The politics of palliatives…Insecurity: From Abaribe to Nothern Elders & Youths - Ik Muo, PhD.

‘For those who have not had Covid, or witnessed the mess it leaves behind, again, I urge you, do whatever you can to avoid this tornado.It will roar through the body -- kill some on the way -- injure all in its path -- and then when you think "well, thank God that's gone," look around, the damage is strewn everywhere and will be with you long after the crisis has passed. Covid is a tornado with a very long tail’ This is an evidence-based  advice from the irrepressible Richard Quest of CNN. He has been through it and is currently suffering from the aftermath and he says: Do all you CAN to avoid it. He who has ears, let him hear!( Mt,11:15)

 Beyond that and before we delve into the main dish for today, the spirit has laid it in my heart to share with you some sundry Coro-related developments.  In the first instance, Russia has just completed human trials for a Coro vaccine, which proved to be safe and effective, according to  Chief Researcher at the Centre for Clinical Research on Medications, Sechenov University, Russia, Elena Smolyarchuk. Secondly, Donald Trump, the author and finisher of Trumpocracy, has adorned a face mask for the first time. All along, he has been acting contrary to what he has been preaching. I hope our own oga at the top here will follow suite.

 Thirdly, Nigeria has  produced its home-made test kit and according to The DG of National Biotechnology Development Agency, Prof. Alex Akpa, the RNASwift Extraction kit will expand our testing capacity and reduce test cost by over 500%. Testing costs about N50400 but according to a recent punch Report private laboratories charge additional sundry fees  that raise it to between N60,000 to N100,000. Furthermore,  there is this disturbing and unfortunate report that many Coro patients reject their test results, in Jesus name! According to  Dr O Ogumbiyi, a psychiatrist and member of LASG Psychosocial Support Group for Coro patients,  people whose tested positive resorted to cursing health workers, rejecting the outcomes in the name of God and probably adding ‘it is not my portion’.

There is nothing that our Big God cannot do but He has also empowered us with intellectual and material resources  to manage our health. I am not an adjudicator in the court of Heaven but I believe that people who endanger their lives through this mindset will answer for it when that inevitable time comes. Finally Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State and his family 

as well as Gov Akeredolu of Ondo State  have now tested negative for Coro. I also rejoice with one of my personal-persons in Asaba who also survived the Coro-scare. This shows that Coro is real and that it is NOT a death sentence

 Now, to the real thing for today.  ‘Palliative’ is one of the new terms and practices that emerged from our largely cut and paste approach to the management of Coro.  The word is not ‘new as in new’ but it has recently taken a new and life-and-death importance. During the war, we had another term for it: relief! The more organized nations, who knew and know what they want, who know the number of people they have, whose economies are formal and data based, believed that lock-up, luck-in or lockdown are key to the war against Coro. And because they are conscious of their responsibilities to their people and know that failure and  to do so has severe consequences, they therefore designed  programmes to supply their people with the necessities( and at times even beyond the basics) so as to be locked up  so that the coro-spirit would pass over them. They paid handsome cash into their accounts, dropped food( + tea items, fruits and drinks) at their doorsteps, placed cooked  food at bus stops and other strategic locations so that those who are hungry could pick and  arranged with doctors to provide non-coro medications for the people.

 In Nigeria, we do not know how many we are; we do not know what we want; those in government are rather tokenistic and do not believe that they owe much duty to the people, they will rather fleece the people   at any slighted opportunity to satisfy their gluttonous greed; most of the economy is informal and underground and most of our people were by the fireside before the harmattan season came. Yet, we locked up and to follow their footsteps, we initiated   a palliative programme or rather, something that looked like it. Two recent stories show how we managed and mismanaged the palliatives and how it was difficult for those who needed it to benefit.

The acting Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission  the latest sure-bet casino in town, Kemebradikumo Pondei, has just disclosed  how the NDDC spent N1.5bn on palliatives to the staff who are regularly paid their salaries and allowances.

In the palliative bonanza, somebody allegedly received N10m, I51 staff received between N3m-N7m , 650people received N1m-1.5m while the ‘hoi pol-loi’ among them received a ‘paltry’ N600,000 apiece! It is as written in the Book:For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance (Mt, 13:12a); but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.

