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Tuesday, November 5, 2024

Opinion

How The Lagos State Government Demolished Houses Of Low-Income Earners In Mosafejo-Oworonshoki, Forced Over Seven Thousand People Into Homelessness

Sanyaolu Juwon
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How The Lagos State Government Demolished Houses Of Low-Income Earners In Mosafejo-Oworonshoki, Forced Over Seven Thousand People Into Homelessness

In a sudden turn of events, piles of wreckage became the only remnants of what used to be homes to over 7,000 people, women, and children. Places of worship, churches, mosques, including schools, and businesses were not spared.

After the state government unexpectedly carried out repeated building demolitions in June without prior notice, the residents of Mosafejo-Oworonshoki, a low-income residential community, were forcibly displaced and left to endure immense hardship.

Oworonshoki, located in the Kosofe region of Lagos in southwest Nigeria, predominantly consists of low-income residential properties and is home to over 170,000 people.

Over the past two decades, the Lagos government has torn down various shanties located near the lagoon in order to make space for the rich to construct lavish residences. Low-income communities in Otodogbame, Ilubirin, and Makoko had been earlier victims. However, poor residents of Mosafejo-Oworonshoki became the newest victims of the prevalent forced evictions in Lagos.

Worthy of note is that the affected communities neither received warnings nor prior notice from any government ministry pre-informing them of a possible demolition or that their houses were erected on illegal sites. Many of these people had been residing in these communities for more than four decades.

Since the unfortunate incident occurred, many residents have been forced to live in open shelters and makeshift accommodations, leaving them at the mercy of dangerous animals, harsh weather conditions, and death. No less than five infant deaths have been recorded. Women and girls forced to live under these abject conditions do so at the risk of physical attacks, abuse, and rape.

Picture of demolished site at the Mosafejo-Oworonshoki community
The demolished low-income community in Mosafejo-Oworonshoki, Lagos. Credit: Durotimi Dawodu

Needless to say, the provision of security, welfare, and shelter is integral to the fundamental aims and objectives of government. For many years now, the Lagos State government has failed woefully to meet these objectives.

According to a report by Business Day newspaper, Lagos accounts for about 5 million out of a total of 18 million housing deficits in Nigeria. This implies that the so-called commercial center of the country accounts for more than 31% of the total housing deficit in the country. Rather than increasing the already embarrassing statistics of homelessness in the state through thoughtless demolitions, the state should be massively investing in low-cost housing projects.

Unfortunately, the regime is deliberately throwing more than seven thousand of its citizens to the street at a time the country is grappling with an unprecedented level of hardship occasioned by the astronomical increase in the price of energy, including fuel and gas.

The inflation rate is at over 27%, and the cost of food and commodities has increased astronomically, with a wave of fee hikes hitting our various tertiary institutions, forcing thousands of young people out of school. These challenges in themselves are more than bad, as they have forced millions of Nigerians out of social existence; forcing them out of their houses into the streets should not be the priority of the government.

Notably, the affected communities and civil society organizations have organized campaigns and protest actions, calling on the Babajide Sanwoolu-led government to put an end to the ongoing demolition exercise and award compensations, including resettlement of the thousands that have been unjustly displaced, made homeless, and without property. This sharp reaction from the people is apt and must be widely supported by people of good conscience.

We refuse to be the lamb that is sacrificed on the altar of the insatiable greed of an elite minority.

Tinubu’s Inauguration: End Of An Error, The Dawn Of Calamity

Sanyaolu Juwon
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Tinubu’s Inauguration: End Of An Error, The Dawn Of Calamity

“I am confident that I am leaving office with Nigeria better in 2023 than in 2015.” President Buhari ended his farewell speech with this remark on the 28th of May, 2023. Some of us could not help but wonder if perhaps we had been living in an alternate universe for the past eight years. Not surprisingly, the former president supported this fallacious vituperation with a body of argument that attempted to whitewash the disturbing and horrible fact that the Buhari regime is an epic fail; incompetent, despotic, lawless, and very anti-poor.

Many parts of the speech were fraught with boastful remarks, and needless self-adulation that misrepresented many unpalatable facts about the horrible administration. But one of his many lies that particularly stood out was the part that read “to ensure that our democracy remains resilient and our elected representatives remain accountable to the people, I am leaving behind an electoral process which guarantees that votes count, results are credible, elections are fair and transparent and the influence of money in politics reduced to the barest minimum. And Nigerians can elect leaders of their choice.” Former President Buhari better not be speaking about the 2023 elections especially — the same election that was fraught with massive vote buying, voter suppression, violence, result falsification, and mass disenfranchisement. Polling units became transactional centers and a theatre of war. Punch newspaper in fact dismissed the 2023 election as a show of shame, concluding that Buhari and INEC brought nothing other than disgrace and embarrassment to Nigeria with such an unfortunate sham.

How can the former president claim that he left Nigeria better than he met it in 2015 when evidence abound suggest otherwise? According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the unemployment rate in the second quarter of 2015 when Buhari took over was at 14.9 percent, representing a population of 6.1 million people who were without jobs. Sadly in 2023, the unemployment rate peaked at 33.3 percent representing about 23 million people, the highest in thirteen years. This is almost four times higher than what it was before Buhari took over.

In addition to leaving behind a country that now ranks as the poverty capital of the world, the administration left behind a huge population of over 133 million people who statistics show are living in multidimensional poverty.

Whereas in 2015 when Buhari assumed office, the inflation rate was at 9 percent. Fast forward to 2023, the regime is leaving behind a very high inflation rate at 22.22 percent, and a debt profile of 77 trillion naira: a very significant and highly exponential increase from its initial value of 12.22 trillion naira in 2015. It is unfortunate that Nigerians have nothing to show for the borrowing spree the regime embarked upon — no schools, hospitals, or any meaningful infrastructural development that may justify the humongous debt burden.

Needless to say, the problem of insecurity also worsened under the past administration. It is on record that the Buhari campaign in 2015 had been very vocal about ending insecurity and bloodletting that had taken the lives of about 18,260 Nigerians, and also displaced many more. Sadly, the Buhari regime worsened the situation. More than 53,000 Nigerians had been gruesomely murdered by bandits, killer herdsmen, and Boko Haram insurgents between 2015 when Buhari took power, and October 2022. This is in addition to numerous others that have become IDPs. States like Kaduna, Zamfara, Borno, Benue, and Plateau states became killing fields for bandits, killer herdsmen, and numerous insurgents; hunting their victims like games, kidnapping many more.

In addition to the utter lack of respect for the judiciary, and serial violation of court orders, Buhari also presided over a country where the armed forces, police especially act with impunity, lawlessness, and are responsible for many extrajudicial murders. It was indeed an administration that from its first tenure had expunged the concept of human rights from its dictionary of governance.

No doubt, the previous administration was not only incompetent, inefficient, and anti-poor, but also it was a government that left behind a tragic legacy of sorrow, tears, and blood.

As though determined to commit the people of Nigeria to eternal damnation, Buhari, and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), superintended over a very shabby and highly fraudulent electoral process that imposed one of the worst political characters in Nigeria’s history — Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Unlike most candidates in the race, Tinubu in the course of his campaign said very few words and made limited promises to electorates. He had relied largely on vote buying, intimidation, voter suppression, hooliganism, violence, and his vast access to state institutions to manipulate electoral outcomes right from the polling units.

Bola Tinubu despite making little or no campaign promises was however very clear and loud about his plans to attack the welfare and livelihood of his electorates once he emerges.

Tinubu’s declaration of war and hardship against the Nigerian people didn’t happen on May 29, 2023, the date of inauguration. He didn’t do anything that he had not said to our faces during the course of his campaign. The man dared us to our faces, and boldly said during campaigns that he would remove fuel subsidy, and that not even our protests will change this. And with a kind of courage that derives unusual confidence from impunity, he declared his victory before the date of the election.

With the above, it is crystal clear that the Bola Tinubu Presidency is coming with planned and premeditated attacks against the Nigerian people. Removing fuel subsidy is only the beginning, the coming days will not be any easier. Tinubu’s inaugural speech was very clear on this. And just like he bullied his way to power, the president’s major strategy will be to bully the entire country into total submission.

Although Buhari may have come off as the worst in Nigeria’s history, Tinubu’s May 29 inaugural speech however gave us an unforgettable omen. The sufferings endured under Buhari’s eight years of horrific rule might be nothing compared to the challenges ahead.

The government of Tinubu has openly declared itself to be a regime of bullies. Less than one hour in office, it has taken decisive action to attack the living conditions of Nigerians majority of whom are living in multidimensional poverty. The regime had by its action declared war on the Nigerian people. Fighting back remains the only decision available to the millions of poor and suffering majority who will be victims of these attacks.

2023 Elections: A Street Robbery

Sanyaolu Juwon
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2023 Elections: A Street Robbery

If you can relate with the kind of mood you’d meet when on a visit to a street that had just experienced a robbery of a very violent dimension, then you may be able to connect with the atmosphere of gloom that descended on the country at the pronouncement of Mr. Bola Tinubu as (s)elected president of the country. The Nigerian people felt cheated, and robbed.

But needless to say, the street was indeed robbed — it was violently dispossessed of its hard-earned democratic right to choose for itself, a leader: votes were stolen at polling units and collation centers, ballot boxes were snatched, voters were intimidated, electorates and electoral officials were bought, the polling units did not only become a theater of war, it was equally drowned in blood: votes generally did not count. The street had been robbed of the right to free and fair elections.

The 2023 elections were no doubt the usual tales of sorrow, tears, and blood: the sad triumph of impunity and money politics over the democratic will of over 200 million people.

Whereas voters turnout at every election cycle since 2003 has decreased progressively, the recent polls had an unprecedented number of first-time voters who are largely very young people — those you will categorize as the children of Democracy aka Gen Zs. It was a generation that had been forged in the furnace of one of the biggest youth rebellions in recent history: the EndSARS rebellion.

Sadly, the EndSARS generation may be the last generation of Nigerians who will hold any manner of confidence in Nigeria’s electoral system due to the inability of the electoral umpire to manage the high expectations ignorantly reposed on it by the millions of this young, and highly enthusiastic voters. Whatsoever illusions anyone may have left in Nigeria’s so-called democracy, the charade conducted in 2023 may have successfully shattered such illusions.

