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KADUNA KILLINGS: BEYOND EL RUFAI’S APOLOGY?

by Ayo Olukotun

“I also came to apologize for failure to protect you fully. We are doing our best to minimize such incidents. You should continue to forgive us” – Mallam Nasir El Rufai, Daily Trust, Thursday, March 2, 2020.

 

Although it carries a tinge of political correctness, there is something refreshingly urbane, touchingly compassionate and caring about the governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El Rufai’s apology to villagers in Karawa and its neighbourhood, in the aftermath of the massacre if 51 people by bandits last week. True, apologies, Truth and Reconciliation commissions, Restitutions and the like are now a part of an emergent global therapeutic culture, but they are yet to take root in Nigeria, where hardly anybody says sorry for any omission or commission. Our streets reek with a low brow, uncivil culture in which the best way to provoke a fight is to ask someone who drives offensively, to apologize or show remorse. On one occasion, on an oppressively hot Lagos afternoon, I watched a car driver berate an elderly gentleman, whose car he nearly bashed by trying to overtake dangerously. Upon the gentleman complaining, the much younger driver hollered in a husky voice, the unprintable abuse, ko ni da fun yalaya e (it shall not be well with the generation of your mothers), and sped off. We have carried this culture of abuse into public life, buoyed up by the overlay of authoritarian rule, the warped mindset that power and money are all that matter in life, and the oversize ego of arriviste public officials. Our politicians talk down to us, do not take responsibility for woeful governance, do not share or show empathy for the bleeding veins of a mismanaged nation, and are often discourteous. It is against this background that one finds El Rufai’s apology to the villagers who had lost kith and kin as well as property a welcome departure from the unfeeling norm of failing to even acknowledge, much less sympathize with the depressing plight of Nigerians. That said, we can raise the question whether El Rufai should have been the one tendering the apology, or whether it should have come from one of the service chiefs, or from the Commander-in-Chief, that is the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), on whose table, the buck stops. This question is asked in the light of the fact that under the 1999 Constitution (as amended), security institutions do not answer to the governors but to the Commander-in-Chief, in which case, he ought to have been the one visiting the afflicted villages, or at the very least, the Vice-president.

In instances where people have been hurt, traumatized, apologies serve the purpose of mollifying griefs, providing consolation and fellow feeling. But they ought to be coming from the right quarters, otherwise, they carry a twinge of inappropriateness. Besides apologies, even when they come from the right quarters, is the issue of whether the source of grievance is being vigorously tackled or redressed. In this instance, it is gratifying to note that after the killings, there was a spectacular display of aerial and ground firepower by combined contingents of soldiers fighting on land and members of the Air force. The pity, however, is that much of the harm to lives and property had been done, in which case, the response came too late to avert the massacre. That was not the only problem. The memory of bombardment and captivity go far back, but in recent times, it should be recalled that in October last year, roving bandits surrounded about 16 villages in the same vicinity, and compelled the villagers to relocate or face extinction. Consequently, thousands of them were displaced from their own lands. In February this year, 21 people were killed in yet another attack by bandits. In those circumstances, it is pertinent to ask whether what was required was just an apology, nice as it sounds, or fundamental assurance that the Federal Government will follow by rigorous action of a preventive and proactive nature. That is another way of saying that the repetitive, drastic and overwhelming nature of the calamities require sustained action, demonstration of official force that will show that these are not a people sentenced to death, which even if they escape one day, will sooner than later, catch up with them.

Obviously, and as been pointed out in the conversation on national insecurity, one of the key weapons is intelligence gathering which contains the potential to reveal impending attacks, and if taken seriously, ought to lead to counter-mobilization to avert them. Undoubtedly, there are other issues involved considering that there are cases where villagers send distress calls concerning hovering raids, but in which, reportedly, no action is taken until disaster actually overtakes them. This suggests that intelligence gathering, however sophisticated, does not exhaust all the issues involved. We cannot rule out sabotage, low morale, weak fire power, obsolete equipment, among other things that tend to disable an otherwise valiant force. Consequently, there must be a plan to reinvent our response to the scourge, as well as create elite forces as special purpose vehicles, to roll back the advancing army. We are not the only country to have combatted banditry and insurgency; several countries in Latin America did, so we do not need to reinvent the wheel, but to copy their productive and victorious templates.

One other disconnect mentioned by The Nation columnist, Femi Orebe, is the divorce between military and police action, and scholarly research, citing the example of an academic study conducted on banditry in Zamfara state. Orebe drew attention to the lament of the scholars that no government official has ever asked them, or shown interest in their research. I’m sure much the same thing can be said for states like Kaduna, which is fast repeating the trajectory of banditry in Zamfara and Katsina states. In other countries, where similar problems predominate, governments or state departments consider it their duties to sponsor researches, the fruits of which will be harvested in years to come. But if our governments and security institutions do not show interest in privately funded researches, they are unlikely to appreciate researches funded by them. This is a problem with a wider background, but pointing up the difference between security organizations with an intellectual culture, and one that merely boasts educational qualifications. In one Latin American country, researchers within the security apparatus had arrived at broadly similar conclusions with the intellectual left, by which I mean, democratic socialists based in the universities and elsewhere. Those findings became the basis of social reforms later introduced by a left-leaning government. Left or Right, the point is that a counter-insurgency or counter-banditry war cannot be won on a hit or miss basis, or on assumptions not grounded in evidence-based research. The point, therefore, is to close the gap between strategic thinking and field operations in the current campaign.

In conclusion, El Rufai’s apology points to the possibility of politicians that care about the people’s travails and take the social contract seriously. Much more than that is needed to turn the tide in what is virtually becoming an endemic and unwinnable war.

-     Prof. Ayo Olukotun is the Oba (Dr.) Sikiru Adetona Chair of Governance, Department of Political Science, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye.

