The Board of Governors and the Ethics Committee of the African Development Bank (AfDB) have given Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, the Bank’s President, a clean bill of health in a report dated May 5, wherein it is stated that Adesina has been “entirely exonerated of all allegations made against him.” The background to that development is useful and it is as follows: 

On January 19, a group of anonymous whistle-blowers who described themselves as “a group of concerned staff members” of the AfDB prepared a document titled “Disclosure of Acts Related to Alleged Breach of Code of Ethics by an Elected Officer, to the Attention of the Director of the Integrity and Anti-Corruption Department (PIAC) and the Chairpersons of the AUFI and Ethics Committees.” The “elected officer” in question is Akinwumi Adesina, the Nigerian President of the Bank. The whistleblowers wanted him to be investigated for alleged breach of the institution’s Code of Conduct, in order to check fraud and corruption and prevent an institutional crisis. In that January document, Adesina is accused of non-respect of internal rules and regulations in recruitment, nepotism, impunity, questionable award of contracts, preferential treatment of Nigeria and Nigerians, using Bank resources to collect awards in personal capacity, political lobbying of Heads of State, and turning himself into “the unchallenged travel champion of the Bank.” On March 3, six weeks after the group submitted its petition, it protested that the Ethics Committee was either unable or unwilling to investigate the 16 allegations it raised against Adesina and that there was evidence that certain forces were trying to prevent the Ethics Committee from doing its work. It urged the Ethics Committee to commission an independent investigation. In April 2020, this same “Group of Concerned Staff Members” submitted yet another petition against Adesina titled “Additional Cases of Alleged Breach of the Code of Ethics by the President of the African Development Bank Group to the Attention of the Governors of the African Development Group.” They raised four additional allegations including “use of Bank resources for self-promotion and private gains” and abuse of due process in the appointment of country managers. 

There was however a twist in the tale when a counter-complaint, dated March 13, was submitted to the Chairman of the Ethics Committee by another group, called “a group of indignant members” who denounced the “Group of Concerned Staff Members” and stated clearly that they were “outraged” by the latter’s attempt to “take hostage of our institution.” They claimed that the mastermind of the anti-Adesina protest is a certain Executive Director  -  Stephen DOWD (American, member of the Ethics Committee) and a group of non-regional Executive Directors who are “not for the good governance of the African Bank of Development but to discredit the candidacy of the current President for his re-election.” The “indignant members” disclosed that they were members of the “Group of Concerned Staff Members” until they discovered that they were being manipulated by Dowd and other non-regional Executive Directors. They asked the Ethics Committee to investigate Dowd. The Concerned Members rebutted this and said the indignant members were never part of their group. 

All the petitioners on both sides of the aisle, pro- and anti-Adesina did not reveal their true identities but it was obvious that there was sharp division within the bank over Adesina’s leadership and tension between regional directors and non-regional directors of the Bank. The externalization of the conflict was bad for the image of the institution. Akinwumi Adesina himself did not hesitate to proclaim his innocence.  In an April 6, 2020 statement, he wrote: “I am 100% confident that due process and transparency, based on facts and evidence, will indicate that these are all nothing more than spurious and unfounded allegations.” Now, with his exoneration by the Bank’s Ethics Committee last week, Adesina can claim to have been vindicated. He received an added morale booster when Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari congratulated him and described him as a good ambassador of Africa and Nigeria. Both votes of confidence should bring huge relief to Adesina’s friends and supporters within and outside the Bank and brighten his chances of re-election for a second term.   

There is little doubt that Adesina’s emergence as AfDB President, his leadership style, and his reform efforts constructed around what he calls the High Fives continue to ruffle some feathers within the Bank. His emergence in 2015 was hotly contested. But with President Goodluck Jonathan, then President-elect Muhammadu Buhari, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and many other African leaders strongly behind him, it was easy for him to score 60% of the votes to beat seven other contestants including Chad’s Bedoumbra Kodje, Zimbabwe’s Thomas Sakala, Ethiopia’s Sufian Ahmed and Cape Verde’s Cristina Duarte (the choice of non-regional members). On his part, Adesina came to the competition with excellent professional and academic credentials - a First Class in Agricultural Economics from the then University of Ife, Nigeria, Ph.D, Purdue University, former Vice-President, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA),  former senior economist, West African Rice Development Association (WARDA),  former senior scientist, Rockefeller Foundation, and Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (2011 – 2015). Above all, Adesina is hardworking, focused, highly driven, cosmopolitan, and self-motivated… We worked together in the Jonathan government. 