While Bola Tinubu’s party, the ruling APC used money, and all instrumentalities of the state to suppress voters, and steal votes, the so-called front-runners — Atiku Abubakar’s PDP, and Peter Obi’s Labour Party weren’t any different. The duo equally stole votes, and repressed voters at their respective strongholds. Sadly, this is how Nigeria’s ruling class have conducted themselves every election year. This accounts for the steady decline of voter turnout at every election cycle. The loss of confidence in the system continues to increase exponentially.

At the just concluded Presidential polls, only 27% of the over 87 million eligible voters — voters with PVCs, turned out to vote. Also instructive is the fact that the supposed winner of the (s)election, Bola Tinubu, was able to secure only about 8.2 million votes, representing a very small percentage of 10.08% of the total number of eligible voters.

In all, a huge population of over 63.1 million eligible voters completely boycotted the elections. This is in addition to over 100 million Nigerians who did not even register to vote at all. Generally, Bola Tinubu’s government will be presiding over a country where over 170 million people have handed his administration a vote of no confidence even before it began.

And for such infamous administration starting off on a note of illegitimacy, and mass rejection even in the midst of daunting economic crises capable of pitching even a relatively popular Government against its people, he will in the coming period be left with the option of two extreme choices if he must hold onto his Government which by the way may have failed even before it began: an option of granting huge political and economic concession to the already discontented and disillusioned majority, or the use of brute force to suppress dissent and keep his unpopular regime in power. This in fact is the fate that awaits any government that emerges from the 2023 charade. For Bola Tinubu of the APC, which will it be? Your guess is as good as mine.

The coming days will no doubt be challenging and highly tumultuous. As such, we must do away with all manner of needless divisive narratives targeted at dividing us along ethnic lines. It is in the interest of the ruling class of all political divides to keep us isolated from one another through religion and ethnicity. We must not allow for these distractions. Only as a united front can we pose a formidable challenge to the looming danger the Presidency of Bola Tinubu and APC represents to the ordinary and suffering people of Nigeria.

Ghana’s Quest For A National Cathedral Has An Immoral Foundation

Delali Adogla-Bessa
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Ghana’s Quest For A National Cathedral Has An Immoral Foundation

The burning cross of the Ku Klux Klan registers starkly as I think about Ghana’s National Cathedral project. What was meant to be a symbol of faith and morality may end up a scar on not just the Ghanaian Christian community, but the entire nation.

Recent developments around the project, comprising leaked documents and remarks from government officials, have heightened the fears that the Ghanaian people could ultimately end up bearing the cost of this unholy convergence of church and state in a secular republic.

The project raised some eyebrows when it was first announced in March 2017. Reason dictated that Ghana focus on more pressing deficits in other areas of society. However, this project had significant backers, with figureheads of Ghana’s Christian community coming out in support. At the time, the Akufo-Addo administration was also yet to wade into the pool of scandal and graft.

To keep the cynics in check, we were told the cathedral, which is expected to seat 5,000, have a series of chapels, a baptistery, a music school, an art gallery, and Africa’s first bible museum, would not primarily be funded by taxpayers’ money.

Instead, the government was going to rely on donations to fund the pledge Ghana’s President Akufo-Addo said he made to God ahead of his 2016 election victory. The only thing the state was going to offer towards the project was a 14-acre piece of land — land on which some state institutions, judges, and even a diplomat had to be relocated.

The earliest estimate of the cost of the project that Ghanaians were given was $100 million. At the time, I had zero confidence the project was going to have enough donations for substantial work on the project. And sure enough, in the 2019 budget, the government announced that it was going to provide seed money for the project.

Fast-forward to 2022 and Ghanaians remain unclear on how much in donations the government has raised towards the project. We do know that the cost of the project has shot up to $350 million and that the government has been pumping much more state funds into the project than its earlier utterances suggested.

Some leaked documents and past commitments from the government indicated that it may have so far spent over GHS 250 million on the project. As part of this amount, GHS 36 million ($4.4 million) has gone to the architect of the project, the western-acclaimed British-Ghanaian architect David Adjaye (whose name also came up in the questionable attempt by Ghana’s Parliament to build a new chamber). As has been noted by observers, questions have to be asked about why he was paid money for a project at such an early stage.

The money going into the project feels like an even harder slap in the face as Ghanaians contend with the crippling inflation that birthed a cost of living crisis. But the rising fuel costs and food prices are just the things that are easy to spot because they affect all Ghanaians on a daily basis. There are other pressing concerns like the decrepit healthcare system littered with abandoned projects and the unacceptable deficits in education.

Broken furniture in Ghana basic school
Many basic schools in Ghana lack key infrastructure for teaching and learning. Credit: Delali Adogla-Bessa / Ubuntu Times

As a Christian, the relative silence from the prominent pastors and Christian leaders who endorsed this project has been deafening. It is the latest chapter in my frustration with the church in Ghana for not using its influence in Ghana to hold the political class to account.

Nicolas Duncan Williams, one of Ghana’s most influential pastors, even played the card of common partisan foot soldiers, accusing critics of the project of favoring the opposition. “Some of you love your political parties and are more loyal to your political parties than you are to the bible and the cause of Christ,” the charismatic preacher said in 2017.

It is not enough to argue that the cathedral will bring glory to God when we are certain the political class has given up on any sense of morality. Even if the church in Ghana is unconcerned by the government’s misguided priorities, it should be concerned by the half-truths told about the funding of the project and the lack of transparency and accountability.

I wonder if the board of trustees of this project, comprising the who-is-who of Ghanaian Christianity, feel any shame. If we weren’t comfortable saying it before, we can boldly say the hoard of charismatic preachers that the government, including Muslim elements within it, has leaned on for legitimacy are complicit in Ghana’s moral decay and ultimate underdevelopment.

The politics of religion in Ghana stinks. Christianity has seemingly been warped; almost like white supremacists have defiled the cross Christians hold dear in the past. Nana Akufo-Addo can ride on the popular slogan of the “Battle is the Lord’s” to rise to power, but not account for the tens of millions of dollars that he and his cohorts used to fund their campaigns.

Ghanaians seem desensitized to the grave injustice the Cathedral will come to represent. An immoral government is what we have known all our lives and come to expect. We can easily point to scandals, uncompleted hospitals and schools under trees as evidence of its corruption.

If all goes to plan and the national cathedral is ready in 2024, we will unfortunately also have a national edifice to point to when highlighting the corruption of the church.

Despair Has Become The Daily Bread Of Ghanaians Amid Cost Of Living Crisis

Delali Adogla-Bessa
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Despair Has Become The Daily Bread Of Ghanaians Amid Cost Of Living Crisis

Regardless of the circumstance, the average Ghanaian’s favorite platitude is “we are managing.” Be it a rough patch in school, scraping for the rent or struggling with a rickety car, the ordinary Ghanaian is likely to still point to the light at the end of the tunnel. The first months of 2022 have changed that.

You needn’t point to the 13-year high in inflation (23.6%) or other data points to know that. All you require is a quick trip through town, where the hike in fuel prices, transport fares and food prices are pummeling Ghanaians into submission. For example, Ghana’s Statistical Service noted that in April 2022, rising food prices accounted for 50% of inflation.

Ghana’s cost of living crisis isn’t just about rising prices. It also has to do with static incomes and depreciating savings. Everything is going up except salaries. Then there’s the small matter of a government that has not helped ease the misery of Ghanaians with its insincere posturing.

While key factors driving up the cost of living are global, Ghanaians are frankly tired of officials that hold up the COVID-19 pandemic and more recently, the war in Ukraine, as the reason for the prevailing despair.

What would be a change of pace will be for the government to acknowledge failings in critical areas during its six years in power. We are a far cry from the days when Ghana’s President, Nana Akufo-Addo, proclaimed that his administration had “the men” to protect the public purse, secure an economic turnaround and usher in an era of industrialization and prosperity.

Now, all Ghanaians have are slogans like ‘One District, One Factory’ and ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’ that elicit scorn instead of hope. For most Ghanaians, we live in a utopia of development and progress – but only on paper, because we are great at identifying problems and formulating inspiring manifestos and development plans. The reality, however, feels like a gyre of curses and misfortune.

The buck always stops with leadership. What Ghanaians see when they look to theirs for empathy and direction is a complete lack of it. Consider the picture of citizens commuting in chunks of tetanus on a daily basis as President Akufo-Addo came under fire for obscene amounts spent on a luxury jet for travel.

The symbol of government insensitivity in recent months has, however, been the new and controversial 1.5 percent tax on all electronic transactions above 100 Ghana cedis ($13). For those already paying income tax, one understands why the levy is considered cruel double taxation. But the government’s commitment to the taxes on fuel is the bigger cruelty for me.

Fuel is viewed as having the most consequential ripple effect on the cost of living. Part of this is because the tax build-up of finished fuel products, sometimes described as nuisance taxes, make up about 29% of what Ghanaians pay. When fuel prices go up, so do transport prices, and then food, and then commerce becomes the wild west.

In one of the more infuriating recent developments, public school feeding caterers, who serve vulnerable and poor kids, have had to protest to demand an increase in the current daily allocation of 0.97 Ghana cedis ($0.13) per child. Unconscionable.

Just when Ghanaians thought things could not get any worse, the utility companies distributing electricity and water popped up like horsemen of the apocalypse, indicating they want a 148% and 334% increase in tariffs, respectively. With a lot of Ghanaians and businesses already stretched thin, this could be a killing blow.

Ghana’s social emergency is all too real, and it is high time the current government acknowledged how false promises have intensified this crisis. Flagship programs that were supposed to address fundamental issues like food security are bearing rotten fruits. Ghana wouldn’t be depending this much on imports and crippling the Ghanaian cedi if a policy like ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’ was working.

Because of this, Ghana’s main agricultural worker’s union talks like Ghana an Old Testament famine is about to befall Ghana. Who can blame them? As the weeks go by, I doubt them less.