[Ayo Olukotun]

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SANUSI: THE REFORMER'S CROSS IN AN ILLIBERAL DEMOCRACY

 

by Ayo Olukotun

The dethronement and banishment to Nassarawa State of Muhammad Sanusi II, until a few days ago, the Emir of Kano, threw up all over the image of an all-powerful, illiberal state, barely restrained by law, good conscience or traditions of civility. Had the government of Kano State found a way to accommodate the stature and outspoken views of Sanusi, a public intellectual, it would have validated its conception as a liberal, subnational polity, tolerant of opposition, plural in character, as envisaged by the 1999 Constitution (as amended). But Kano failed to see the bigger picture and possibilities of deepening its democracy, falling, thereby, to the short-term victories of autocrats in democratic garbs.

 

Recall the famous words of Evelyn Beatrice Hall, "I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death, your right to say it". Isn't this the kind of leeway and lever that signpost true liberalism? Great institutions understand the power of inclusiveness, as well as tolerance of dissent, and diversity. Oxford and Cambridge Universities could hire Leftist, even Marxist scholars such as Terry Eagleton, a towering figure of the Western intellectual world, while Massachusetts Institute of Technology could boast of having on its staff, the maverick, radical scholar, Noam Chomsky, arguably the most cited scholar on the globe. The difference between the Kano and Kaduna state governments is that friendship ties between Sanusi and El Rufai aside, the latter, by offering the deposed Emir, two prestigious appointments in 24 hours, is displaying insight into human capital management and the proper deployment of originality.

 

It is a shame that the Kano state government, or whoever is responsible for the banishment, had to excavate a colonial practice in order to deal with a Nigerian citizen in 2020. Sanusi, it was reported by The Punch on Thursday, is under the surveillance of 40 security men in a remote section of Northern Nigeria. Isn't there a touch of sadism on top of the waste of human talent in all of this drama? After the long years of military rule, and two decades of democratic practice, shouldn't Kano state and Nigeria have outgrown the habit of subjecting opponents to the torture of state power and arbitrariness?

 

Sanusi's profile as an interlocutor and public activist are too well known to require recapitulation, but suffice it to say that they span his career as governor of the Central Bank, and the Emirate of Kano. At the Central Bank, thunderous revelations about corruption on the part of the President Goodluck Jonathan administration, not only cost him his job but went a long way to delegitimize Jonathan. Upon becoming Emir, he chose not to remain silent or to bury himself in the coziness of official largesse, which he could easily have done, but rather chose the path of employing royalty to mainstream burning national issues. To give an example, barely a year into the presidency of Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), Sanusi issued a warning that unless care was taken, Buhari would end up like Jonathan did. As this columnist saw it at the time, the idea was that, if Buhari and Northern Nigeria had waited and fought this long for 'their turn' at the Presidency, then, it ought not to be business as usual, but a marked departure from the familiar rollercoaster governance.

 

Furthermore, his passion for the plight of Northern Nigeria came through in the several public speeches he made, drawing attention to worsening poverty, educational backwardness, spreading insurgency and banditry, among other issues. I should like to think that there was an attempt here to resurrect the tradition of the Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello, who was not only an able administrator, but a public thinker. To narrate Sanusi this way does not mean that he was without blemish; nobody is. In my piece, "Lamido Sanusi: The uproar against Sanusinomics" (The Punch, Friday, December 7, 2012), I suggested the need for the then Governor of Central Bank, to think through and contextualize some of his prescriptions, such as job layoffs, as well as narrow the gap between his vision of utopia and lived practices. So, we are not dealing with a saint, as several commentators have observed, but with someone, who in spite of his frailties, has excitingly widened the discourse space, mainstreaming several topics that the nation should be busy pondering.

 

It is instructive that when it comes to the show of power, our governors and elected officials move the apparatus of the state to achieve their goals in a hurry. Somnolent institutions suddenly wake up to work at breakneck speed, and a system that is normally laggard, comes to life to achieve desired ends. Sadly, however, the goals are narrow, trivial and ego-driven. One would have wished that such tremendous energy was put to the task of state-building and developmental activities that touch the lives of the majority of citizens. For example, it would be interesting to know how many genuine cases of corruption had been expeditiously dealt with by the Kano State Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission, which in the wake of Sanusi's deposition, had vowed to continue with an alleged N2.2 billion land scam attributed to the former Emir. Indeed, considering what the Nigerian public knows about corruption in that State, there is an aspect of farce about the anti-corruption policies of that particular institution. So, we are back to the riddle whereby partisanship, hero-worship, and the cult of the political leader take precedence over broader issues of governance, such as unemployment, provision of decent infrastructure, and tackling insecurity.

 

The endless feuds and power games that take place at both Federal and State levels may delight factions of the political elites whose fortunes are affected by these never-ending games, however, Nigerians will be much happier and more comfortable if far more attention is paid to their worsening plight and much less to the long knives and triumphalist jeers that obsess a diminutive tribe of politicians. To be sure, there is a fairly lengthy list of monarchs that have been deposed by Nigeria's power-hungry and arbitrary rulers, nonetheless, the circumstances surrounding this particular deposition constitute an amazing display of cruelty and attempts to get even with a perceived opponent. It is a pity too, that the various efforts to broker peace between the governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, and Sanusi, involving such eminent persons as the Vice-president, Prof. Yemi Osibanjo, Aliko Dangote, and former head of state, Gen. Abdulsalam Abubakar, eventually came to naught, as the crisis defied the reconciliatory initiatives. This does not say very much for our capacity as a nation, for constructive engagement in matters that require adjudication and conflict resolution. It is also a manifestation of the persistent syndrome, whereby, politics and hyper-partisanship trump governance and statecraft.