The 2015 AfDB election was particularly important to Nigeria. In 2005, Nigeria’s Olabisi Ogunjobi lost the AfDB position to Rwanda’s Donald Kaberuka who went on to serve two terms. To become AfDB President, a candidate must have a double majority of the African and non-regional members. Nigeria is AfDB’s largest shareholder with over 9% of the capital and yet since the AfDB was established in 1964, it was only in 2015, that it got its candidate elected for the first time as President of the Bank. Akinwumi Adesina became the presumptive President on May 28, 2015 and assumed office on September 1, the same year.  He had hardly settled down in office before France began to complain that he rarely speaks French, whereas he is fluent in both English and French. Three Vice Presidents also left the Bank. The conspiracy against him reared its head early, and has re-emerged more aggressively towards the end of his first term. 

Nonetheless, Adesina has had a good run in his first five years as President of the AfDB. No one can doubt neither his commitment and passion, nor his resolve that the mission of the AfDB is to help accelerate the development of Africa, create a new Africa, and provide new opportunities for every African. He has also been very outspoken in promoting partnerships, calling upon bilateral and multilateral institutions to support Africa to build infrastructure, human capital and ramp up economic growth. Under Akinwumi Adesina, the AfDB has consistently maintained its AAA rating achieved under Donald Kaberuka. The Bank is also comparatively more innovative, people-oriented and far more visible. It is better decentralized. Its standing among global financial institutions is strong. The Bank’s income has increased. It is far richer today than it has ever been. 

In recognition of his efforts, Adesina has been widely decorated with honours and awards. He has been named African of the Year (2019) by the African Leadership Magazine; countries have decorated him with their national honours – Senegal, Liberia, Tunisia, Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger, Togo.  Universities have awarded him Honorary Doctorate degrees.  

In 2017, he won the World Food Prize, which is regarded as the Nobel Prize for Agriculture. In 2019, he received both the All Africa Business Leaders African of the Year award and the Sunhak Peace Prize. His critics allege that he uses his position for self-promotion. Every award that Adesina has received as AfDB President is never without an acknowledgement of the achievements of the Bank. He has also used the opportunities presented by his international recognition to promote African causes. The World Food Prize came with a tidy sum of $250, 000 and the Sunhak Prize, $500, 000.  What did he do? He donated all the prize money, his own personal contributions and the support of friends and philanthropists, to set up a Borlaug-Adesina Fellowship Programme and the World Hunger Fighters Foundation to fight global hunger. Norman Borlaug, a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate established the World Food Prize in 1986. The Borlaug-Adesina Fellowship is managed by the World Hunger Fighters Foundation. It has already graduated a number of Fellows. 

But for me, perhaps if there is any personal gain for the bank’s President, it is the manner in which he has managed to emerge as a role model for many young Africans who want to study Agriculture and Economics because of him. They also want to become agri-preneurs because they believe him when he says the future of Africa is in the agriculture value-chain and that agriculture is not land cultivation, but big business. 

Adesina’s finest moment is perhaps not the honours and awards that he has received but his presence at the 45^th G7 Summit held in Biarritz, France, 24 -26 August, 2019.  This was at a time when the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced that it had arrested one Invictus Obi and was looking for about 80 other Nigerians who over a period had been involved in identity theft and wire fraud in the United States. It was a low moment for many Nigerians at home: some of our compatriots had again damaged the country’s image and denigrated the Nigerian Green passport. It was at this exact time that the pictures of Akinwumi Adesina, another Nigerian, showed up in the media, meeting with world leaders at a G7 Summit in France. The G7 Summit is a meeting of the most powerful leaders in the world. And there was Akinwumi Adesina having a tete-a-tete with President Donald Trump, shown in conversations with Chancellor Angela Merkel and others, standing side by side with the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau. Many young Nigerians drew inspiration from this. Their reaction was that Adesina at a critical moment helped to show, unwittingly as it were, that there are gifted Nigerians making positive contributions, who can be admitted into distinguished, global company. Many said they would want to be like him. Others wanted him to return home to run for the Nigerian Presidency in 2023. I am sure Adesina himself would not be so tempted. He must have learnt a lesson or two about African politics when he served as Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture. Participation in partisan politics in Africa requires many adaptations that many intellectuals or technocrats may not be best suited for, except of course, they are willing to take the risk and damn the consequences. 