But as Ghanaians hold the government to the fire and demand accountability, they must also hold a mirror to themselves. Perhaps it is time Ghanaians finally prove Kwame Nkrumah right for saying “Ghanaians are not timid people… They may be slow to anger and may take time to organize and act. But once they are ready, they strike and strike hard.”

Like the distressing scenes in Sri Lanka, we must not swat at this crisis with despair. Instead, our feet should become one with the streets as we voice our anger at the government’s incompetence and demand a leadership that treats its people with dignity.

1984

Sanyaolu Juwon
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1984

Written by George Orwell in 1949, 1984 detailed the imperative of resisting oppression and tyranny, offering great insight into a twisted and very cruel future if nations are allowed to fall to the rule of totalitarianism.

The book helped put in proper perspective, how totalitarian regimes attempt to control our thoughts and lives through surveillance and by seizing control of the mass media, most times, violently. In this brilliantly articulated piece of work, we see a “party” that deploys enormous resources into eliminating dissent to the extent of establishing edicts that criminalize holding anti-government thoughts and opinions. Do these methods sound familiar to you? If so, then I welcome you dear reader to 1984

In an event described as the “Nigerian Drama” by The New York Times in 1984, the regime of Buhari, violating human rights and international laws, staged a kidnap of a former Minister of Transport, Umaru Dikko, after he was ambushed at his London base. This is the same junta that had just overthrown an elected government of Shagari under whom Dikko served as Minister.

IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu
Biafra agitator, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. Credit: MNK

Fast forward to 2021, close to four decades after, the same serial law offender staged a similar attack on Human Rights and International laws in the abduction of the IPOB leader and British Citizen, Nnamdi Kanu, in Kenya. This is after he returned in 2015 in a disguised democratic toga.

Shortly after the abduction of Kanu, barely 24 hours to a July 3rd protest declared by Yoruba secessionist group, the regime sent in masked DSS operatives after the Yoruba secessionist agitator and leader, Sunday Igboho, stormed his Ibadan residence at the dead of the night like armed assassins, arrested thirteen persons and in a public statement released by its PRO, Peter Afunnaya, boasted to have extra-judicially murdered two of Igboho’s allies.

Yoruba Nation agitator, Sunday Igboho
Yoruba Nation agitator, Sunday Igboho. Credit: Jide

On the day of the protest, however, the regime deployed combined forces of the police and military. The security forces shot violently and sporadically against the peaceful agitators and protesters, killing Jumoke, a 14-year-old female trader.

It should be recalled that as far back as 2015, there have been renewed calls for the secession of the Igbo people from Nigeria by the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB. The secession campaigns attained a threshold of popularity upon the arrest of Nnamdi Kanu on the 20th of October, 2015. And as the agitation grew bigger and larger, no thanks to increasing insecurity and socio-economic injustice in the country that has pauperized millions of Nigerians and made the country totally unsafe for habitation. This is also complicated by the manner in which the government protects and funds terrorists and bandits while deploying enormous resources into hunting, arresting, and killing protesters and all who maintain dissent against the regime.

But the secessionists were not the only group or persons to fall victim to the tyranny and brazen human rights violations of the Buhari regime. Recall that on August 3rd, 2019, at about 1 AM, Omoyele Sowore, leading investigative journalist and revolutionary activist was abducted in the middle of the night by masked men of the DSS who stormed his Lagos temporary residence like assassins.

Revolutionary activist, Omoyele Sowore
RevolutionNow convener, Omoyele Sowore. Credit: Jide

For calling a RevolutionNow Protest against misgovernance and crass incompetence of the regime, Sowore spent five months in unjust detention after the regime violated two court orders for his release. Worst still, the regime in desperation to rearrest Sowore after it reluctantly obeyed the order to release the latter on bail, the DSS stormed the courtroom, violating the sanctity of the court right in front of the presiding judge who had to escape the violent scene instigated by the gun-wielding DSS operatives. The regime created an unfathomable precedent of judicial impunity when it turned Justice Ijeoma’s court into a war zone.

There is also El-Zakzaky whom the regime continues to hold hostage despite court orders that have mandated it to release him on bail. Aside from murdering his children extrajudicially, the regime has murdered scores of his followers for asking the government to comply with court orders granting bail to the Sheik.

The manner in which the regime drowned the endSARS protest in blood still remains very fresh in our memories. But the government did not stop at that, it went further to intimidating and arresting young persons who they perceive as conspicuous during the two weeks of youth uprising.

The regime for the past six years of administration had equally devoted time to arresting, intimidating, and harassing journalists. According to media reports, no less than eight journalists have been killed on duty under the regime with over 500 falling victims to harassment, intimidation, torture, and unjust detentions. Today, it has become a norm to see journalists who have come to cover protests dressed in bulletproofs as though covering a war zone. No doubt, the regime had turned protest grounds into a theatre of war.

When the regime appeared not to be satisfied with simply attacking and gagging the press, it went straight for the social media, prescribing death by hanging for “hate speech’’; a deliberate attempt to gag Nigerians and violate their constitutional right to free speech. The regime did not want a free press, it frowned against citizen’s right to free speech and protests. It does not want Nigerians to protest offline and also against them expressing their frustrations on social media, especially Twitter. It was this gross hostility to free speech that forced the regime into banning over 200 million Nigerians from using Twitter.

No regime in history, military and civilian, has treated the judiciary and the rule of law with such disdain and brazen impunity. No regime in the history of the country has been so hostile to its citizens without any modicum of regard for their lives or constitutional rights. No regime in history had ever treated the press and the Nigerian people with so much hate and utter contempt.

The only regime that ever measured close to Buhari’s despotism is the military junta of 1984; the only Junta to have ever dethroned an elected government. Buhari’s capacity for lawlessness and impunity is second to none, such that only Buhari could have surpassed the record of his own lawlessness over three decades after.

Buhari may not only be classified as a despot with the unique ability to harness the powers of Nigeria’s systemic impunity to muster a social, political, and economic siege against the Nigerian people, he is the only Nigerian leader fit to be described as a serial law offender, ever to occupy Nigeria’s political space.

The Dot Nation

Sanyaolu Juwon
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The Dot Nation

Several weeks back, Muhammadu Buhari in an Arise TV interview on the 11th of June, 2021, twenty-four hours before the commemoration of Democracy day, described an entire region in the country as “dot in a circle’’. This was days after he threatened to deal with the members of IPOB “in the language they understand’’. Instinctively and quite commendably, the Nigerian tweeps mobilized to report such wicked, unconscionable and thoughtless tweet that threatens genocide against a section of a country and a deliberate attempt to torment our memories with the ugly and horrific development of the Nigerian civil war; an event that has left unforgettable memories of sorrow, tears, and blood.

This is a government that rarely speaks to terrorists and bandits in the language they understand. On the contrary, it has continued to romance and reward them handsomely in ransoms, overseas scholarships, and social empowerment. But a government that begged bandits and terrorists with CBN loans a month before is shamelessly threatening genocide against a group of people agitating for self-determination and disdainfully described an entire region as “dot in a circle’’; a fascist statement that captures an intention and justification for genocide.

As is the character of Dictators, the regime reacted by suspending the use of Twitter in Nigeria. In order to massage its ego and desperate urge for impunity, the regime was willing to murder and completely bury the rights of its two hundred million citizens to social media rights, the same way it had consistently attacked all rights.

When it couldn’t achieve this with Twitter ban thanks to a generation that is not only defiant but also far above the regime’s backwardness, the government began seeking ways to negotiate with Twitter by using as a bargaining chip, millions of Nigerians who now have to rely on VPN to tweet. In the end, it was the Nigerian people that ended up suspending the regime from Twitter.

Although the “dot in the circle” statement as used by Buhari may have rightfully suggested a threat against agitation for self-determination, it also connotes a much deeper phenomenon upon paying close attention to the President’s interview, the disposition of the regime to other forms of rights and its general approach to governance.

What we see is a regime that has subjected free speech to persistent attacks, handled protests with utmost disdain and government critics have been treated far worse than terrorists. Everyone, groups, and ordinary Nigerians who oppose the regime’s anti-people policies have become victims of violent repression, incarceration and in some instances, extrajudicially murdered as in the case of endSARS and countless Shiite protesters whom the regime continues to kill like games.

The President in the Arise TV interview could not disguise his grudge and immense hatred for Nigerians, especially young people. You could see a President that was embittered when he said, “endSARS” protesters wanted to remove him. He made this statement as if to justify the Lekki massacre and the violent crackdown on the endSARS protest. Hence, the “dot in the circle” statement falls into a general pattern of a regime that has always handled dissent with state violence and is overtly hostile to democratic rights.

If anyone is still in doubt of the tribe Buhari’s ideology refers to as “dot in a circle”, then we need also to pay attention to how the government shot at protesters on democracy day, twenty-four hours after the Arise TV interview. The government on democracy day officially described Nigerians as terrorists by unleashing the counter-terrorism unit against protesters, who in turn, fired repeatedly at our Ojota protest ground.

Under Buhari’s regime, the “dot” people are the most endangered tribe in the entire country. They are the tribe whose social-economic, constitutional, and political rights are subjected to relentless attacks.

These are the tribes that were murdered in cold blood on October 20, 2020. This tribe is consistently murdered through overwhelming poverty, insecurity, lack of access to healthcare, housing, clean water, and basic welfare. This tribe does not only constitute a category of people demanding rights to self-determination, nor does it consist only of those being persecuted, arrested, shot at, brutalized, killed for fighting for socio-economic and political rights, the “dot” nation comprises also of all who are victims of government failings. This is the tribe of the 99% that has been subjected to years of neoliberal siege by a system of greed and power.

The Buhari administration has no doubt shown that it is hostile to all forms of rights. This is why it is important for the “dot” nation, organized across the length and breadth of the country, to unite in a struggle to put a permanent end to this regime of death and destruction.

Buhari’s Pantamism

Sanyaolu Juwon
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Buhari’s Pantamism

In Nigeria of today, under the clueless leadership of Buhari, Pantamism has come to join the ranks of notorious ”Isms” that deals particularly in the Affliction of the Nigerian people with the virulent disease of terrorism.