 

It would be interesting to watch how the drama, which may not end quickly, unfolds, as the battle shifts to the courtroom, in an effort to get justice for a highly placed citizen, whose rights and freedom have been drastically curtailed. Going forward, Nigerians should consider ways by which civil society and constitutional innovations can mitigate the arrogance of power, of our state governors, and the utter helplessness and racketeering of our state assemblies, which have been reduced to echo chambers of the whims and caprices of successive governors.

[Ayo Olukotun]

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FAILURE TO PLAN: A NATION'S TRAGIC FLAW

by Ayo Olukotun

 

"If oil prices plummet to pre-2016 levels, Nigeria would be in clear danger of entering another recession" – World Bank Economic Update on Nigeria, Jumpstarting Inclusive Growth, Unlocking the Productive Potential of Nigeria's People and Resource Endowments, December 2019.

 

"Frailty, thy name is woman", William Shakespeare, with a tinge of gender blindness, famously wrote in Hamlet, one of his better-known plays. The aphorism was created in the context of a woman's frailty, feebleness, inconstancy and incontinence. Consider, however, the larger canvas of the entire human condition afflicted by frailty, flux, rapid change and the kind of vicissitudes that render the best military arsenal ineffective. The ravages of Coronavirus have virtually shut down the entire globe, and humbled nations, not minding their stage of scientific advancement or civilization. It has also raised questions and brought into focus, the state of preparedness of various health sectors across countries.

So far, Nigeria, with a weak health sector, has been riding the tide, setting up collaborative institutions, putting out information, and calming nerves, if we exempt the President, Major Gen. Muhammadu Buhari's (retd), slowness in addressing the nation to build up the level of confidence. Beyond these, however, there are deeper issues, pointing to our tardiness and lack of adequate preparation for emergencies like these. Frightening, for example, is the report making the rounds that the death of a Septuagenarian in Enugu, who passed on despite testing negative to COVID-19, is partly a result of the lack of facilities at the isolation centre of the government-owned Colliery Hospital.  According to the deceased's daughter who petitioned the state governor, "After the death of my mother, finding a workable stretcher to move her body was impossible! You will expect any hospital to provide basic facilities such as a stretcher – My mother's body was carried into an ambulance on a wretched tool" (The Punch, Thursday, March 19, 2020). The petitioner went on to add that the isolation of her mother and consequent negligence by health professionals, in a dilapidated section of the hospital, contributed to her death. To this distressing picture, add the recent information that test kits for COVID-19 are not available in many parts of the country, suggesting that the very first step towards establishing the presence or absence of the disease has not been taken.

A lot had been written about the state of our hospitals and promises had been made to ameliorate them, but pretty little has been done in this regard. A related lacuna underpinning our lack of preparation for emergencies is the exposure of medical personnel to viral infections because of failure to adequately equip health institutions. For example, the death of two doctors in Bauchi state recently, due to Lassa fever, has been attributed to such exposure. God forbid that the current contagion of COVID-19 should reach upscale proportions in a country like ours. Were that to happen, it would test severely, the soft underbelly of our healthcare sector which the politicians do not even bother to use for themselves or their families. Perhaps, the current rage of epidemics will teach the lesson to the political elite that they would need to fund and upgrade our abandoned hospitals strewn across the country.

Health, though extremely vital, is not the only area where the lack of planning before emergencies occur is beginning to show. As the opening quote sourced from the World Bank indicates, the economy continues to be vulnerable to commodity downswings because of its over-reliance on the volatility of oil in the world market. Having trudged through the harsh recession of 2016, also due to oil price crash, it should have been opportune to build buffers against a repetition of that experience. But here we are, in the wake of a drastic decline in the price of oil, building scenarios when the emergency had already occurred. You do not build scenarios when tragedy has struck but well before it so that worst cases can be averted. Even our annual budgets do not incorporate alternative scenarios apart from references to the oil price benchmark. Worse still, between the last recession and today, the government has been run like a running feast with the customary appointments of serial advisers, advisers to advisers, or assistants to special assistants.

Was it not only a few months ago that we were debating the propriety, even justice, of a 37 billion Naira renovation of the National Assembly complex? At that point, our legislators were irritated that we lesser mortals dared to question the wisdom of spending such a hefty amount for that purpose, while some of them lashed out at their critics or even called them names. A few months before then, we had debated the purchase of SUVs for Senators costing 5.5 billion Naira without winning the debate because the Senators insisted that we didn't have our thinking caps on.

The profligacy of the National Assembly is a metaphor of the financial recklessness of an entire political elite which does not save for the rainy day. One of my history teachers back in the days used to narrate how the Russian state under Joseph Stalin saved itself from extinction during the Second World War by a programme of industrialization and arms buildup that enabled it to survive the attacks of Nazi Germany and its allies. The space between the two world wars was a mere two decades but the Russian leader employed that opportunity to force through an economic development programme that saved his nation from being wiped off the map of history. Unfortunately, we hardly see these days, many of our politicians rising to the occasion, to lead us in the direction where we ought to be headed. So, after every recession with their traumatic harvest of soaring unemployment, deepening poverty and economic dislocations, we simply thank our stars, hang on until the next oil boom and resume business as usual. That is why for example, apart from repetitive borrowing, the country has drawn down its Excess Crude Account which ought to normally have been the buffer in uncertain times like we now face. This has been the unhappy pattern in successive leadership changes with no political leader demonstrating the ability to make a turnaround in values, attitudes, and policies. As matters stand, the warning delivered by the World Bank appears ready to happen since little or no action was taken to stem the tide of a windfall or bonanza culture of governmental spending. Experts are predicting a rough time for the country as oil prices continue to deteriorate to a 30-year low. Adversity will of course force some changes on us. It would have been better, however, if we did not wait for its onset before preparing for the next economic war. For the states, the scenario might even be worse than the bailouts of two or three years ago, undertaken by a distressed federal government.