Hence, understandably, much earlier, on June 14, 2019, at the 54^th Annual Meeting of the Bank in Malabo, Equitorial Guinea, Adesina announced his intention to run for a second term as President of the AfDB. The election was meant to take place during the 55th Annual Meeting of the Bank which was originally scheduled for May 25 -29, 2020 but which due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the “resulting global disruption” has now been re-scheduled for August 25 -27. Adesina’s supporters insist that the attack on him by the “Group of Concerned Staff Members” is meant to politicize and frustrate his re-election bid. Apart from his open proclamation of innocence, Adesina has also been very philosophical about the attack on his person and tenure. A devout Christian and a prayer-warrior,  each time President Jonathan asked him to lead the Council in prayers in those days, you were bound to receive a song and a long prayer with Pentecostal flavor and quiet murmurings from across the Chamber that the prayer warrior should make his supplications brief, and so it is not surprising that as the allegations against him circulated, Adesina occasionally resorted to prayers and Bible passages (Psalm 60:12; 2 Corinthians 12:9) on his twitter account. 

Prayers can help but there is a lot more to be done. The verdict of the Ethics Committee may be favorable but still, that is not the end of it. President Muhammadu Buhari has re-affirmed Nigeria’s support for Dr. Akinwumi Adesina. The African Union (AU) and all the Heads of State and Governments of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have also openly endorsed him for a second term. AU Chair, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and others have, most recently, commended Adesina and the AfDB for announcing a $10 billion facility to fight Corona Virus in Africa. He also enjoys the backing of Africa’s Organized Private Sector. Former President of Liberia, Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson has told Adesina that African leaders trust him. “We trust you,” she said. 

But Dr. Adesina must study the power game a bit more closely. Will his enemies quietly accept their humiliation and sheathe their swords? Do they have any hidden aces up their sleeves, especially as it has been suggested that they are being sponsored by non-regional stakeholders? What is their strength? Can they still do any damage? The AfDB comprises 54 African countries and 27 non-African members, the latest in the latter category is Ireland. AfDB voting power is weighted relative to share of capital, with Nigeria, United States, Japan and Egypt having the greatest share.  Does he have enough numbers to gain the required double majority?  Even if he does, my take is that the re-scheduling of the 55^th Annual General Meeting of the AfDB offers him an advantage. He has the advantage of more time to embark on diplomatic and fence-mending outreaches to turn his adversaries within the system into friends. He and his allies must not ignore those aggrieved “whistle-blowers” or seek to shame them. This is not the time for triumphalism. The right thing to do is to engage the naysayers. Adesina’s overall goal should be a united, inclusive, democratic and open AfDB, not a divided institution. The AfDB must remain focused on its development objectives not in-house politicking. 

In 2010, Donald Kaberuka (Rwanda) was re-elected by acclamation. Before him, Omar Kabbaj (Morocco) was also re-elected in 1995. There is no reason why Akinwumi Adesina, a sole candidate, should not be re-elected. He has earned it. Nigeria deserves it. The Nigerian Government should stand by Adesina to ensure his re-election. 

This is a piece around and about what I have seen about Corona Virus in Nigeria, from a sociological perspective, and not a report of any pathogenic experience. It has been more than a month since the Federal Government placed Lagos and Ogun states, and the Federal Capital Territory on a lockdown on account of the spread of COVID-19 in those three parts of the country. Ogun state asked to be allowed to join the lockdown a week later to allow the people in the state to stock up on food and other essentials which is why as Lagos and the FCT began from May 4, what the President of Nigeria referred to as a “gradual and phased” easing of restrictions, Ogun State will remain on partial lockdown till May 10. Other states of the Federation following the President’s cue have also announced a relaxation of the lockdown which most of them imposed in line with Section 8 of the Quarantine Act and enabling state laws. 