Just like how the regime deodorized corruption, Buhari’s recent endorsement of Pantami is nothing short of the institutionalization of terrorism and religious extremism. it translates to the legitimization of the ongoing terrorism in the north and unfair vilification of thousands of those who have fallen victim, some in fatal dimension, of religious extremism that has assumed the shape of insurgency.

Under Buhari’s regime, citizens are described as being anti-north simply for calling for the sack of a minister with concrete records of affiliation and support for Islamic terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda. Nigerians are regarded anti-Islam for calling for the need to protect the nation’s data from terrorists whom we can confirm have a sympathizer in a minister who handles the national data.

This government has not only justified our most ”esteemed” position as the third most terrorized country in the world; it has also assisted the narrative of ”fulanization” and ”Islamization” of Nigeria.

Meanwhile, this agenda in the real sense, have in the best scenario benefited elites of all ethnoreligious background, in a worse situation, profited their rich Muslim friends from across the North and South and in the worst circumstance, empowered their rich/powerful Northern cronies.

In the administration of Buhari, all government institutions have become institutions of terror against the Nigerian people.

Our security agencies terrorize and kill young people on daily basis, the ministry of Labor and employment terrorize workers in addition to being incapable of providing employment, the Ministry of power terrorizes the entire country with the darkness that is purchased at an expensive and unregulated rate.

The Ministry of housing terrorizes Nigerians with homelessness that has condemned millions of people to under-bridge settlers and street urchins that have now become child or teenage cultists and “hoodlums” that are available as government tools to foment election violence. 

The regime on a frequent basis dispenses policies of terror that have rendered the naira useless, sustained Nigeria as the poverty capital of the World, reduced our nation to a situation where the law courts are shut down for weeks over issues that border on financial autonomy and independence of the judiciary. It has descended the country to where we have now resorted to the printing of money as opposed to policies that mobilize social wealth.

With Buhari’s Pantamism, we have lost our country to the rule of bandits and terrorists. But these beastly insurgents are not only organized in bushes, they have a full presence and adequate representation in government offices and sectors. They have now become emboldened by government patronage and empowerment to advance their nefarious activities from the highways to the schools and campuses.

And now, public opinion has it that they are now courageous enough to go after the national assembly; an institution built and sustained by taxpayers’ money but occupied by characters who have ensnared Nigerians in the webs of poverty and hardship complicated by the institutionalization of insecurity and total anarchy.

There is no getting out of this unimaginable mess if we fail as a people to put an end to a regime of terror and institutionalized poverty. There is no better time than now for the oppressed people of Nigeria, North, South, and across all religious divides, to come together in unison to chant the songs of BuhariMustGo and clench their fists for a people’s revolution.

Opinion: Between The Drums Of Secession And Call For A Revolution

Sanyaolu Juwon
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Opinion: Between The Drums Of Secession And Call For A Revolution

Over the past few weeks, there has been an intensified publicity of the campaign for the breakaway of the Yoruba people from Nigeria. The proponents of this agitation want an independent republic of the Yoruba nation or as they put it — Oduduwa Republic. And over a week ago, the agitation has taken a step further with a recent press conference led by Sunday Igboho and Professor Banji Akintoye. At the press conference, the duo had pronounced into existence the Yoruba nation and forthwith, advised all persons of Yoruba descent living in the Northern region of Nigeria to return to the South-West, even as the duo warned of a looming ethnic war. In a show of seriousness for their agitation, a proposed currency for the Oduduwa Republic was afterward circulated on social media and publicized by the mainstream media. The currency was named “Fadaka” — a Yoruba word for Silver.

It should be noted that the demand for an independent nation of the Yoruba people did not just start this year. Such demands and agitations had been like a song on the lips of quite a number of persons over the past years.

An earlier call for Oduduwa Republic precipitated the announcement of a march which was scheduled for October 1, 2020. While the Nigerian government’s supposed ban on protests forced the Oduduwa Republic agitators into a cowardly capitulation, it was however impossible for the government to put a halt to the agitation due to the increasing socio-economic injustice within the country.

Needless to say, the renewed and intensified calls for a republic of the Yoruba people began with the rising cases of kidnappings and banditry in South-West Nigeria. While Northern Nigeria had suffered the worst cases of insecurity, terrorism, kidnappings, and banditry, most parts of the South-West, especially Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, and Ekiti states were also beginning to deal with similar threats but of lesser magnitude when compared to the horrors in the northern region, where women, men, girls, and boys have become easy prey in the fiery dens of bandits and terrorists. The fact that schools in Kaduna had to be closed by the state government is a testament to how much the insecurity in the North has taken a ridiculous turn of very embarrassing magnitude.

Of much deeper embarrassment is how powerless and utterly incapacitated the Nigerian government appears in the face of such insecurity that has consumed thousands of lives, rendered thousands homeless, made many fatherless, scores motherless, and more innocent children orphans. It is conditions such as this that gave rise to Sunday Igboho and his team who volunteered themselves to rid Yorubaland of insecurity by raising arms against the forces of banditry. While their aim expressed an intention to fight kidnappings and banditry, their methods of engagement and slogans are that of unfair ethnoreligious stereotyping against the Fulani people who are known for herding cattle.

Although the majority of the cattle herders are Fulani, it is evident that not all Fulani cattle herders are criminals, and definitely, not all Fulanis are bandits. Worthy of note is the fact that despite producing more Nigerian Presidents and Heads of State, Northern Nigeria ranks worse in the regional economic indices of the country. The Fulani people however are at the top of that ladder, with millions of poor people who could barely afford chickens, let alone cattle. While there may be a handful of Fulanis who own cattle in the South-West, most of the cattle being herded by poor Fulani herders are owned by some Southern elites who are into animal husbandry. In the event that some Fulani herders protect cattle with Ak-47 rifles, one can almost be certain that those weapons were provided by the Southern and Northern elites who own those cattle herded and protected by the poor Fulanis in the South-West. This makes it clear that the “ethnicization” of insecurity within the South-Western region of Nigeria is as unnecessary as ethnicizing terrorism in the Northern region of Nigeria. Ritual killings in Ijebu-Ode, child/street cultism in Lagos and street/campus cultism, and the age-long kidnapping in the South-South region of the country are pointers to the fact that insecurity is not synonymous with a particular ethnic group.

Furthermore, the regime of General Muhammadu Buhari in talks, actions, and inactions has not only proven to be completely incompetent, clueless, and largely anti-people, its demeanor, nepotism, and ethnoreligious favoritism have also helped water the seeds of ethnic strife within the country. It is in the light of these that what begun as a Sunday Igboho-led resistance against killer herdsmen had suddenly metamorphosed into a Yoruba self-determination agitation.

However, what most ethnic agitators fail to understand is that despite Buhari’s nepotism and ethnocentric politics or “Fulanization agenda” as some secessionists would call it, the millions of the average Fulani people have not benefited from this so-called “Fulanization agenda”, they have in fact become worse of, much further than they ever were even under regimes headed by Nigerians from the Southern region like Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan. On the contrary, the “Fulanization agenda” has only benefited and further empowered Buhari’s rich and powerful friends. In like manner, a “Southernization agenda” would most likely not be of any benefit to the average Southerner but for the rich and powerful Southern elites. Just the same way Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan’s led governments have only benefited their Southern friends and Northern cronies. The same way our respective state governors and legislators from the Southern region have only represented the interests of their rich friends and not the average  Southerner.

Before the recent calls for an independent State of the Yoruba people, there had been more serious calls for secession by other regions in Nigeria. And in each case, the Nigerian state has met such agitations with untoward violence and repression. The first of which happened during the administration of Major General Aguiyi-Ironsi, an Igbo Man from South-East Nigeria and the Nigerian Head of State as he then was. During the regime of Ironsi, Isaac Boro led several agitations and campaigns for the secession of the people of the Niger Delta majorly domiciled in what is now known as South-South region of Nigeria. The Aguiyi-Ironsi regime crushed the movement with maximum force and subsequently executed Isaac Boro.

The story of Biafra is a more popular one. The Biafran struggle for secession from Nigeria precipitated into over three years of war which led to the death of millions of Nigerians. The Nigerian state did not only crush the Biafra agitation with maximum force, but it also committed one of the worst genocide in the history of mankind. Interestingly, the shadows of the 20th century Biafra war are now upon us in the 21st century with a renewed call for Biafra Republic led by Nnamdi Kanu’s Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB. This is because the socio-economic conditions that led to the struggle for Biafra in 1967 are still prevalent in 2021, but in the worst dimension and in a way that has now attracted an additional campaign for the exit of the Yoruba people.

While the right to self-determination remains a right guaranteed by Local and International Laws of Man and Nature, do we actually need to go the ethnic route in pursuit of freedom and socio-economic justice? Does our problem as a people have anything to do with the ethnicity of persons in power? Already, South-West governors and a number of Monarchs who have done nothing other than stealing from the poor people of Western Nigeria have stated their opposition to the Igboho-led agitation for Oduduwa Republic. It was South-East governors that unanimously announced the proscription of IPOB and have on several occasions supported the killing of IPOB members and innocent Igbo bystanders by the Nigerian Army. Sanwo-Olu, a Yoruba man, was the one who invited the Nigerian Army to shoot at peaceful protesters at Lekki Tollgate during the #EndSARS protest in October 2020.

As President, Obasanjo, a Yoruba man from Ota, Ogun state, could not even erect a decent road in his hometown, Ota, let alone deliver quality governance to the people of Nigeria. Aside from the Legendary corruption, maladministration, and gross ineptitude of President Jonathan, his Hometown, Otuoke, in Bayelsa State, boasts only flooded roads and streets. And as I have previously enumerated, more Presidents and Heads of State had come from Northern Nigeria, but the North is the worst in all socio-economic indices with the highest rate of insecurity, illiteracy, poverty, mortality, poor hygiene, lack of accessibility to clean water and least infrastructure. To be clear, while southern elites have had their fair share in exploiting the poor people of the South and the Nigerian people at large, the North, however, parades the worst of the Nigerian elites. These people enslave their Northern poor counterparts and also prevent them from resistance by denying them education and imposing slavish religious indoctrinations. If the thoughts of objectivity are given a chance, then it’ll be clearer that the poor people across all ethnic groups are exploited by the rich and powerful elites organized across all ethnoreligious clusters across the country.