It is too early to compute all the ramifications of the current health and economic downturn. What is certain, however, is that there is an urgent need to bring heavily down, the cost of governance, an often repeated policy objective but hardly implemented, empower vulnerable citizens by lowering taxes for small and medium scale enterprises, as well as rein in the loose spending habits of our political culture.

_ Prof. Ayo Olukotun is the Oba (Dr.) Sikiru Adetona Chair of Governance, Department of Political Science, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye.

[Ayo Olukotun]

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RESEARCH OUTPUT GESTATING ON DUSTY SHELVES

Ayo Olukotun

Our research findings, papers and journals are now only useful for us to get promotion. All our theses and findings are dumped in the shelves, some thrown into the dustbin afterwards” - Prof. ‘Feyisipe Adegoke, Nigerian Tribune, Friday, 20th March 2020.

One of our academics, a female Professor of Physiology at the University of Lagos, quoted in the opening paragraph, complained recently, that many of our scholarly research findings are either wasting away on dusty shelves or emptied into bins. Adegoke has raised a fundamental issue which touches upon our national research culture, research uptake and down take, research integrity, as well as the role of think tanks, advocacy, and the synergy, or lack of it, between government, industry, and the academy. One of the questions to ask is whether our universities have a thriving research culture, and the cognate presence of research communities that discuss, refine, evaluate and replicate research.

I ask this question because, since a tree does not make a forest, it would be extremely difficult for one individual academic to expect that his or her lone research findings would be earth-shaking enough to both influence governmental policy and become a topic for discussion in the media and civil society. At any rate, most academic researches and papers are insulated from the wider public by heavy handed academic register and dense language that make them inaccessible to a wider audience. This, of course, is not a problem peculiar to Nigeria, but is found also, in the interfaces of academy and the wider society in advanced societies. So, it is easier for academic papers to attract promotion, which, in any case, is the primary reason they are produced, than for them to enter the policy arena, or provide grist for animated discussion in the media. Perhaps, it is out of a sense of frustration with the long process it takes for even the best research to become public property that our researchers have created a Nigerian bypass for announcing the outcome of their researches in the media without having gone through the expected verification and ascertaining procedures that may take years. Of course, there is the question, too, of research integrity which speaks to the quality, accreditation standards, and verification of research results centered around their publication in the best journals, where the scientific community as a whole can take them up. Undoubtedly, there has been an erosion of standards, for close to three decades, in the Nigerian academy, for a host of reasons which connect poor funding, declining competence, the shortage or lack of ancillary facilities such as libraries, laboratories, Information Technology, among others. 

Obviously, once the decay has set in, it tends to reproduce itself until it becomes a structured disability which further conditions the academic enterprise. A simple example will illustrate the problem. A Nigerian scholar who publishes in a globally acclaimed outlet may discover to his chagrin, that no one else in his department has read his article because the journal or outlet is not subscribed to by the University library, and also because no one else has taken interest to learn about the research output, except at promotion seasons, when the head of department is required to assess the work. So, we have here, the torpor of the academic community itself, the retrogression of the excellent standards that once obtained in our universities, as well as the fatigue that has set in because of persistent underfunding and undervaluation of research. There is another side of the coin, however, even if the output of research, which according to Adegoke, are now jettisoned in bins, were impeccable, the issue of getting them to policy corridors, which Dr Obadiah Mailafia recently described as philistine, is a problematic one. A colleague said to me, on one occasion, that if I wanted to interest Nigerian politicians and policymakers in a policy recommendation, I should make sure that it does not exceed half a page, or at most, one page. Including buttressing statistics and data in such a submission will be a waste of time as it is unlikely to be read. This brings us then to the 30-second overgeneralization in which complex arguments and nuanced discourse are reduced to their most banal common denominator so that they can escape the yawns or bored sighs of policy makers.

Nobody, as far as I know, has done any serious research on the intellectual culture of government in Nigeria, inferences can be made, nonetheless, from the absence of think tanks in governmental circles, the yoking of discourse in these circles to what is politically acceptable or correct, and the predictably poor quality of debate in some of the highest policy making arena. This is not to say that there are no informed intellectuals and occasionally first-rate scholars in government, but rather to suggest that what comes through, too often, is little different from the unresearched clamour in the market place. A former colleague, who once had occasion to stumble upon a discussion of an important national issue, at the highest levels of government, in what was supposed to be a brainstorming session, later exclaimed to me that “If this is how policy is formulated or arrived at, then there is hardly any hope for this country!”, Have you noticed that even the best of our politicians would rather keep the company of businessmen, contractors, and wheeler dealers than of our intellectuals? Gone are the days, it would seem, when an Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikiwe or Ahmadu Bello, assembled the best and brightest to advise, debate or canvass informed opinions on some of the policies they were contemplating.

Several years ago, on this very page, I brought forward the question, “What does President Jonathan Read?” (The Punch, Friday, 21st December 2012). Clearly, and in the light of the arguments raised at the time, another article is waiting to be written entitled, ‘What does our current President, Major Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd), read?’ It is well known, for example, that United States Presidents have official reading list of books, and some of their most successful presidents, Roosevelt, Kennedy, and Obama were voracious readers, in and out office. Considering the low brow intellectual culture of governance, the theses and researches coming from our universities, are not likely to be sought after in a hurry by our politicians and policymakers.

One way of closing, or at least lessening the gown and town gap, is for our researchers to focus some of the time on the kind of applied research that speaks directly to national or global emergencies, such as the Ebola and COVID-19 pandemics. In this way, they can ensure visibility, at least in times of crises, when the nation turns to them for answers to problems that intimidate them. Our academics can also get the same results if a tripartite synergy is created between government, industry and the universities cum research institutions. If such fora are created, a by no means easy task, it may make it easier for research findings to be disseminated upwards, into governmental sphere, and downwards, into business, civil society and the media.

Finally, such an aspiration will also require the building of a National Research Infrastructure for the purpose of research into perennial issues that downgrade the human condition.