While the lockdown lasted, I was able to go to the Arise TV studio to co-anchor The Morning Show (TMS), armed with every possible piece of evidence to show that I was on the road as an essential worker. Not many people have acknowledged the fact that journalists like health workers are frontline workers in the face of COVID-19. No matter how bad a situation may be, in times of war and disaster, it is the duty of journalists to be out there on the field, to report the situation, act as the bridge between government and the people, offer analysis, news and entertainment and help society. It is therefore surprising that stakeholders are not pushing the idea of a Media Intervention Fund to support media houses reeling from the impact of COVID-19. Here in Nigeria, both the electronic and print media are suffering. With businesses shut down and the people locked up at home, sales have dropped. In pursuing the news, journalists are also often exposed to extreme danger. Globally, 55 journalists have died from COVID-19 in 23 countries.   

On my way to and fro the studio, I observed in the first week of the lockdown, that the streets of Lagos were literally empty.  It was a different Lagos: ordinarily a city of crazy traffic snarls, Lagos roads looked desolate and for the period that this lasted, I silently wished that the city could be just as peaceful on a permanent basis. Lagos roads are ever so chaotic because of urban planning crisis and the failure to institute a functional multi-modal transportation system in the city. The only reliable means of transportation is by road. There is no metro line in place. There has been so much talk about water transportation by successive administrations in the state but that doesn’t quite work either. Every morning, half of the people in the mainland part of the city troop out of their homes to go to work on the Island, and they return in the opposite direction every evening. No one has made any attempt to decentralize the city and ease congestion. COVID-19 provided an opportunity to see what Lagos would probably look like if it was a much better planned city. 

In the first week, I saw policemen, soldiers, officials of the Federal Road Safety Corps and the Neighbourhood Watch mounting checkpoints at strategic parts of the city. It looked like the lockdown was working. But by the second week, everything had begun to change. Many Lagosians could not stay at home for long.  I noticed a horde of persons trekking towards the Island, converging at bus stops in open violation of the lockdown order. In parts of the city, young men in the neighborhoods turned open spaces into football fields.  Every major football league in the world had been suspended, every sporting event that involves any form of contact between persons had been postponed, but around Lagos, young boys were playing their own tournaments, something they called in some places, “the Corona Cup”. I often wondered every day, why the security agents on the road, seeing this and the danger it posed, did not bother to disperse the suicidal football players. I also began to see groups of persons huddling together in the early hours of the morning under the guise of physical work-outs and exercise.

As the days passed, it began to look as if the security agents were now part of the problem.  In Delta state, there was the report of a young man who was gunned down by soldiers at a COVID-19 checkpoint. They had asked him to stop but one thing led to the other, and the fellow was murdered. Policemen in Lagos and elsewhere went to bars and restaurants and markets and brutalized persons on the grounds that they defied the rules on lockdown and social distancing. The highhandedness of the security agents added to the people’s anxiety. However, the attitude of the security agents was at best, ambiguous. Some of them behaved as if they were genuinely on the road to enforce the lockdown, others behaved as if this was an opportunity for them to engage in a power tussle with the people. 

One morning, I was stopped at a checkpoint. The police man who came to the car didn’t look or sound friendly at all. 

“Officer, well done. I am a journalist. I am on way back from the office.” 

“Which one is journalist? Have you not heard that you people should stay at home? What are you doing on the road wearing coat, putting tie for neck?”

“Officer, you see, journalists are exempted from the lockdown. We fall into the category of essential workers. The President himself said so. A journalist is just like you at this time of COVID-19.” 

The man cut me short. He brought up his gun to a higher level without pointing it in any direction. I respected myself and kept quiet. Some security agents had only a week earlier killed a man in Warri South. 

“Who is talking about journalist? You dey compare me to journalist?” I said nothing. “Where is the proof you are a journalist?,” he barked.

I told him that I would provide whatever proof he needed, but on the condition that he will not touch my identity card, or the letter from Arise TV. I brought out the letter and my identity card and I asked him to look at both from a distance. The man was literally foaming at the mouth. He looked rough and dirty. He yelled at me: “How am I supposed read the letter and your identity card from inside your car?” I told him there is something called social distancing. Has he heard of it? 

“I beg go away with your wahala! Na dat one we dey talk? “, he bellowed and immediately flagged down the next vehicle.  As we drove off, my driver who had been watching the entire exchange offered an opinion: 

“Daddy, you sef. All those things you were telling the man, why do you think he will be interested? The man was drunk. All those things about essential worker, social distancing do not mean anything to him. You should just have given him money.” 