It is audible to the deaf and visible to the blind that the enemies of the Southern people are first the rich and powerful elites in the South, and then their rich and powerful Northern colleagues. All the governors, House of Representatives members, Senators, and Local government officials of the South are Southerners. They are directly responsible for the oppression and impoverishment of the Southern people before their Northern counterparts. Hence, does it not make sense for the poor people across all ethnoreligious groupings to bond themselves in a revolution against their common oppressors who are also organized and united irrespective of their ethnoreligious differences than to ensnare themselves in a civil war occasioned by ethnic agitations?

Meanwhile, history has proven that a civil war is always inevitable with secessionist agitations. A civil war is a war, funded by rich people but consumes the lives of poor people and destroys their properties and heritage. Here, poor persons of different ethnic backgrounds are the ones led to the slaughter, either as soldiers or innocent and hungry bystanders. Poor people die and fight themselves in a civil war that ends up benefiting in varying proportions, the elites of the different ethnic groups. Although the Nigerian State will respond to a call for revolution with very deadly hostility and violence, the oppressed people can be sure they are “dying” in a fight against their common oppressors, rather than killing themselves in an ethnic war imposed and funded by the rich elites of different ethnic groups.

Although due to better access to education when compared to the imposed illiteracy in the north, and Western civilization, the people of Southern Nigeria appear to be more politically conscious. Shall we then say the apparently more politically conscious South must wait endlessly on the growing consciousness of the oppressed people of the North? Definitely not! For me, I’d rather the oppressed people of the South fight the incompetent and anti-people federal government alongside their corrupt leaders and governors of Southern origin. And while doing this, also encourage and support the struggles of the poor people of the North against their more vicious ruling elites. Even if the Yoruba and Igbo must necessarily secede from Nigeria, it is most important to in the first instance, join hands to defeat the common exploiters of poor people, organized over and across all ethnic groups and regions.

In all, the division of oppressed people along ethnic lines does little or nothing to liberate the poor from the shackles of poverty, hardship, and oppression. On the contrary, it’ll end up strengthening the hold of the rich and powerful few over millions of poor and oppressed Nigerians.

Detention Ordeal: My First 11 Days Of 2021; Starting The Year On A Revolutionary Note

Sanyaolu Juwon
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Detention Ordeal: My First 11 Days Of 2021; Starting The Year On A Revolutionary Note

As though coming to battle notorious terrorists and bandits, they came at us with three loaded vehicles convening heavily armed men whose mean demeanor ricks only of lustful desperation for violence and blood. On the other hand, the only arm we had were the ones that acted as support to our revolutionary fists as they pointed to the direction of the cold air with full determination. The rest of our ‘’arms’’ and ‘’battle’’ artillery were placards, banners and our facemasks.

On the night of December 31st, 2020, at about 11 PM, we had gathered at Lokogoma junction and then proceeded to Gudu, Abuja for a CrossOver Protest/sensitization with demands bordering on good governance, respect for citizenship, end to police brutality, environmental justice and a permanent end to insecurity and bloodletting in the country. As of this time, similar actions were ongoing in other parts of Nigeria including certain parts of Lagos, Ondo, Osun, Ogun, Kano, Kaduna, Adamawa, Edo etc.

Our Action at Gudu had been peaceful and without any sort of hiccup until about 1 AM when we were about to leave for our various homes. The government deployed three trucks of anti-riot police, armed to the teeth with apparent resolve to leave behind an ugly scene of death and destruction. Seeing them in such a violent manner with which they invaded our peaceful assembly, a number of protesters understandably ran for their dear lives. Me and a few others like Michael Adenola that had seen them from afar chose to stand our ground as we were not prepared to surrender our country to the rule of tyranny and lawlessness. And like a pack of hungry wolves, they descended on us violently, heating us repeatedly with their guns even as torrents of heavy punches continuously landed on different parts of our bodies. We were bundled to the trunk of one of their trucks and chained to the vehicle like hardened criminals. It was the gory sight of our dehumanizing brutalization that caught the attention of Omoyele Sowore, Nigeria’s foremost revolutionary and investigative journalist who currently faces the charge of treasonable felony for protesting the tyranny, corruption and maladministration of the regime. Sowore all through our procession had been filming our action and made way to his vehicle when it was apparent that we were rounding up. He had to step down from his vehicle to challenge the bloodthirsty and husky looking security operatives. Sighting him, they also descended on him with such fury that made it apparent they had a score to settle with him. They broke his nose and hurled him into the truck with us. As if that was not enough, they sprayed directly on our eyes and faces, a very pepperish chemical substance that made even breathing very difficult. When I managed to challenge this unruly wickedness despite being chained down, one of the officers held me and the other started spraying this substance directly into my eyes and did not stop despite seeing how I struggled to grasp for breath. The pain was so intense that I could barely open my eyes for about two hours and my entire body felt so hot for more than four days.

The Buhari regime is generally popular for his lack of respect for civil rights and rule of law. His notoriety and uncommon penchant for rights violation were such that Punch Newspaper, a foremost Nigerian paper resolved in December 2019 to henceforth regard Buhari as Major General Buhari as against President Buhari, in all of its publication. Despite his infamous track records, a lot of us had thought the President was at least going to make the first of January, an exception, to at least indulge Nigerians in the freedom he had denied and violently attacked over the past 365 days. And as it turned out, we expected too much from a regime that has consciously expunged democratic creeds from his dictionary of governance.

From Gudu, we were moved to the detention facility of the Special Antirobbery Squad (SARS) at a police station called abattoir. This detention facility was notorious for torturing and killing its victims. Upon our arrival, the station officer, a SARS operative, led his junior colleagues to unleash on us more beatings and we were dragged into the cell like common criminals. The only warm reception we received was from other inmates who accorded us great regard and couldn’t stop talking about how greatly they appreciate our relentless struggles for the soul of our country. They went out of their way to get us mats and blankets with which to relax and rest our weakened joints. A number of these inmates were kept illegally in custody without being charged to court. For the next 3 days, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we were caged like animals in a cell within the cell and this was our abode till Monday when we were moved to court. We were in the first instance denied access to our lawyers, families and friends. And quite unusually, we were also denied access to our books. Upon granting us access to our lawyers after mass uproar, we had to declare a hunger strike in detention before they were pressured into allowing us access to our books. According to our lawyer, Abubakar Mashal, reports of our hunger strike caught the attention of the public and the uproar that followed forced the police commissioner into calling our lawyer at the early hours of 4 AM. The commissioner appealed to Marshal to come to our detention facility and avail us our books which they had initially denied us.

When we were being moved to court on Monday morning, we were prepared for all theatrics the government had cooked up to keep us in detention for as long as possible, hence, we were prepared for the worst. So that we were not caught off guard when the magistrate court, sitting at Wuse 2, Abuja, denied us bail, remanded us at Kuje Prison and impressed that our lawyer instead filed a written bail application. Prior to the pronouncement of our remand in prison, the police refused us phones to speak to our lawyers and arranged a team of five lawyers posing as human rights lawyers. The plan was to have those lawyers hoodwink us into taking up our defense in the absence of our lawyer and then use these so-called human rights lawyers to keep us in detention for as long as possible. When they approached us in court, we immediately told them off. Without the presence of our lawyer, the court session commenced and the prosecuting team announced appearances. When the magistrate, Mabel Segun Bello, called for appearance of the defense, the arranged lawyers whom we have told off attempted to announce appearance on our behalf but were immediately interrupted by Sowore who informed the court that the lawyers had no permission to represent us and lamented how we were denied access to our lawyers when we were being brought down to the court. The exchange between Sowore and the prosecuting team continued until the magistrate decided to adjourn for 10 minutes. By the time the magistrate returned to her seat, our lawyer was now in court. The disappointment in the face of the police prosecutors was so obvious. The arrival of our lawyer anyway did not stop them from achieving their devious aim of keeping us in detention. However, they would have been opportuned to keep us far longer if their game of imposing lawyers on us had worked. With our lawyers in court, we were able to take a plea on trumped-up charges bordering on “unlawful assembly”, “incitement” and “criminal conspiracy.” However, they would have been opportuned to keep us far longer if their game of imposing lawyers on us had worked.

Activists appear at the magistrate court, Wuse Abuja after spending four days in detention
Omoyele Sowore (Right), Sanyaolu Juwon (Left), Adenola Michael (Mid-Left) in conversation with their Lawyer, Abubakar Marshal (Mid-Right). They are part of many victims of police brutality, human rights abuses, and strangulation of civil rights by the Nigerian government. Credit: Witness

The road to Kuje was terribly bad and extremely tiring. The roads were so bad and highly discomforting to the extent that the police who were taking us to the prison complained very bitterly and relentlessly too. I had to immediately remind them how they would have shot at protesters if residents of Kuje had come out to protest bad roads. In fairness however to most of the Junior officers in the police, it was clear to us that a number of them sympathize with our struggles but lack the courage to turn their guns against the real oppressors of our mutual interest.  

When we arrived at Kuje Prison, the prison officials professionally told the police delegation that brought us that they had stopped accepting inmates due to COVID-19 and that their isolation facility is equally unavailable at the moment. Desperate to keep us in Prison, calls began jamming calls. From the police commissioner to the IG to numerous power brokers at the higher ups until a phone directive came to the prison controller who had to drive all the way from his home down to the prison. Sowore during the period of the wait told the police delegation that ‘’if the Police Commissioner was so desperate about keeping us in detention, he can as well keep us in his house where he will volunteer as a teacher to his children and lecture his wards how not to be a lawless public officer like their father.’’

We were at last admitted into the Prison and each of us dumped in solitary confinement. The prison confinement we were dumped looked like the ones reserved for persons on a death roll, but the prison warders called it a ‘’COVID-19 isolation facility.’’ We were denied access to doctors, food and our books throughout the night of our stay in prison. The following morning, 5th of January, when we were processed and returned to court for a bail application hearing, information of our presence, especially that of Sowore had become popular amongst prison inmates such that the Niger Delta activists among them were seen struggling to come towards us but were sternly repelled by the prison warders.