As this story was trending the women with disabilities lamented their exclusion from palliative distribution and that they had been ignored  in designing the interventions. At a new-normal meeting(virtual) with BON and sponsored by Urgent Fund-Africa,  one Mrs Udoka  explained that her share of   N1m palliative from Ebonyi State  for the disabled was N1500 and that the cost of transportation to collect the palliative was much more than  the palliative itself  especially as she had to go with a guide. Her case was even ‘better’ because others did not receive a farthing! And so the second part of that Biblical quotation comes in handy ‘but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him’.( MT, 13:12b).When ne spends N4500 to collect N1500, has what she has not been taken from here?( To be continued)

Other Matters: Insecurity, From Abaribe to Nothern Elders to Northern Youths

On January 29yh this year, Senator Abaribe bemoaned our worrisome insecurity environment and hit the nail on the head by calling on the President to resign because when you want to deal with a matter, you go to the head and because everything rises and falls on  leadership.  The Senate President cautioned him against hate speech while the presidency described him as ‘armchair critic, known for making stray comments, who unlocked the door to enable the escape of traitorous and treasonable suspects’ who should have been behind bars.(Ik Muo, Abaribe, na you biko1&2. February 2020).                                                                                            

A lot has happened on the security front since that punchy Abaribe Declaration. In February 2020, the Coalition of Concerned Northern Youths  reviewed the security situation and called on PMB to resign  because he had fared worse than Jonathan. They declared that PMB had ‘woefully failed to secure the lives of Nigerians due to probably lack of will, commitment or competence’ and that Nigeria was on the route to Somalianisation. It was around the same time that Bishop Kukah declared,  with reference to insecurity and at the burial of  the murdered seminarian, Michael Nnadi  in Kaduna (11/2/20) that ‘our years of hypocrisy, duplicity, fabricated integrity, false piety, empty morality, fraud and pharessesm have caught up with us’.  About that time, the Chief of Army Staff, General Buratai had declared  we had defeated insurgency but faced the challenges of terrorism (12/2/20)and that contrary to peoples demands, the  sacking of service chiefs would not end the Boko haram onslaught or  general insecurity in the nation.  The Secretary to the Government of the Federation also declared that the Service Chiefs would not be sacked. On 12/2/20,  the President, in company of  defence minister, the National Security Adviser, the governors of Imo and Cross River states among others was booed in Maiduguri when he went on condolence/solidarity visit over BH attacks. Garba Shehu explained some politicians  mobilized and monetized some miscreants to boo his principal. 

PMB and Maiduguri Youths

In the same February, an all-out war ensued between the National Security Adviser, Babagana Mngono and late Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari  over latter’s meddlesomeness in national security matters. The President also advised Kastina residents not to return fire-for-fire on the bandits because it would lead to counter attacks and warned them against self help ( 17/2/20).

 In the same February 2020, the Northern Elders Forum  demanded ‘thorough overhaul of the leadership of our security and public safety agencies and injection of higher levels of competence, integrity and accountability in the manner our  security agencies deal with security challenges’. Within the same period, the Boko Haram terrorists attacked the Chibok  community again just as they invaded and burnt churches, hospitals and vehicles in Adamawa and burnt down a Military Base in Dapchi. As that  was happening, the Inspector General of Police informed us that the police force needed  at least, 250,000  more assault raffles, 1000 APCs and 774 drones while the US offered N2.5bn for information on Abubakar Shekau. The BH rascals also organized a successful bloody ambush in which we lost about 50 soldiers.  From Boko-Haram, we move on to ‘Bandits’ who stormed a church and kidnapped Pastor Genesis Zaka and other worshippers at Rafi LGA of Niger State ( 5/3/20)and thereafter stormed some Southern Kaduna communities, killed 51, and rendered the community desolate(6/3/20). It was in reaction to the last incident that Governor Rufai appeared to have agreed with the Northern Elders, when he visited the ransacked community and  in an unusual penitential spirit, apologised to the people. ’as those that have been placed in a position of leadership, the responsibility for protecting these people rests squarely on my shoulders and those of my colleagues. I also came to apologise for my failure to fully protect them.” There were also protests against killings all over the country and then, the Ohaneze Ndigbo issued a  strongly worded statement to the effect that: Ndiigbo will not fold their arms & let outsiders harass, rape, maim and kill them in their own homes!

And then, the northern elders and youths, who started from where Abaribe left off  came back again( next week)

- Ik Muo, PhD. Department of Business Administration, OOU, Ago-Iwoye. 08033026625