 “I will not bribe any security agent. I have a right to be on the road!,” I quipped.

But it was not always that the security men on the road proved difficult. Most of the time once they saw the press sticker on the windscreen, they would not even bother to stop the car. A few of them tried to double-check. I recall telling another policeman: “Journalist! Media!”.

“Oga, I don see the signboard for your windscreen oh. But anybody fit carry placard say dem be media. Wey your Coro-permit?”  Coro-permit. That was a new one on me. Could it be that the government had been issuing COVID-19 permits and I was not aware? 

“Officer, Coro-permit? What is that? I am not sure I have a Coro-permit.” 

“Coro-permit. Every journalist wey don pass this place get Coro-permit. When we ask them, they show  us. Oga, wey your own?”

I brought out a letter and showed him. He looked at it from a distance, and screamed: “Oga, you get Coro-permit! Na your Coro-permit be dat.” 

The policeman and I started laughing as he waved us off. I laughed all the way to the studio! Coro-permit!         

But there was no cause for laughter when after the lockdown in Lagos was modified and markets were allowed to open between 10 am and 2 pm, I had an encounter with a female Federal Road Safety Corps official. On this particular occasion, the driver and the housekeeper had gone to the market to buy foodstuff. The standard practice was that the driver will not drive onto the main road. He will park inside the Estate and the housekeeper will walk down to the market, while the driver waited for her. But due to the crisis of youth restiveness that reared its head by the third week of the lockdown, with less privileged persons and young boys attacking neighbourhoods and asking to be fed, the Residents Association took a decision to lock up every gate, leaving only one of the gates open in order to monitor movements. For this reason, the driver and the housekeeper claimed they had to drive onto the main road. 

Somehow, they overstayed in the market. By 2:05 pm, they were already calling me frantically. They had been arrested by a Road Safety team, and the vehicle had been seized. I asked them to give the phone to the most senior FRSC official in the team. I introduced myself to her and pleaded that she should “please, let my people go”. She refused. She said a big crime had been committed and that everyone involved will be punished. She even threatened that if I dared to come to their office, she would release the younger persons and detain me along with the car. I begged her again to release the food items and allow the young persons to come home. She refused and cut off the phone. I called back and asked the driver to take the phone to her.  She snapped at me:

“Mr. Man stop calling me. I don’t care about any Benjamin Abati or what did you call yourself? I won’t release this car.”

“But Madam, how about the food items?”

“Those food items are part of the exhibits!”

My driver later called back to say that he thought there was a solution to the problem. There were other persons whose vehicles had been seized, and if they offered money, they were promptly released, but the only problem was that the Madam would not collect N10, 000. It had to be more than N10, 000. I was advised to find something like N70, 000. I became infuriated. I told the young man, I would not pay a penny, instead he should try and get me the offensive officer’s name. His subsequent response was that she was not wearing a name tag. I resolved to prove to the woman that her job does not include being rude to others just because she wears a uniform…But she subsequently realised her folly and allowed “my people to go”. 

On May 4, the easing of the lockdown began in Lagos and other parts of the country. The Nigerian government is depending on the security agencies to enforce its guidelines. That can only work if security agents act with discretion and common sense. I am very skeptical about government’s decision to relax the lockdown so early. In a previous piece, I drew attention to the failure of such a similar step in Denver, Colorado, during the Spanish Flu of 1918. Attention has also been drawn to a similar mistake in Marseilles, France between 1720 and 1722 during the bubonic plague. Businesses in both instances mounted pressure on government but the easing of the lockdown merely resulted in more infections and deaths. My fear is that the Nigerian government is about to make the same mistake. I hear it is called herd immunity: in the face of an epidemic, allow the people to go out, those who will live will, whoever will die, will die. This herd immunity response is a kind of religious providentialism but when people do not listen to science, they may end up counting the cost in terms of body bags. As it was in the past, so it is now. In the United States, there is an agitation nationwide for the lifting of restrictions but in the states where this has been done, like Georgia for example, there has been a spike in infections. There was a similar outcome in Germany recently. Nigeria must avoid copy and paste solutions to COVID-19. The numbers are rising and yet we want to re-open, even in Kano state where a toxic combination of corona virus and a leadership virus is killing the people in their hundreds. 