Another activist arrested and brutalized alongside Sowore and others during the early hours of January 1st
Emanuel Bulus was violently arrested, brutalized, and incarcerated alongside four other activists for protesting bad governance. Credit: Witness

Like criminals, we were handcuffed and hurled into the prison’s blackmaria that would be convening us to court. Stepping out of the blackmaria with cuffs in our hands infuriated the mass of Nigerians who had come to court to show us solidarity. Our lawyers did not take it easy either as they immediately demanded the removal of the cuffs. As the court session began anew, the Magistrate, Mabel failed again to grant our prayers for a bail after our application met vehement opposition from the police prosecutors. The magistrate then ordered that we should be remanded at the Police Force Criminal Investigation Department till Friday, 8th of January when she would then give a ruling on our bail application. In her ruling, she included a caveat allowing us access to medical attention, our books and upon Sowore’s request, made a special order to avail Adenola Michael, a level 3 law student, internet facility with which to participate in his classes which had commenced online on 4th of January. But of course, the police had no internet facility, neither did they have any decent hospital or detention facility.

Upon our arrival at the Force CID, we were immediately processed and hauled into our cell. Just like abattoir, our first detention center, we were locked up in a ‘’cage within a cage’’. The Police officers before our arrival had warned all inmates to steer clear of our cell and not canvas with us. This apparently was to prevent us from radicalizing the rest of the inmates. And just like we had it at our previous detention centers, we also had great support from the other cell mates. Despite restrictions warning the rest of the cell mates to steer clear from our own cell, a number of them still took turns in confiding in us, several injustices they have had to endure in detention, including how poorly they are fed and how a number of them have been denied access to lawyers and their families. Of the numerous cases, one caught our special attention. And it was the case of one Solomon Akuma, a pharmacist who had been remanded since April, 2020, for anti-Buhari twitter comments. The Pharmacist faces charges of treasonable felony, amongst many other charges. And while in detention, the government had done all they could to demoralize him. He was tortured into making a self indicating “confessional statement with the police’’, denied access to lawyer, family and told by police to plead guilty to ‘’criminal charges’’ they had forced him into admitting in a ‘’confessional statement.’’ Despite this, Akuma Solomon remains unbroken.

On the morning of Friday, 8th January, 2021, at about 8 AM, the police PPRO had come to our cell to inform us about our movement to court by 9 AM as ordered by the magistrate. Seconds became minutes, and minutes became hours, until about 10 AM, we were still in our cell and it wasn’t looking as though the police were prepared to comply with the orders of the court. Out of nowhere, one of the police officers stationed to our cell showed up. He said to Sowore, ‘’Leader, your attention is needed. Once Sowore stepped out, I had asked our comrades to also get ready in the hope that Sowore’s invitation was about our movement to the court. Once Sowore got back, I laughed uncontrollably at myself when I realized the persons who Sowore’s attention was called on were comrades who helped bring us food, water and other necessities. The summary is that, again the government proved its capacity and penchant for lawlessness with the flagrant disregard of a court order. Worthy of note is that prior to now, the Buhari Junta has violated over 40 court orders. One of such orders is one that granted bail to the Shiite leader, Sheik El ZakZaky and despite several court orders ordering his release, General Buhari has illegally held the Sheik since 2015. The police however weren’t the only culprit of this episode. Upon realizing the wretched game the police were playing, our lawyer went to court with the hope that the magistrate was going to sit as ordered. The court did not only fail to sit, the magistrate told our lawyer she wouldn’t sit unless we were produced in court. Meanwhile, the magistrate could have still ensured the court seats as ordered and at least made a pronouncement on bail. It was also within the constitutional powers of the magistrate to move the court to the police headquarters where we were detained and still make a pronouncement that must force the police into immediate compliance. She failed to do any of this and consciously helped police violate the orders of her own court.

Failing to produce us in court on Friday, we were forced to spend the next three days in the mosquito-infested and shitty detention facility. The wait wasn’t so bad though as it availed us the opportunity to meet certain new inmates who had been transferred from Abattoir, our first detention center before Kuje Prison. They informed us of how the abattoir police immediately freed/charged over 40 inmates who had been illegally detained. According to them, the police feared we may expose this illegality on their part once we get out. 

On Sunday, one of the inmates informed us that we will definitely leave detention on Monday and that he learnt that people were coming to protest at the Force CID. We became very certain that the police, fearing protest, had furnished the inmate closest to us with this information with the certainty that he would get us informed in the hope that someway, we’ll be able to communicate with ‘’our people’’ on the outside not to protest on Monday. Hence, it was the fear of a Monday Protest that influenced their decision to take us to court on Monday. We arrived at the court to the cheer of a mass of highly resilient Nigerians who have begun staging protests in front of the court building.

Entering into Magistrate Mabel’s court, the session as usual started with the prosecution and defense announcing appearances before the magistrate went into a long read of very verbose and deceitful ruling. Her ruling announced bail conditions that were no doubt not only vindictive and stringent but also that the court had preempted guilt before trial. One of the bail conditions ordered our restriction to Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria. Aside from the general bail conditions, Sowore was also ordered by the court to henceforth make a registered presence at the office of the registrar of the FCT high court every Monday and Friday.

Generally, the whole point to our brutalizations, arrest and 11-day detention at three different prison and detention facilities respectively was to discourage and punish our resolve to mobilize Nigerians in the line of social revolution that places public wealth into the hands and control of ordinary people. Alas, we have long surpassed the stage of fear into the realm of determination and courage, heading to the destination of freedom. And like the words of Leon Trotsky, the late Russian Revolutionary, ‘’We will not concede this Revolutionary banner to the masters of oppression and falsehood! If our generation happens to be too weak to establish a Revolution, we will hand the spotless banner down to the next generation. The struggle which is in the offing transcends by far the importance of individuals, factions, and parties. It is the struggle for the future of our country. It will be severe. It will be lengthy. Whoever seeks physical comfort and spiritual calm, let him step aside. Neither threats, nor persecutions, nor violations can stop us! Be it even over our bleaching bones, the truth will triumph! We will blaze the trail for it. It will conquer! Under all the severe blows of fate, I shall be happy, as in the best days of my youth! Because, friends, the highest human happiness is not the exploitation of the present but the preparation of the future.

#EndSARS: Two Months After Lekki Massacre, Sanwo-Olu, Buratai Yet To Be Sacked And Tried For Crimes Against Humanity By Sanyaolu Juwon

Sanyaolu Juwon
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#EndSARS: Two Months After Lekki Massacre, Sanwo-Olu, Buratai Yet To Be Sacked And Tried For Crimes Against Humanity By Sanyaolu Juwon

In a gory event widely described as Black Tuesday, Nigerians witnessed one of the most violent crackdowns on protest since the Enugu Iva Valley Massacre in 1949. Like bloodthirsty Vamps, the army and police on October 20, descended on peaceful protesters with the kind of force and desperation only witnessed in movies and war. We lost our Brothers, Friends, Fathers, Mothers, Sons and Daughters to the uncontrollable bloodlust of a rapacious and highly vindictive ruling elites. Just like yesterday, we saw our friends lying helplessly on the floor, drowned in their own pool of blood. Armed only with flags and solidarity songs, our friends were shot without mercy and hunted like games for exercising their legitimate right to protest. It was a day when the cries of despair competed with the horrific sounds of bullets. 

And as we watch our brothers fall to their death and our sisters drowned in their own pull of blood, we wondered if we had committed any crime for demanding a country where the creed of citizenship is respected and being young isn’t criminalized. We wondered if we had erred by demanding an end to the culture of impunity, respect for the rule of law, and democratic ethos. We marveled at what kind of a country treats its citizens with such disdain and unprecedented cruelty. Our protest which had lingered for close to two weeks was mobilized around specific demands to end police brutality, extrajudicial killings, and proper remuneration for the armed forces. However, on October 20, the government sent a clear message that it wouldn’t be willing to put an end to this undemocratic and barbaric practice. It was clear that our two-week protest, despite grounding the entire country, fell on deaf ears. We were not only brutalized and killed by the police, the latter and the military competed for the highest kill.

Amidst the madness of the massacre, the Lagos state government directed the Judicial Panel of inquiries to include the Lekki Massacre as part of its term of reference. Prior to this, the Lagos State Governor, Sanwo-Olu had denied having a single knowledge about the Lagoswide onslaught against protesters and had placed the blame at the doorsteps of the military. In a counter defense, the Military expressed grave shock at the denial of the Lagos Governor and reiterated that they stormed the streets of Lagos on the request of the Governor. It wasn’t until then the Governor made a U-turn and now admitted inviting the military. This was a man who in a CNN interview, shamelessly lied to the World about his involvement in this dastardly aggression and violent murder of our friends at Lekki and other parts of Lagos. What is more unfortunate albeit not surprising is the loud silence of both the Lagos House and National Assembly. None of these legislative organs devoted time to deliberate on this sad incident. Despite admittance of complicity by the culprits of the Lekki Massacre, no single action from state and national legislative arms. This was a time Nigerians completely lost confidence in their democracy and had to rely on the British Parliament to protect its interest. You will recall a similar occurrence with Sowore’s trial where it took the US parliament to deliberate and condemn the invasion of our court, disregard for court orders, rights violation, and sham trial of Sowore by the tyrannic Buhari regime, whereas the Nigerian legislative arm kept mum and were observing table manners. 

Of greater insult is how Sanwo-Olu had the temerity to direct the investigation of killings where he had played a very conspicuous role. And ever since the constitution of the infamous judicial panel, no single government official has been brought to book. Despite incontrovertible visual evidence and testimonies that have indicted the military and the state governor, no single conviction has happened. On the contrary, what we see is the same shameless culprits going after EndSARS protesters. We see a government that freezes account of some EndSARS Protesters, hounding several others to their homes and continue to arrest and remand scores in prison. As we speak, there are several EndSARS protesters like Nicholas Mbah languishing in different Nigerian Prisons, while the culprits who ordered and coordinated the murder and brutalization of our friends continue to walk freely.