Prof. Ayo Olukotun, Ph.D. is the Oba (Dr) Sikiru Adetona Professorial Chair of Governance, Department of Political Science, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye

[Ayo Olukotun]

Noel.                                                       Thanks for your response My column essays are written for the Punch easily Nigeria's preeminent   . newspaper.I have kept it going for 8 years now and should like to think that the newspaper still considers me an asset                                        . .if my pieces bore you.by the way you have often disagreed with them.why not simply delete them or request that they be no longer sent to you ?  I consider myself a public intellectual and have reasons to remain in that turf.no matter the number of calculatedly disparaging remarks I receive.                                 Prof Ayo Olukotun

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On Sat, 28 Mar 2020 at 7:02, Noel Ihebuzor

<noel.i...@gmail.com> wrote:

What precisely does Ayo write on? Who does he write for? Why these tired and tiring articles?

[Ayo Olukotun]

Thanks Prof for your kind words.so fragile is the hour that I wished we didn't get to all this One word and I am done

I have written about.the pandemic twice in three weeks The newspaper is not a public health journal it must cater to diverse topics. I thank all those who have responded.on line as well as offline in.affectonate disclosure. .                 As we said in Great Ife  Let the struggle continue.    .                           Prof Olukotun

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On Sat, 28 Mar 2020 at 14:47, Hassan Saliu

<hassans...@gmail.com> wrote:

You needed not to have reacted the way you have done. Every author/ columnist has the right to choose the issues he wants to write on whether topical/relevance or not. To that extent, you were in order to have written on the topic that caught your fancy. We, the readers too have our rights to either agree or not on the choice of the topics you have written on. I personally felt that you should have written on the pandemic ravaging the world especially the response level by the Nigerian state. I also felt that the submission should have been built more around how the neglect of research has made the fire bridgade approach being adopted by the state in managing covid 19 not to be effective. Having said that, you need to be circumspect in your future responses. At best, you could have ignored the observations. Recall that on some occasions, I have been put on the spot on this platform but instead of going overboard, I gently explained myself and that ended the matters. As for our other friend, Nuel, I think you should have kept your observations to yourself as it is not compusory for you to always agree with Olukotun. I do that most times on this platform. 

[Ayo Olukotun]

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CORONAVIRUS: THE LOCKDOWN AND AFTER

 

Ayo Olukotun

 

Suddenly, and after a confusing lull, government at the centre stirred itself into a flurry of activities to step down and control the escalating spread of the dreaded COVID-19. The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd) finally addressed the nation, broached the introduction of social cushions, and announced a lockdown to begin almost right away for Lagos, Ogun and the Federal Capital Territory. Ogun State succeeded in renegotiating the onset of shutdown, shifting it by a few days, but Lagos, the epicenter of the pandemic and FCT, Abuja commenced theirs the day after Buhari’s broadcast, with not enough time to prepare for the accompanying deprivations and fall outs.

 

Considering that most of the states were already in varying degrees of shutdown, enough time ought to have been given to Lagos and FCT to prepare for the total lockdown that was imposed with less than 30 hours interval from the President’s broadcast. Issues have been raised by some lawyers, as well as Noble Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, about the legal aspect of the lockdown, posing the question, whether the President has the constitutional right to shut down the states in a federal system; the arguments have raged back and forth. What is important, however, is that while nobody disputes the necessity of stern actions, the method and sequencing of their implementation would appear to have needed further thought. Characteristically, policy is made on the hoof, tending to complicate the scarcity and availability of resources, with which to prosecute the battle. For example, the dire shortage of isolation centres, ventilators, and test kits is beginning to matter, making the exercise look like a hand to mouth affair. More importantly, the health personnel who called off a looming strike in deference to the overriding circumstance of a pandemic continue to complain, nonetheless, of abject neglect. Speaking on national television, on Wednesday, an official of the National Association of Resident Doctors, Dr Aliyu Sokomba, regretted the dire neglect of medical personnel, which has resulted in the death of several of them, because of the shortage of protective equipment and a disgracefully low amount being paid to them as hazard allowance. Unknown to most Nigerians, far more people have died from Lassa Fever than from COVID-19, which mercifully, has only claimed two lives so far, as against close to 180 for Lassa Fever. In other words, because of the persistent neglect of the health sector, symptomised by low budgeting, year after year, we came quite unprepared for the battle, depending on good old luck and the expectation that the pandemic will not bite deep into the national soul.

 

True, the reliefs introduced by both the State and Federal Governments, will go some way in alleviating the distress of the most vulnerable, among whom the brunt of the lockdown will be most felt. However, they look more like afterthoughts, considering that they ought to have been in place before the lockdown was announced. Furthermore, considering our status as the poverty capital of the world, it is not entirely clear, what percentage of the poor and desperately poor the ameliorative package will eventually reach. There are other problems. In a country, which according the United Nations has an housing shortage of about 22 million units, many of what passes for home are ramshackle starved of basic amenities, and are incubators for diseases. In this context, those kids who have taken to playing football on the streets around their dwelling places may simply be escaping, so to say, a sit at home order, in a situation where the home itself is an overcrowded shack. Bear in mind too, that the fitful and wobbly supply of electricity could not have made staying at home, a pleasurable option. More importantly, is a crisis of survival for many in the informal sector, who eke out a living by going to hustle on a daily basis, in the urban, as well as rural settings.

 

The protests and audible murmurs against the lockdown derive mainly from the narrow survival chances among this sector of the populace. The subsequent revision of the guidelines for the lockdown, which for example, allows markets to be open for a few hours every other day, is in the right direction. Understandably, there is a policy dilemma involved in instituting such measures as these. Perhaps, had more time been taken to study the implications, the bite of the lockdown, which is still in its early stages, may not have been this deep.  Perhaps, emphasis should be laid on the protective and preventive dimensions rather than the kind of lockdown that so much resembles a clampdown. A little more slackening of the guidelines and an increase in relief measures will, in my view, do no harm.