In Lagos, yesterday, people trooped out in their thousands. The hitherto empty roads were busy, jam-packed. There were large crowds in front of every bank. The public buses were filled to capacity. For the first time in five weeks, there were traffic gridlocks again. Curiously, I did not see security agents on the road. Across the country, Nigerians besieged markets, banks and bus stations as if COVID-19 is a fictional tale.  Apparently, what the people heard was that they were now free to go out. I am not sure they heard that part of the statement about “gradual and phased easing” and the guidelines announced by government, particularly the need for social and physical distancing. The Presidential Task Force has asked them to “take responsibility”, which simply means “You are on your own. We as government have tried our best. We have also offered you advice. Take it or leave it.”  It is unfortunate that a country will leave the people to their own devices so soon, in the face of this murderous pandemic. Government should not hesitate to review or reverse its decision if there is a sudden explosion in the number of COVID-19 cases. Endangering people’s lives is not in the country’s best interest. 

The global economy is in a tailspin. IMF and the World Bank have both predicted a contraction of the global economy with developing economies likely to be worst affected. This situation is the direct result of the menace of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the energy crisis that the world faces. With many businesses and factories on lockdown, with the tourism and travel industry playing possum, the world is confronted with a demand and supply shock, and a financial and economic shock in addition to a catalytic global health crisis, the end of which no one knows. Commodity dependent countries like Nigeria, Algeria and Angola, in the absence of buffers to deal with endogenous and exogenous shocks are in dire straits. The Micro, Small and Medium Scale Sector is also facing special difficulties. In a country like Nigeria where SMEs account for about 85% of the economy, many businesses are bound to declare bankruptcy or die off, sending millions of persons into the unemployment market. Before COVID-19, Nigeria’s unemployment rate stood at over 23%. This will get worse. Nigeria’s GDP growth profile for 2020 has been downgraded from a possibility of 2.4% to about 1.3%, and with projected contractions of 0.5% in the first quarter and 0.3% in the second quarter, Nigeria’s economic outlook for 2020 and beyond is severe. Many other countries are in a similar situation, even if the degree of vulnerability varies. 

Only last week, Arik Air took the decision to cut the salary of its staff by 80% for the month of April; by May, it says it will ask 90% of its workforce to proceed on leave without pay until further notice. Arik Air expects its staff to understand the situation in which the company has found itself. In March, the Nigerian government shut down the country’s airports to prevent the importation of COVID-19 cases into the country. Arik and other airlines, as is the case with other airlines worldwide have not been able to do business or earn regular revenue. Another company, Mikano International Nigeria Ltd., has already sacked over 600 of its workers due to the biting effect of COVID-19. More companies are bound to take similar steps, to cut cost and ensure business continuity. What makes the situation worse is that the adverse economic impact of Corona Virus is bound to last longer than the disease itself. This is probably the most disruptive aspect of the current global experience.  

The effect is already most telling at the individual and household levels. Many have referred to the similarity between COVID-19 and the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918, but except for a minority of persons who were alive in 1918 and are still alive today, the fact is that the present generation is totally unfamiliar with a pandemic of this scale. It is for us, a strange phenomenon. It has disrupted our lives and our world. Many bread winners have lost their bread. In many homes, pronounced poverty has become a reality. As lockdowns continue, families find their resources being depleted, or they sink deeper into debts, as an epidemic of empty pockets rears its head. Thus, a poverty pandemic is certain, especially in developing countries where there are no social safety nets, or unemployment benefits, and when that is combined with a COVID-19 pandemic, the consequences could be fatal for society. 

Meanwhile, in many African countries, both governments and the people are arguing over whether or not a prolonged lockdown can help check the spread of COVID-19, and how best Africa can adjust its response strategy to basic realities in the continent. For example, Africa has a huge population of self-employed persons in the informal sector: an army of cab drivers, motorcyclists, barbers, event-centre managers, hairstylists, make up artists, artisans and traders who work daily to earn a living and are now stranded at home, unable to sustain themselves. Their home economics has been violated. Their daily source of income has been wiped out. While the rich may have savings and be able to fall back on financial reserves, the poor who hardly ever save, and rarely have any surplus to save for the rainy day, because for them it rains every day, are most vulnerable. The effect as seen in Nigeria, is that many people are beginning to defy the lockdown order and government’s determination to enforce it. The hungry and the angry can be seen on the streets of Lagos begging for food and money, or threatening to attack the rich. There is a looming crisis of social unrest. Business owners are also beginning to suggest that it may perhaps be more advisable to ease the restrictions to allow businesses to function. Nigeria recorded its first index case on February 27. President Muhammadu Buhari announced the lockdown of Ogun, Lagos and the FCT on March 29. States subsequently imposed dusk to dawn curfews and shut down their borders. 

