I just keep wondering: with all the scientists in town, with all the health experts around, and with all the intelligence agencies in the world, how on earth did a virus travel unnoticed and unchallenged from Wuhan, China, to all the corners of the earth, killing thousands in

WHO DG, Dr. Ghebreyesus advanced societies such as the US, Italy and Spain? In the end, the best of human beings remain imperfect.

Will the world remain the same again after recovering from this devastating pandemic?

Again, we do not know yet. But, for now, we know economies are in ruins, jobs are disappearing, poverty is on the rise, and mental illnesses are piling up — across the world. We know that airlines are in a jangling turbulence, banks are battling with loan defaults, commodity prices are hitting the floor, factories are shutting down, exports of vital medications — such as paracetamol and insulin — are seriously hampered, and education at all levels is in the doldrums. I have no capacity to understand the implications of all these for the human race, but I can bet they will not be pretty.

Typically, when epidemics and natural disasters happen to the human race, they are limited to certain countries and regions.

The tsunamis, the cyclones, the hurricanes, the earthquakes and the epidemics happen at different times to different nations. We often think earthquakes and hurricanes are punishments from “God” for the sins of the Western world. We even gloat. Ebola, Yellow Fever, Malaria and Lassa are seen as Africa’s problems. We are often reminded of Africa’s poor and inadequate health systems and how far we are from civilisation anytime we experience these outbreaks. COVID-19 seems to have united everybody. Nobody can gloat or snigger.

In fact, the more advanced countries are bearing the pains more — so far. You see, no health system in the world was designed to handle this mini Armageddon. How many ventilators are there in the whole world? How many hospital beds does the whole world have? How many coronavirus test kits are there on a planet inhabited by seven billion souls? Even if we have all the ventilators, all the test kits, and all the hospital beds, do we have all the doctors and all the nurses to care for the infected? The brutal fact is that the world never thought it would ever experience a challenge of this magnitude and could never have been able to handle the monstrosity.

Humans are limited.

While the human race is running helterskelter over COVID-19, there are so many

things we don’t know yet. We do not know when it will peak. We do not know when it will end. For the infections to stop, we will either develop immunity to the virus after it has killed a significant number or we produce a vaccine. At best, we will find a cure. After all, we are containing other viruses such as HIV and hepatitis. However, when will the virus be incapacitated? In six weeks? In six months? In six years? We do not know. We can only hope — and even pray — that a solution is found soon before the human race is decimated again. We are not sure of when.

We are humans. We are limited.

What will be the consequences of the virus on the human body in the long run? We still do not know. Will those who have been infected and cured remain cured forever? We don’t know. In two years, or maybe five years, studies will provide more answers. Even though an overwhelming majority of the fatalities are the elderly and the sick, we still do not know why younger people are not being affected so much. And do we know whether their own infections are only building up to result in some other ailments in the future? We do not know. We have no way of knowing — for now. We are limited. Let us just treat what we know and worry about other things later.

Still, we take solace in the fact that the other coronaviruses that ravaged the world in the past came to an end in due season. The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) appeared in November 2002 in the Guangdong province of southern China. There were 8,098 cases and 774 deaths in 29 countries and territories but it disappeared in July 2003. The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) showed up in Saudi Arabia in June 2012 and by 2019, it had killed 912 of the 2,494 known cases.

The soothing conclusion we can come to is: “This too shall pass.” It is not as if we have plenty options apart from hope — as scientists struggle to put COVID-19 in check.

I dare say the causality aside, this situation is worse than the World Wars. There were known and seen enemies. The antagonists and protagonists could sit down and discuss. They had names and faces. There were meetings and conferences and treaties signed. In the worst case scenario, one side surrendered and we moved on. You can negotiate an end to war; Germany signed the armistice in 1918 and World War 1 ended. You can force an end to a war, as the US did by dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 during World War 2. How are we going to kill COVID-19 before it kills us? There is nobody to negotiate with and there are no peace treaties to sign.

My hope is that because the world is more advanced today than it was when the bubonic plagues ravaged the world, we will be more effective in slowing the spread of the novel coronavirus and eventually containing it before it gets to a stage that it can wipe out most of the world’s population. The whole world is eagerly waiting for the manifestation of the ultimate solution to the virus that has put the human race under siege. We are seeing the futility of bigotry, racism and chauvinism as we search for solutions. As the philosopher said, we were all humans until race disconnected us, religion separated us, politics divided us and wealth classified us. But will COVID-19 re-humanise us?

And Four Other Things...

SALUTING SANWO-OLU We have our different definitions of leadership, but there is one I love with all my soul: “Leadership is rising to the occasion when the occasion arises.”

Governor Jide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos state has been under severe scrutiny since he came into office in May 2019, with many people declaring him “missing”.

But you will agree with me that he has really been at the forefront of the war against COVID-19 and has been rallying his “troops” commendably. He definitely has not dropped the ball. Prof Akin Abayomi, the commissioner for health, has also been terrific. He’s a gem. Most importantly, I appreciate the frontline health professionals risking their lives day and night. Kudos!

LOCKDOWN DOWNSIDE Two weeks before President Muhammadu Buhari put Lagos, FCT and Ogun under lockdown as part of measures to tackle the spread of COVID-19, I had been practising it — sort of. But it is easy for me: I can afford to stock my food store, I have a spacious accommodation and I have virtually uninterrupted power supply, supplemented with inverter and generator. But I feel privileged. Most Nigerians live from hand to mouth. They are badly affected. It is a good thing that palliatives are being shared out, and this must be done conscientiously. In the end, we have to choose between sacrificing our freedoms to stay alive and getting swarmed by the coronavirus. Realities.

THOSE COVID-19 STATS How many COVID-19 cases do we have in the world today? How many have died?

How many have recovered? The truth be told: nobody knows. We say one million “confirmed” cases based on those tested.

There are millions yet to be tested. How many have died? Nobody knows. It is only those who died at health facilities that we know. How many have recovered? We don’t know. Many will not have symptoms at all even though they are positive. Many will have only mild symptoms and treat them without even knowing they had COVID-19. Such data will go under the radar. In summary, therefore, please keep safe. The statistics cannot tell the entire story. Caution.

CORONAVIRUS ‘TRIBUNAL’ Akwa Ibom has astonishingly rejected the five confirmed COVID-19 cases in the state. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) had announced the new cases but Dr Dominic Ukpong, Akwa Ibom commissioner for health, debunked it, saying the positive cases were not showing symptoms (very strange that any commissioner, much less a doctor, does not know that COVID-19 could be asymptomatic) and that “due process” was not followed in reporting the test results. As someone noted, are we now dealing with election results in which one party will reject the outcome and drag NCDC to the tribunal? I don’t understand what Akwa Ibom is trying to do. Baffling.

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