 

AWUJALE’S DIAMOND ANNIVERSARY

As a rule, this columnist has often refrained from public comments on the Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba (Dr.) Sikiru Kayode Adetona, easily, one of the most revered monarchs in this country. The reason for my reticence on this score is related to my position as the pioneer occupant of a Professorial Chair endowed by the monarch, hoping thereby to avoid an allegation of incestuous commentary. However, it is extremely difficult, on this occasion of reaching 60 years on the throne and still counting, not to say a word or two. Obviously, in a country where life expectancy falls short of five decades, spending six decades as paramount ruler is itself exceptional. What is even more unusual is for such a tenure to be bedecked with achievements spanning the areas of poverty alleviation, institution building, educational advancement, and perhaps more importantly, moral capital, which allows him to speak truth to power, and to counsel with impartiality and sagely insight.

 

One of his legacies, certain to endure, is the creation and nurturing to global reckoning of the Ijebu Development Initiative on Poverty Reduction, which has frontally tackled and reduced unemployment, by creating jobs and entrepreneurial activities on an industrial scale. The delightful puzzle about the institution is its phenomenal growth from a seed money of N500, 000 to one, which a few years ago, had generated over N100, 000,000 a decade ago, and benefitted at least five thousand people, conservatively estimated. This speaks without doubt to the capacity to mobilize resources and engage the power of creative fundraising, volunteering action and leveraging on regberegbe, the age-grade associations, for which Ijebus are famous. Obviously, breaking new grounds in educational development is another feature closely associated the monarch. The institution of a Professorial Chair in Governance, likely to dovetail into an Institute of Governance speaks eloquently to this dimension. What is noteworthy here is not the sheer size of the endowment but the fact that, up to date, and as a result of outstanding managerial acumen, only the interest of the endowment is being employed to run it.

 

Sitting down to parley with Kabiyesi, when the opportunity arises, is an intellectually stimulating occasion laden with wit, sharp ripostes, and the ability to narrate historical events with accuracy, and educational interface itself. Here is someone, therefore, who has elevated the Chieftaincy institution in Nigeria to unaccustomed grandeur, not merely by material wealth, but by intellectual and moral fortitude. Here is wishing Kabiyesi many more years of an eventful reign.

 

-          Prof. Ayo Olukotun, Ph.D. is the Oba (Dr) Sikiru Adetona Professorial Chair of Governance, Department of Political Science, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye

 

[Michael Afolayan]

Professor Olukotun:

I join you to felicitate with the monarch of monarchs, Oba (Dr.) Sikiru Adetona. In an age when royal thrones are fraught with apparent frauds, erroneous rituals, blatant dishonesties, abuse of power, assaults on culture, and flagrant desecration of sacred norms and values, here is one throne to be held in awe, a beckon of hope to humanity, and a lightning rod to everything that is good in the Yoruba sacred institution of Obaship. Happy Diamond Jubilee to a worthy Kabiyesi!

Michael O. Afoláyan 

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[Michael Afolayan]

"beacon" not *beckon, please!

MOA

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/1503441689.86032.1585890831062%40mail.yahoo.com.

[Ayo Olukotun]

Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

----- Forwarded message -----

From: "Oluwatobiloba Daniel ADEWUNMI" <odaad...@gmail.com>

To: "Prof . Ayo Olukotun" <Ayo_ol...@yahoo.com>

Cc:

Sent: Thu, 9 Apr 2020 at 14:59

Subject: Prof. Olukotun's Column

CORONAVIRUS AND OUR SELF DESTRUCTIVE INDISCIPLINE

 

Ayo Olukotun

 

“In one of the densest cities (in Hong Kong), many have voluntarily socially distanced themselves, with some even avoiding Lunar New Year gatherings, the equivalent of skipping Christmas events” – Helier Cheung, BBC News, 21^st March, 2020

 

Discipline, the act of regulating behaviour or conduct, of conforming to norms and values, sometimes through sanctions, is ultimately the social glue that holds civilizations together. As senior journalist with the British Broadcasting Corporation, Helier Cheung, makes clear in the opening quote, the citizens of Hong Kong took steps to self-isolate, with little official prompting in the wake of the dreaded and ravaging COVID-19. Several countries, especially on the continent of Asia, and to a lesser extent, in the West, brought to bear on their responses to the pandemic, an ingrained disciplinary outlook, that was ultimately life saving and redemptive.

 

As a nation, discipline has never been our forte or strong point; even in the face of clear danger and looming death, indiscipline and lawlessness remain rampant. Both leaders and followers are implicated in this drama of self-binding disorder and lawlessness. For example, talking first about the leadership, was it not strange that at a time when the borders ought to have been closed, and entry to and exit from the country discouraged, many of our leaders chose to go around the globe with some of them, falling prey to COVID-19? In the executive, as well as in the legislature, several Nigerians made overseas trips when the handwriting on the wall was already clear concerning the hazards of such undertakings. Were we a country with solid or passable health infrastructure, such transgressions would not have seemed so drastic, but with a fragile health sector which most of our leaders do not use, more attention ought to have been paid to prevention rather than the current inevitable emphasis on remedial measures after the horse has bolted from the stable. In other words, we are paying a price for our dithering and ineffective response at the early stage of the global crisis, a price, which a little more discipline and thoughtful attention could have avoided. The followers are no less culpable to the extent that nearly everyday, there are reports of people violating regulations and restrictions, while the pandemic rages on. For example, earlier this week, in Ebonyi and Kaduna states, nine Pastors were arrested for holding Church services with predictably large crowds despite the warnings of the authorities. One would have thought that after the escapade of the South Korean church leader, Lee Man-hee, against whom municipal authorities in Seoul were going to file murder charges for the rapid spread of Coronavirus among his members, other Pastors would have learnt their lessons. Sadly, however, this appears not to be the case. In the same connection, Imams in some states around the country have continued to violate the ban on Friday prayers, while in at least one State, pressure has been put on the State government, to lift the ban. What harm would it have done, considering the intensely personal nature of true religion to have waited for the ebbing of the current viral assault to resume full scale religious activities?