But where is the trade off?  Should we cancel the lockdown and allow businesses to re-open, so people can keep their jobs and businesses can make profit? I do not buy the argument that businesses should re-open. We must avoid the mistake made by Mayor William Randolph Mills in Denver Colorado, United States, in 1918. Denver was shut down for five weeks during the Spanish Flu but as business owners began to mount pressure on the Mayor, arguing that the plague was under control, and that life should return to normal, Mayor Mills succumbed. It was a decision the city regretted. More people died – 8,000 in total. Nigeria must tread cautiously and avoid the error of imitation. It is better to be patient than to become patients.  The urge to protect or attract investments should not supersede the need to protect the people from themselves. 

On that score, African governments are often obsessed with the search for investments, even if many of these countries fail to provide the necessary infrastructure, enabling environment, and policy framework to support business, either local or foreign. This has been a major challenge for Nigeria too, but whatever efforts that may have been made to improve the environment have also been affected by the shocks and uncertainties occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic. Investors like to hedge their bets and minimize risks. Whereas it has been said that certain aspects of the economy stand to gain from the current situation, such as tech finance, telecommunications and agri-tech startups, the reality has been in the shape of capital flight, disruptions in the markets and distortions that could precipitate a long-lasting financial crisis. 

Let us remember that investments and businesses were the first to take the Corona Virus hit. From Asia to Europe to the United States and everywhere, stocks crashed. In the month of March alone, the Nigerian Stock Exchange lost over a trillion Naira. Portfolio investors dumped their investments and tried to convert their stakes into dollar, thus putting pressure on the Naira, the country’s national currency. The Naira depreciated quickly, forcing the Central Bank to close its multiple Forex windows and adjust prices – a euphemism for currency devaluation. The New York Stock Exchange at a point had to shut down. Stock Exchanges across the world, including Nigeria’s have since opted for remote trading. Trading has always occurred on the floor of the market each time markets opened, but Corona Virus has driven every floor broker into holes. Even foreign remittances from the Diaspora, a major source of support for African economies, have shrunk, and that may be the case in the short to medium term window. The challenge that governments face is how to turn the challenges of today into new opportunities for a re-set. Investors are bound to remain careful and watchful, especially in volatile sectors. There is no point jumping the gun. 

The effect of the disruption is perhaps best magnified by the crisis in the global oil industry. With the global industrial complex shut down, the oil industry faced a demand and supply crisis, resulting in a sharp drop in the spot price of crude oil. In the last few weeks, oil prices have fluctuated between $65/barrel in January to as low as $22/barrel by March 30, and up to $34/barrel by April 8, and about a week ago, the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) went into negative territory, selling at below a dollar per barrel due to a demand-supply-storage crisis. Brent Crude dropped to as low as $19/barrel only to improve slightly in the face of tensions in the Middle East between the United States and Iran. In March, an OPEC+ meeting to agree on production cuts in order to ensure a balance between demand and supply, and hence stabilize prices, ended in a stalemate, and a price war, as Russia opposed the move. By April, OPEC+ and non-OPEC members eventually agreed to a 10% production cut, but this was a case of too little, too late. 

