Politics is ideally about the acquisition and application of
power for the public good. Over the years, people have converted it into the
acquisition of power for personal and parochial interest. The fact that we are
still receiving ‘dividends’ from Abacha-Investments, 22 years after his death
attests to this. We also have organisational politics, which is perceived
mostly in the negative, even though there are some inherent positives in it . ‘Political’ is a derivative from politics,
which is about everything that applies
to politics. Of late, the term ‘political’ has been reconfigured to mean
any views and actions by an
interested party. So, if I defend the interest of Ndi Igbo, ASUU, the Catholic Church or Anambra State, the first interpretation is
that I am being political, and that is even if what I have said and done is as
obvious as 1+1=2!
Everything in Nigeria is
dressed in the political garb, even though at times, some of them are done
jocularly. Last week, there was a post in the ubiquitous and tyrannical social media that even in the COVID cases, South East is
marginalised. This is because, as in almost everything, it had the least of
COVIDious active cases. As at the date of that post,( 29/4/20) the
spread was SW-965;NW-191;
NC/FCT:174;NE:137; SS,57; SE-8. When I asked why South West/ Lagos took the first position instead of North
West/Kastina, I was told to just ‘wait and see’ and following developments in
Kano, I am already seeing. So I decided to look at various strange and weird
happenings in the coro front from a political prism. But as I as preparing a background to the study, I found that there is also a coro-politics in the global
arena and that is how decided to take it from there first.
I will start from the elephant in the room; no, the bull in the
china shop, which is what America has become since the onset of Trumpocracy
(Democracy as defined and practiced by Trump). As the entire world is being decapacitated by Coro, Trump believed
it was the best time to incapacitate WHO, which is the Commander in Chief of the anti-COVID
forces, by strangulating it financially. This action, which Andrew Gawthorpe of
The Guardian( 15/4/20) describes as an ‘extraordinary
act of moral abdication and international vandalism’, undertaken because of ‘self destructive nationalism’,
was all about China, the greatest frenemy of the US.
He accused WHO of being pro-China, putting
political correctness above life -saving measures and being a piper who is playing the tunes dictated
by another person other than the sponsor( US being the biggest WHO funder. It is all about Sino-US multipartite war. Even within the US, the
same politics was at play. Democrat
Senator Leah describes Trumps action as ‘cutting
off ammunition to an ally as the enemy closes in". The House Oversight Committee, sees the anti-WHO utterances by Trump as
reflecting an ‘astonishing level of
hypocrisy’. Meanwhile, Trump had declared that Coro was a strategy by China to scuttle his reelection
campaign and his party is designing their entire political campaign around China. What can be
more political than this?
Earlier on (26/3/20), Kashish Parapiani of the Observer Research Foundation, zeroed in
on the Trumpian politicization of the whole pandemics as a boost for his
reelection campaign, exploiting it as an ‘opportunity to actualise the ‘America
First’ agenda vis-à-vis China, Mexico and Iran’. In 2016,
Trump capitalized on the business and blue collar displeasure against
globalization, from which China ‘over-benefitted’ and now, he also wants to use
the China Virus as an opportunity to build his campaign once more around
China. He also continues to tighten the noose against Mexico (with only 2271 deaths as against the US, the global epicenter) through his suspicious
border control measures, as well as against Iran, by more sanctions, which have
adversely affected Iranian management of the pandemics. All these are aimed at
boosting his Ameirco-Centric policies,
building on existing socioeconomic anxieties
and promotion of his reelection.
Meanwhile, Abraham Weintraub, Brazilian Minister of Education joined the fray, saying that the Covid-19 was a part of Chinese plan for world domination, a view that got China outraged to the extent of demanding official explanation from Brazil.
Yohanes Sulaimanan, an
Indonesian academic and political
analyst unequivocally sees Indonesia as an example of how politics, personal
rivalries, and social media, dominated by partisan buzzers
have cause havoc in the Covid19 crisis
management. While other governments were
issuing travelling advisories, Indonesian Government was promoting its tourism, to which it committed
Rp72bn,($4.77m) just to pay ‘influencers’. So, while others were closing and
barricading their doors, President Widodo ( of the Indonesian Democratic Party
of Struggle)widely opened his own doors, advertised this openness and
downplayed the rampaging COVID crises.
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Our doors are WIDE open
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This was because ‘the issue is heavily politicised as opposition politicians and ambitious
individuals are seen as having seized the opportunity to score political points
against the government’. Thus while
Governor Anie Basweden of Jakarta( Independent /opposition) was speaking and acting against Coro, pro-
Widodo elements sought to undermine his efforts, which they
interpreted as a strategy to boost his
chances for reelection in 2022 and running for president in 2024 by undermining
the public’s trust towards Jokowi.