 

It’s not just religion or the religious that is on trial. The tragicomic travails of Nollywood actress, Funke Akindele and her spouse, who decided to advertise on social media, a birthday party that could have been postponed, is another indication, their so-called repentance notwithstanding, of just how prepared societal leaders are, to complicate their own lives and those of others. It is one thing to break the rules in an emergency, it is quite another to tell the whole world, ‘Hey, look here, we’re breaking the rules and there is no consequence attached to our conduct!’ If one had to violate restrictions, it should have been for the purpose of saving lives, but to do it just for the fun of it, certainly goes beyond the pale, hence the valid retribution attached to their misconduct. If these were not scary enough, the recent incident, whereby a patient, who eventually passed on, was smuggled with the connivance of a top consultant, into the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, sends jitters down our spines. As narrated, Prof. Alakija Salami assisted in concealing the status of the late Obanimomo, who recently returned from the United Kingdom, as well as facilitated his admission into the hospital. Following the death and burial of the deceased, the consultant had been suspended, with 28 health workers isolated, and 74 contacts traced by the hospital. As several commentators, including the Kwara state governor, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, have pointed out, what is the point of concealment of the status of the patient, considering that Coronavirus is not a death sentence? What these and other cases like it show is that even the knowledgeable, will for whatever reasons, conspire at nullifying regulations where self-interest is concerned.

 

Almost everyday, new cases are coming to light, of those who have doctored or failed to reveal their travel history, for fear of stigmatization, or of being hauled into incommodious environments, in the name of isolation. Given the uncertainty and relative scientific backwardness that surrounds the pandemic, it would been healthier for the country, if there were not so many violations of the precautions put in place to prevent a surge. To be sure, there are issues about a lock down which does not take sufficient cognizance of the imposed work-a-day culture of those living on the fringe of survival in the informal sector, however, in a matter of life and death, as this obviously is, one ought to think twice before opening the floodgates to unbridled social interaction. Obviously, in vulnerable democracies, such as ours, and where leaders wish to remain popular rather than effective, it is easy to be driven by the herd and to throw away restrictions. Nonetheless, the fact that some countries are experiencing a second wave of the pandemic after hastily declaring victory should serve as a cautionary tale against undisciplined and claptrap letting down of one’s guard. Consequently, we may wish to take our disciplinary cues from those countries in Asia where discipline, in the sense of fidelity to rules and norms, have become a way of life. Mark you, discipline doesn’t just happen, it has to be inculcated through socialization processes, mentoring, and where necessary, the whiplash of retribution.

 

As a society, we have given very little thought to discipline and order. Too often, when rules are made, those who make the rules will be the first to create waivers for themselves and their kinsmen. No country that wishes to ascend the ladder of modernity can continue in the groove where indiscipline has landed us. It should be edifying to reflect on how the countries of East Asia made it to First World status, not just by creating developmental states, but by nurturing a citizenry, through a mixture of sanctions and rewards that bought into the vision of transformational leaders.

 

It is interesting that today, much of the world is looking with envy at China, not the least for the relative ease with which, through discipline and the use of technology, it overcame the mortal challenge of COVID-19. To win in this and other battles, Nigeria must place renewed accent on the power of discipline.

[Ayo Olukotun]

Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

----- Forwarded message -----

From: "Anthony Asiwaju" <tonya...@gmail.com>

To: "ayo_ol...@yahoo.com" <ayo_ol...@yahoo.com>

Cc:

Sent: Sat, 11 Apr 2020 at 7:31

Subject: Re: Fw: Prof. Olukotun's Column

Thank you, Ayo, for this characteristically pungent piece, focused this week on the matter of the moment: covid19 and Nigerian indiscipline.

 As things are with individuals, like me, the blanket style of brutalizing police enforcement of the shutdown in many places makes no allowance for monitoring compliance by law-abiding citizens, talk less about rewarding them; and I am not talking about the ongoing highly politicised distribution of the largess by States and the Federal Government.

I returned from the US on March 16 to the warm embrace of my daughter and her loving and caring family resident in a magnificent Estate in Lagos; and, though my personal wish was to proceed straight home in Imeko via Abeokuta, Ogun State, I yielded to persuasion to stay on in Lagos where I law-abidingly went into the advisory 14-day self-quarantine in an existing self-contained  modest apartment that all my children had assisted me to have in the same estate as my daughter's family home. 

The fourteen-day self-quarantine successfully passed including a meticulously observed, even if extremely disturbing, social distancing even from my daughter and family, only for Lagos State and FG to order the ongoing  shutdown on Lagos and Ogun for another two weeks in the first instance!

In spite of the caring by my daughter and her husband, together with my delightful growing up children also home on the Covid19 Stay-at-home order, Imeko remains home; and a serious homesickness is threatening in place of a feared virus infection that the Good Lord, my God of Passover, Has evidently Distanced and, indeed, Taken away from me and all of you so dear to my heart!

How  I wished for a provision in the Sit-at-home enforcement, that permits a certification of the law-abiding, especially the elderly, and allow for them to move and change the environment from base of a protracted self-quarantine, if and when they can provide proof of a clear bill of health and freedom from any cause for Covid19 hospital admission.

Again, thanks for a lucid and thoughtful piece, as usual.