Needless to say, the Nigerian government and the armed forces have become more ruthless and lawless since the EndSARS protest. They have now openly turned Nigeria into a police state where rights to peaceful assembly have now been officially criminalized. Police and Military have become more emboldened in abusing the rights of Nigerians and now have no business chasing crimes while the entire country falls to the control of insecurity, kidnappings, and banditry. Nigerians aren’t only getting more insecure in their own country, they are also getting poorer with unprecedented economic hardship.

Conclusively, it is more than evident that Nigerians cannot continue to watch while Buhari and the APC rule us like a conquered people. We cannot continue to watch in docility and fear as the government rips us of our humanity, dignity, and citizenship. We cannot continue to agonize in despair as Buhari continues to handover our country to the rule of banditry, kidnappings, poverty, lawlessness, and anarchy. It is clear that the status quo is deleterious, its funeral is long overdue; RevolutionNow.

Opinion: Corruption Continues To Fight Back And Ghana’s Special Prosecutor Is Its Latest Scalp

Delali Adogla-Bessa
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Opinion: Corruption Continues To Fight Back And Ghana’s Special Prosecutor Is Its Latest Scalp

In an interview with a local radio station back in October, a director at Ghana’s Center for Democratic Development sounded the alarm over the lack of citizen concern on issues of corruption following a pre-election survey.

About a month later Ghana’s first Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu, resigned citing interference at various levels of governance, even up to the president. In his resignation letter, Amidu said Ghana President Akufo-Addo had mistaken him as his “poodle”.

In a more recent and much more scathing letter, Amidu described President Akufo-Addo as the “mother corruption serpent” and not the “innocent flower of anti-corruption” he once thought.

With less than three weeks to a general election, this resignation is probably the final report card assessing the Akufo-Addo administration’s corruption fight and the state has failed woefully.

Before this resignation, the government was already seen to have bowed to the whims of graft. Akufo-Addo’s tenure has been littered with corruption scandals not followed by requisite prosecution and punishment. Akufo-Addo has been tagged “a clearing agent” by the opposition because of the number of officials implicated in acts of corruption who appeared to receive protection from the state.

Despite this, the Center for Democratic Development’s pre-election survey indicated that only 6 percent of the electorate considered corruption a concern though it has a latent effect it has on other issues like infrastructure and management of the economy which receive much more attention.

In contrast, in the center’s survey ahead of Ghana’s elections in 2016, 62 percent of Ghanaians backed the perception that Ghana was corrupt and 75 percent of the electorate said corruption issues would influence their vote.

This was reflected in Akufo-Addo’s victorious campaign where he defeated the incumbent, John Mahama, handily. As far Akufo-Addo and his cohorts were concerned, corruption flowing through the veins of the Mahama administration. This was not far from the truth.

But four years on, it would appear that Ghanaians sat distracted in the back of the anti-corruption bus as the Akufo-Addo administration fell asleep at the wheel. More cynical observers will tell you that state actors were actively complicit in acts of corruption.

The timing of Amidu’s resignation is its own flaming red flag. He recently completed a corruption risk assessment on a controversial state agreement to leverage Ghana’s mineral royalties for developmental projects.

Among other things, Amidu concluded that this deal, the Agyapa Royalties Limited Transaction, violated multiple laws whilst the appointment of transaction advisors, which included a firm with ties to the Finance Minister, also flouted the law and did not meet the “fundamentals of probity, transparency, and accountability.”

Amidu claims the President directed him to hold off acting on this assessment. This was the last straw for him.

“We disagree on the non-partisan independence of the special prosecutor in the performance of functions of my office in preventing and fighting corruption and corruption-related offenses,” he said in his resignation letter.

The presidency denied the interference claim but confirmed that the President indeed met the Special Prosecutor earlier in November to discuss the deal which meant a line had been crossed.

If Akufo-Addo really respected the idea of independence, there would be absolutely no reason why he would be meeting with the Special Prosecutor in private, much less in such sensitive times.

Accompanying Amidu’s resignation were concerns about how well-resourced his office was. He and his deputy had not been paid any emoluments since 2008 and this was only rectified (by a presidential directive) after his resignation.

There is also the adjacent chatter over Amidu’s office space, or lack thereof, and utilization of budget allocations for recruitment among others. He has been operating out of what is generally a three-bedroom apartment and has been unable to hire more staff to ensure the efficient running of his office.

Amidu’s office had been offered a bigger building by the state but he deemed it unfit for human occupation.

As of September 2019, he had only three senior staff and nine junior staff. It is thus no surprise that, of the GHS 65.69 million transferred to Amidu’s office, only a little of over GHS 5.22 million had been utilized, according to the Presidency.

Some consider the under-utilization a slight on Amidu and more critical persons accuse him, incorrectly, of loafing about on the job. Amidu complained about his working conditions multiple times, including alleged interference from state actors, but he was told he whined too much and did little work.

That said, had Amidu not complained and created a ton of receipts from himself, he would be perceived in a much worse light now. “Why didn’t he speak up,” his critics would have asked.

Given his apparently dire treatment by the state, one legitimate question can be asked: Why didn’t he resign earlier?

Amidu tries to answer this in his resignation letter pointing to his commitment to fighting corruption over the years; even in his capacity as a private citizen. In his words, he was never an anti-corruption entrepreneur but a “non-partisan anti-corruption crusader.”

His track record of integrity was the reason his announcement as Special Prosecutor in January 2018 was met with much joy in the earlier days of the Akufo-Addo administration. How innocent we were.

Ghanaians had voted for change and the setting up of the Special Prosecutor’s Office was to be the beginning of the end of corruption’s stranglehold on Ghanaian governance.

But as it turns out, we were just characters in the fable about the scorpion and the frog. Corruption stung again and it hurt.

If I fault Amidu for anything, it staying too long in the job because it was clear quite early on that the state was not prepared to lay the foundations for an independent vanguard in the corruption fight.

Indeed, Amidu was appointed by the President, like the heads of other anti-graft offices before his that lacked bite so were we really expecting one plus one to equal three this time around?

Despite the constraints, Amidu pursued cases against multiple government officials, past and present but the Agyapa deal and the purported hurdle the President put his way is one he refused to jump. That Akufo-Addo may have stood in his way was probably a shock to him.

When Barack Obama visited Ghana three presidents ago, he stressed the need for strong institutions. Ghana is yet to take his advice. It is because of strong institutions that the United States of America did not collapse completely under the galactic weight of presidential incompetence.

Ghana tends to prioritize building personalities and not institutions but history has shown us that personalities are no match for the partisan state capture that permeates all arms of governance.

Lest we forget, Ghana’s Auditor-General Daniel Domelevo, another man perceived to be on the vanguard of the anti-corruption fight, was forced on an over-150 day leave in what amounts to a sacking. This was after he challenged with key state actors in another controversial deal.

No matter what faults one lays at the feet of the likes of Amidu and Domelevo it is ultimately a question of who the Ghanaian people should be giving the benefit of the doubt.

The Akufo-Addo administration should have been breaking its back to make sure the first Special Prosecutor’s tenure was successful, leaving absolutely no room for fault.

In my book, the buck always stops with the President because of the amount of power vested in the Executive by our constitution.

It is not that Amidu’s success would have meant a net-positive for the Akufo-Addo administration in the corruption fight. Rather it would have offered some hope that an institution could adequately fight corruption.

But Amidu’s resignation means there is still no light at the end of the tunnel.

Opinion: When Corruption Fought Back; The Ballad Of Ghana’s Auditor-General

Delali Adogla-Bessa
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Opinion: When Corruption Fought Back; The Ballad Of Ghana’s Auditor-General

Ghana’s Auditor-General, Daniel Domelevo, is currently wallowing in a purgatory fashioned by his vivacious appetite to hound graft. He has been forced on leave for over 150 days. It was effectively a sacking in a bitter episode of state interference in the work of an independent anti-corruption body.

Four years ago Ghana’s President, Nana Akufo-Addo, was in the trenches of opposition. In his sights then-President John Mahama and his National Democratic Congress (NDC); a party with social democrat ideals.

Mahama’s bid to hold on to power was on its last legs. The weight of history was against him given past election trends (no party has been in power for three successive terms). But the power crisis that devasted the economy was on many people’s minds as well as the flame of perceived corruption fanned by Akufo-Addo’s center-right New Patriotic Party (NPP).

A quick analysis of the NPP’s manifesto showed just how critical the perceived corruption in the Mahama Administration was to the NPP’s strategy. “Corruption” was essentially the NPP’s go-to descriptor when addressing the NDC. Ghanaians bought it.

A few days after his election victory, Akufo-Addo spoke to the BBC and expounded upon his campaign promise to empower a Special Prosecutor to fight corruption; the first in Ghana’s history.

He said the prosecutor’s office would be “independent of the executive” in its mandate to fight government corruption. Ghanaians, high on the wind of change, became even more hopeful.

But the real moment of significance in the corruption fight was to happen days later when defeated President Mahama appointed a new Auditor-General – Domelevo.

After this appointment, the stench of corruption followed. Mahama had put in place a puppet to cover his tracks, some said. Valid sentiments, given the context.

It took about 13 months for the Office of the Special Prosecutor to be set up. Martin Amidu, a seeming one-man mission against graft and an anti-corruption campaigner’s wet dream, was appointed. His moniker, “The Citizen Vigilante”, spoke for itself.

But even before Amidu’s appointment was being crystalized, a shadow of despair became more prominent as it became clear the change voted for was merely a mirage.

The first corruption scandal under Akufo-Addo came as his appointees were being vetted less than a month into his administration. A nominee was accused of bribing members of the vetting committee to ease his approval. The claims were not proven. But unsurprisingly, this nominee was eventually sacked after a corruption scandal in the power sector in August 2018.

Meanwhile, as the months wore on Domelevo was winning the perception war by doing his job and doing it, by all accounts, diligently. As Amidu cut an increasingly frustrated figure, complaining about his lack of resources and government interference, the Auditor General coordinated the inspection of government accounts to uncover rot.

He wielded Article 187 (7) of Ghana’s constitution like the Excalibur; allowing him to disallow illegal expenditures and surcharge offenders. The days of merely complaining to Parliament were over.