So, it is COVID-19; it is also politics. But there is some sense in the madness because
everything is being done strategically. Next week, if Oga-Coro agrees, we shall
x-ray the political dynamics of Coro management in Nigeria.
Other Matters: KITA,
by-fire-by- force and the Management of
Covidity:
One of the things for which we remember Buhari’s first coming
was War Against Indiscipline( WAI). It was a militarized process of FORCING
people to be disciplined. We all learnt, or we pretended to have learnt, how to queue. I believe it was good for us
but we had no choice.
Queuing appeared to have become an inseparable part of our
lives. However as soon as GMB was kicked out by his friends (I am sure he would
have muttered ‘Et tu, Brute?’), the practice died irretrievably. It died because it was not ingrained into our
culture; it was punishment-based. A few
years ago, Nigeria introduced the cashless policy. It was a wonderful policy,
beneficial to all the stakeholders. But again, its implementation was
punishment based: Nigerians were and are
punished for depositing, withdrawing and
spending their money. Not much was said about the benefits of going cashless.
And so, people obey, not because they want to obey but because they are coerced
to obey! And this is in an environment
where our Vice President was sharing trader-monie cash to traders while the ‘Ministeress’
of Disaster Management, was sharing raw cash to the lucky few the other day.
And they did not maintain any distance;
social or physical!
Now, we are here again. As
a prelude to ‘gradual easing’ of
internecine lockdown, the PTF issued some guidelines and ‘enforceable
actions’: Mandatory use of facemasks,
provision of handwashing facilities, and temperature checks; prohibition
of interstate travels and public gathering of more than 20.
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Face-mask
compliant Nigerians
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| Social distance compliant Nigerians! |
I declare once more
that people are never FORCED to change because people convinced against
their wills are of the same opinion still (Dale Carnegie/ Samuel
Butler). The war against COVID19 is all about social change; it is about
attitudinal and behavioural changes.
Washing of hands, physical distancing, and new coughing and sneezing
methods, are behavioural issues that
cannot be commanded. People should be persuaded and convinced with provable
doses of WIIIFM(What Is In It For Me).
When people are convinced about the benefits of these behaviours, they will
‘repent’ because it is in their own best interest. If people were persuaded as to
why they should stay at home, they would not have shared spaces with goats and
allowed themselves to be containerized just to break the travel ban or stormed
the banks in such intimidating numbers on the first day of the easing. It is
also this order-from-above attitude that has boldened security men who have
killed and brutalized many in the name of enforcement. Face-mask has suddenly become an agent of death
globally: an ordinary security man who killed somebody over facemask at Onitsha;
another tailor killed his colleague over facemask in Sangotedo area of Lagos just as Sharmel
Teague family( father, wife and son) murdered a guard
in Michgan over the same facemask.
However, we are used to orders-is-orders. That was how and why the Minister of
Education ORDERED the universities to migrate to online delivery. Just like
that!!!
Already, the PTF is bemoaning the failure of its easing
strategy: no physical distancing, no face masks, and poor spatial arrangement
in busses. It should be expected.
And on top of this by-fire-by-force strategy, they would just
stay in the comfort of their homes and
situation room and issue orders,
without minding the affordability of some elements of these orders. They should
learn from the Professor-Governor of
Cross River State,
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Ayade, distributing facemasks
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who ordered the wearing of facemasks, and provided the
facemasks to everybody arguing “I can not, at this difficult moment when you are asking people
to stay at home, also task them to put on masks at a cost. We as a government
have to find a way to reduce the burden on the people. One more time, KITA does not work with human beings.
Persuasion, involving inducement and WIIIFM, is the way out. I have made this argument in the case of
cashless policy, which involves massive behavioral change and that argument still holds( See:Ik Muo (
2019). Strategic Options for Nigerias Cashless Policy. Journal of Research in
Management & Development,17(1), June).
Our people say that ending up in the mat is usually preceded
by negotiation and persuasion. We have know-what,
know-how and know-why.
We are humans because we ask WHY. The greatest factor in human
motivation is know-why. When people understand the WHY, they
become willing participants in the process. People MUST be told persuasively
WHY they must do some of these strange things. It is indeed strange to order me
not to embrace my ‘wife’(includes every woman married in my kindred) if I met
her in the market square and not to shake hands with my class mate when we meet
at church. Those in charge must humbly come down from their high horses and
explain WHY, including the resulting benefits. Then, we take it from there. I have
spoken!
- Ik Muo, PhD. Department of Business
Administration, Olabisi Onabanjo University. Ago-Iwoye
Interesting read.
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