[Ayo Olukotun]

Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

----- Forwarded message -----

From: "Oluwatobiloba Daniel ADEWUNMI" <odaad...@gmail.com>

To: "Prof . Ayo Olukotun" <Ayo_ol...@yahoo.com>

Cc:

Sent: Thu, 16 Apr 2020 at 14:06

Subject: Prof. Olukotun's Column

CORONAVIRUS AND A TALE OF TWO HEALTH SECTORS

 

Ayo Olukotun

 

            “I can’t thank them (staff of the National Health Service, St. Thomas Hospital, London) enough. I owe them my life” – British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson on discharge from hospital on Saturday, 11th April 2020.

 

            “Most of our responses to the COVID-19 crisis can be likened to making ammunition at the war front or to change the metaphor, icing a rotten cake, a rotten health sector” – Prof. Oyewale Tomori, Virologist and former President, Nigerian Academy of Science on Channels Television, 16th April 2020.

 

For a country that is used to its leaders’ medical tourism at the slightest excuse, there must be something arresting about seeing the Prime Minister of another country, in this case, Britain’s Boris Johnson, pay glowing tributes to its public health workers for saving his life from the dreaded Coronavirus. As many Nigerians have quipped in this season, were COVID-19 a peculiarly African pandemic, by now, our politicians would have long left our shores in search of therapies in the countries of Europe and the United States, where they perennially go for medical checkups. This time around, however, the disease is not only transnational, but is more acutely felt with accompanying fatalities in the Western countries, meaning that there is no room to escape the mess of an orphaned Nigerian health sector.  Had the British not also built a competent world class public health sector, its Prime Minister may well have succumbed to a disease, which, in his country, had claimed over 10,000 lives. His enthusiastic endorsement of St. Thomas Hospital in London, quoted in the opening paragraph is a ringing tribute to the capability of institutions that work. Johnson’s fiancée, Carry Simons, equally waxed lyrical when she tweeted, ‘I cannot thank our magnificent NHS enough. The staff at St. Thomas Hospital has been incredible”.

 

Workers in health and other sectors that go beyond the call of duty to carry out their brief are obviously well motivated, and enjoy the privilege of working with up-to-date equipment and ancillary facilities. This is a far cry from the picture of our health institutions, painted by Prof. Tomori in the opening quote where he compares our admittedly stirring efforts to an army that is manufacturing weapons on the battlefield.  As this writer recently argued in 'Failure to Plan: A Nation's Tragic Flaw' (The Punch, 19th March, 2020), the best that you can do when trouble has landed in your terrain is contingency planning, which is often hurried, slap-dash and reactive. True planning should have started long before an emergency or the onset of tragedy. So, what Tomori was hinting at is that we had the time to have built a solid health sector, instead of putting up with a decrepit one. This is not to downplay the heroic travails of our medical personnel battling COVID-19, with several of them, paying the ultimate price for that battle. For example, only on Wednesday, the nation lost to the epidemic, a 51-year old doctor at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, one of several. It is not just that, medical experts have warned concerning our very low and relatively slow testing capacity, partly as a result of the shortage of equipment. So, in contrast to South Africa, which had tested over 80,000 of its citizens and Ghana, 38,000, Nigeria had only tested, as at last weekend, 5,000. What these figures imply is that we really do not know how many Nigerians have the disease because of the limited sample that we are using. 

This apart, the status of the health infrastructure, reportedly one of the worst in the word, constitutes a setback to a country whose planning strategy is muddling through and returning to business as usual after each crisis is over. What we have on our hands, therefore, currently, has been documented as, 'an increase in man-hour without any commensurate remuneration, poor transportation system to convey health workers to and from work, shortage of protective gear, and low worker welfare' (The Punch, Monday, 13th April, 2020). To be sure, the Ministry of Health has assured that it is looking into all these issues with a view to rectifying the lapses; the question can be asked, however, whether those things should not have been in place if we were a battle ready and battle tested people. To go back to the British case, the NHS which translates virtually free medical service for all British citizens, high and low, was one of the pillars of a welfare state created by that country in the aftermath of the Second World War. In spite of its weaknesses, such as long waiting lists, it is one of those public sector creations, of which the British are, justifiably, proud. Please bear in mind that, according to the Nigerian Medical Association, there are close to 45,000 Nigeria-trained doctors who work in the NHS. Since some of these health workers also consult for British private hospitals, it suggests that some of our top politicians are sometimes treated in Britain by Nigerian doctors, who have escaped, the horrible working conditions into which successive, uncaring governments have consigned them. Bear in mind, too, that medical tourism to Britain and other countries by 30 thousand rich Nigerians has been estimated to cost the country 1 billion dollars annually, a figure generated by the Ministry of Health in 2019. What this boils down to is that the success and persistence of the NHS is attributable to a significant extent, to Nigerian health workers, fleeing the discomfort at home, and indirectly to the subsidy of the British health system by Nigerian politicians who will not touch Nigerian hospitals with a long pole.

In this wise, the narrative is no longer, the classic saga in which, 'Europe underdevelops Africa', but of Nigerian elites sentencing to prolonged decay, their own heritage by putting the money to another country's health sector. True, in an age of globalisation, the migration of professionals, is, to an extent, inevitable. It is even more so in the health sector, where a medical qualification is almost the equivalent of an overseas passport or visa. 7 out of 10 Nigerian doctors are merely bidding their time in what has become an increasingly dysfunctional and underfunded health system. This is not about politics now, but about the failure of governance across political parties with drastic effects on a nation slowly been auctioned for sale by its own leaders. This plague will come and go, the important thing is whether we will draw the right lessons from the inability of our political leaders to make escape routes regarding their own health, while leaving the citizenry in the lurch of a health system that does not work.

This columnist is in support of those who are now advocating that there should be a moratorium on medical tourism for elected officials and top bureaucrats. Such a policy can compel them to pay more attention to the doldrums of our health institutions. That apart, we can also leverage on the enormous human and material resources in the diaspora to build excellent medical facilities comparable to what obtains around the globe.

Finally, we must reverse, urgently, the decay of medical and pharmaceutical research so that our nation can be located, once again, on the global map of medical inventions.