Among notable interventions, his office dragged the Ghana Education Trust Fund into the light revealing it illegally funded foreign scholarships. It spent over GHS 425 million on scholarships for 3,112 beneficiaries out of which 2,217 were unlawfully granted.

This led to brilliant but needy students being deprived of scholarships in favor of, in some cases, politicians. Some of these politicians are currently government appointees and moved with haste to explain themselves. It was not a good look for them or the country.

His report highlighted the systemic corruption that feeds the beast of inequality. The callousness of institutions meant to be looking out for persons who had drawn the short straw in life was sickening.

And it speaks to how low the bar is in Ghana that the mere revelation of the rot viewed as a victory. No prosecutions followed. That was beyond Domelevo’s control. Ghanaians also displayed their short memories and the government obliged the apathy in wait for the next scandal to brush off and spin.

Domelevo’s anti-corruption efforts put him in the firing line. Corruption wasn’t going to go down without a fight, some observers said.

This is a sentiment Domelevo shared. “Fighting corruption is dangerous… If you fight corruption, corruption will fight you in whatever way,” he said in November 2019.

At this point, Ghana’s Economic and Organised Crimes Office (EOCO) begun a probe into the alleged procurement malfeasance at Audit Service. But this was a “storm in a teacup” for Domelevo, who challenged the probe in court. His real foil was on the horizon.

The fraught relationship between stalwarts in government and the Auditor General was brought to bear in the scrutiny a deal the Senior Minister’s office had with a UK based company called Kroll and Associates. A 2018 report indicated that Domelevo’s office smelled a rat.

He insisted that there were procurement breaches resulting in payment of US$1 million to the UK firm in 2017 to recover assets from identified wrongdoers, among others, without verifying outcomes.

There was also the persistent failure of Ghana’s Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Maafo, to provide proof of actual work done, according to Domelevo. He subsequently surcharged the Senior Minister and the four other officials from Ghana’s Ministry of Finance.

The Senior Minister fought back. He held that the Auditor-General erred and sued the Auditor-General.

This court case saw Domelevo embarrassingly found guilty and cautioned on contempt charges because he failed to file some documents in the case. The Senior Minister even pushed for a prison sentence. The optics were terrible and for the first time, it looked like the end was nigh for Domelevo.

Then the most demoralizing blow came. On July 4, 2020, the Auditor-General was asked to proceed on his accumulated leave of 123 working days from the last three years. The crimson in the red flags was blinding, especially since he will be hitting the mandatory retirement age of 60 sometime next year.

Domelevo was to hand over his duties to his deputy. Never one to lay down without a fight, he argued his case. He, for example, noted that in the law that there was essentially no provision for accumulated leave.

More poignantly, he was aware of the fact his work was embarrassing the government and was concerned that the development had “serious implications for the constitutional independence of the office of the Auditor-General.”

After this protest, his leave was extended to 167 working days in a quite petty response from the Presidency. The extra days came from his leave for 2020.

It was no surprise that with Domelevo out of the way, his deputy essentially reversed the surcharge of the Senior Minister. The office said it was now satisfied with documents presented challenging the $1m surcharge. An appeal is in progress and the safest bet will be that the surcharge will be set aside.

The Akufo-Addo administration’s credibility has heavily eroded over the past three years. It is like the fable of the scorpion and the frog. The sting of corruption was inevitable like it has been for past governments.

The President has over his term been labeled “a clearing agent” by the opposition because of the number of officials implicated in acts of corruption who were, well, cleared of the allegations against them.

But the treatment of Domelevo is undoubtedly a new low. The Auditor-General is expected to be independent and without any control by any state agency. He must not be subject to directives from the President. But he has struggled with interference from within and without.

In September 2018, he even had cause to petition the President complaining that his own Board Chairman, who happens to work from the Senior Minister’s office, was interfering in his work.

This move to remove Domelevo becomes even fouler when you consider Ghana is in an election year; notable for overspending and other misappropriations. Then there’s the issue of auditing all these state interventions during the COVID-19 pandemic which have come under scrutiny because of questionable figures. Another safe bet we can make is that a scandal will emerge from it.

Though civil society groups have jumped to his defense, the general citizenry has been largely apathetic to his plight. Even the opposition hasn’t made as much noise about the unconscionable interference in his work. Perhaps the pandemic has clouded our vision.

Everything Domelevo did; boldly speaking out and standing up to callous politicians, the billions of cedis flagged in a bid to plug the numerous corruption-sized leaks, was for Ghana and its people. I wonder how disappointed he is that Ghana did not stand up for him when corruption sent him falling to the canvas. Not a single soul hit the streets demanding the President rescind the decision and that is its own shame.

This murky saga is a reminder that there really is no facsimile for people power in the corruption fight. The fight against corruption will have to be won with a ground-up approach. Officialdom is too compromised or susceptible to fatal salvos from the state.

We have seen protests cause real change; from South Korea to South Africa. Zuma fell because of blatant state capture, but the state capture in Ghana is quite insidious; manifesting in the silence of the church, limitations of the media, and a fraught separation of powers – God forbid Parliament actually act in the interest of the people.

The last we saw of Domelevo he had passed by his office to pick up some documents. His locks had been changed and he could not get in – a sad and embarrassing metaphor for the sour ditch the Akufo-Addo government has left him in. Corruption countered the efforts of the most effective Auditor-General in Ghana’s recent history, and it did so effectively. I fear it has won the battle but God help us if it has won the war.

Cameroon’s COVID-19 response could be undermined by a panoply of factors

Amindeh Blaise Atabong
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Cameroon’s COVID-19 response could be undermined by a panoply of factors

The coronavirus (COVID-19) is now a reality in Cameroon as the number of confirmed cases has jumped to 56, up from the initial two on March 6, 2020. The novel coronavirus, which was detected late last year in the Chinese city of Wuhan, continues to unleash itself across the globe, already affecting over three-quarter of the world. As of March 23, 2020, over 360,000 cases had been registered worldwide, with 15,491 deaths, according to curated data.

Back in January, even before the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the coronavirus a public health emergency of international concern, it had made known the possible danger of COVID-19 spreading to countries with weaker health systems like Cameroon. WHO called on countries to be proactive to contain the spread of the virus, as it was still at a stage where containment was possible. So, it may be safe to say the virus did not take Cameroon by surprise.

In response to the global health crisis, the government of Cameroon on March 17, 2020 adopted a 13-point measure to limit the spread of the coronavirus across the country. These include border closure, suspension of sporting events, shutdown of schools, the restriction of gathering of persons, amongst others. The government ought to have gotten a pat on the back. But considering the astronomical rise in the number of cases between the time the prevention plan was rolled out and now, it is clear the measures aren’t rigorous enough. Besides its glaring limitations, the strategy could further be undermined by a multiplicity of factors, most notably corruption.

Endemic Corruption

Transparency international says Cameroon is “greatly affected by corruption,” which is “so rampant,” citing specifically bribery and extortion. Cameroon has topped TI’s Corruption Perception Index twice as the most corrupt country in the world. And the country has continued to rank low. There is no doubt the coronavirus will meet the all-pervasive corruption in the country.

Experience has shown that crises, which often involve response money, breed corruption, particularly when officials are self-seeking opportunists. This could potentially increase the pace and danger of contagion as people subject to quarantine may likely bribe to circumvent it. There are recent reports that people from high-risk countries have been bribing their way into the country.

Also, health officials have been noted in the past for tampering with public health funds as was the case with Ebola money. As expected, companies have started pumping in millions of francs to support the government in its COVID-19 response. The government itself, international organizations and donors are set to put in money in a bid to wipe out the coronavirus. It will not be unusual if the response efforts are hindered by officials ‘pinching’ coronavirus money. Funds could also be embezzled through the organization of useless seminars and workshops, overbilled supplies, non-essential operations and payment to ghost personnel.

In addition, the country’s fragile healthcare system with limited infrastructure, protective gears, medicine, and trained staff may be overburdened should the number of positive cases skyrocket. This could create a situation whereby bribery will prevail as healthcare providers will face a situation of choosing who to treat first.

Lack of Public Trust

The success of the government’s response to the coronavirus largely depends on the collaboration of the population. Dr. Manaouda Malachie, Minister of Public Health, has on countless occasions called for more responsibility and vigilance of the population in the fight against the virus. But many still exhibit carefree attitudes. They booze in bars after the 6 PM restriction, do not observe social distancing, still gather in large numbers and are reticent to talk to health officials.

This is what happens when people do not trust the public officials calling on them to make sacrifices. How will they even trust them when a top member of government like Cavayé Yéguié Djibril (Speaker of National Assembly) does not give a damn to official advice to self-isolate upon returning from a high-risk country? When public officials gather in hundreds, yet ask others not to take part in gatherings of up to 50 persons?

As Cameroon battles to contain the spread of COVID-19, should citizens continue to mistrust public officials, there are going to be horrendous consequences. Many people won’t be willing to give up certain rights and privileges for the common good. In such a scenario, even the best COVID-19 response crafted by the world’s finest experts will crash.

Inadequate Basic Amenities/Poverty

As recommended by WHO, the government of Cameroon has re-echoed the frequent washing of hands with soap and running water as a measure to prevent the spread of COVID-19. This seems feasible in urban settings. But what about the over 50% of Cameroonians without access to potable water? In major cities across the country, water shortage is recurrent. Generally, a lack of water is the norm in rural and semi-urban settings. So, washing hands often is likely not going to be adopted as a new behavior when the priority is simply having water to drink or cook.

An oil exporter with a bloated bureaucracy, Cameroon’s poverty reduction rate is lagging behind its population growth rate, according to the World Bank. About 8.1 million people, mostly in rural and semi-urban areas live in poverty. This makes the implementation of some of the preventive measures extremely challenging as some people live hand-to-mouth. They can’t afford to stay at home no matter showing signs of high fever, cough and so on. Their main goal is simply survival.

As WHO pointed out, “poor sanitation facilities, the proliferation of informal economy and urban crowding pose additional challenges in the efforts to combat the highly infectious disease.” In Cameroon, these could be compounded by administrative negligence, poor communication strategy, misinformation and disinformation.

All hopes aren’t lost yet. The government can quickly revise its strategies and make hay while the sun shines.

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