Oil revenue accounts for about 80% of Nigeria’s foreign exchange revenue and provides the benchmark for its budget. Nigeria’s 2020 budget originally had a crude oil benchmark of $57/barrel, and a production output of between 1.7 million to 2.1 million barrels per day. With the crash in oil price, and the OPEC+ production cuts, Nigeria’s Budget 2020 was turned upside down; its production quota has been further reduced. The Federal Government has since revised the benchmark downwards to $30/barrel, and shaved off close to half of the budget. Nigeria may have to review its 2020 budget benchmark again, and the situation could get worse if uncertainties persist in the global oil market. Right now, Nigeria is already operating at a loss. At least one commentator has predicted that the country faces a Venezuela or Zimbabwe-like situation. Growth is stagnant. Inflation is rising: at 12.26%, there is no indication that the figure for April ending will be better. The energy crisis occasioned by COVID-19 should be a wake-up call for mono-cultural economies like Nigeria, and a pointer to the importance of diversification. As it is, Nigeria faces a revenue squeeze, a sovereign debt crisis and a liquidity crisis. Federation Accounts Allocations (FAAC) shared monthly between the Federal Government and the states have dropped from a projected N888.5 billion to N716.36 billion in January, and N647. 4 billion in February, with a slight rise to N780. 9 billion in March. The share for April and May/June could drop to as low as N400 billion, which is why the Federal Government is seeking foreign loans and the withdrawal of N150 billion from the Stabilization Fund component of the country’s Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF). The need for economic reform in Nigeria has never been more urgent than now. COVID-19 has exposed fault lines and vulnerabilities in Nigeria’s economy and its health and education sectors. 

The long and short of it is that the economics of Corona virus or Coronanomics, shows the interconnectedness of everything, that is the value chain of human existence from biology to economics, politics, technology, trade, investment, race, culture, identity and everything else. In the face of such infinitude, what is most required is leadership to help the people regain a sense of balance and restore all things that may have gone awry. Where leadership fails, the people’s misery is made worse, but the leadership also pays a price. When the New York Stock Market crashed in October 1929, Herbert Hoover (R) who had distinguished himself as a great mobiliser of relief efforts after World War 1 was the President of the United States. But his failure to manage the Great Depression, tactically and realistically, ruined his reputation.

In 1932, he lost the Presidential election to Franklin Delano Roosevelt (D). Roosevelt introduced the New Deal and an effective stimulus package that was backed by the Federal Government. This helped the United States to recover faster than other countries. Many countries were still battling with the Depression until World War II broke out in 1944. The quality of leadership made all the difference. Roosevelt was re-elected four times as President. Hoover is not remembered as a great American President. FDR died in office as one of America’s greatest. The cause of the Great Depression of 1929 -1944 may have been economic or financial, and the cause of COVID-19 may be biological, but there are clear areas of convergence in terms of economic and political impact. The fortunes and legacies of political leaders today may rise and fall with COVID-19 and its various fall-outs. 

The common denominator, so far, is the attempt by governments to protect and save lives and the economy. China is ahead in moving quickly from pandemic to economic recovery. The United States, UK, Canada, Russia, Japan, United Arab Emirates and other countries have announced different stimulus packages to cushion the effect on households and businesses. In Nigeria, the government has also introduced a number of measures and initiatives. But many questions have been raised about the quality of our government’s intervention and strategy. Nigeria has a reputation for doing the right thing the wrong way. We see that at play. There are yawning disparities in the delivery of Conditional Cash Transfers and doubts have been expressed about the enabling criteria and the absolute numbers. Nigeria is targeting 3.6 million households, and a total of 11. 6 million persons who are considered poor and vulnerable because they have less than N5, 000 in their bank accounts and cannot afford to buy up to a N100 worth of recharge cards. In a country of 200 million people, even if this cash transfer is well-managed, it would amount to a non-intervention. Food palliatives have also been announced in the form of release of 70, 000 metric tonnes of grains from the National Grains Reserve. Yet, a few days ago, the Oyo State Government openly rejected 1,800 bags of rice donated to the state by the Federal Government on the grounds that the rice was infested with weevils! 

Corona Virus confronts Nigeria with basic Economics and Sociology 101 lessons. Nigeria may well end up not as one of Ruchir Sharma’s BreakOut Nations (Norton and Company, 2012) but as a Break Down Nation. Nobody can predict the point at which the country’s leaders will begin to understand the difference between both. The relevant lessons lie in the nexus between politics, economy and leadership.      

 Late Abba Kyari

Aso Villa, Nigeria’s seat of presidential power is bereaved. On Friday, April 17, 2020, it recorded its first major casualty of the Corona Virus disease, in the person of the President’s Chief of Staff, Malam Abba Kyari. With Kyari’s death, Corona Virus has claimed its third high profile victim in Nigeria. Before Kyari was the former Managing Director of the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), Suleiman Achimugu and Ambassador Kabiru Rabiu, the first index case in Kano. As at the time of this writing, Nigeria has recorded a total of 21 COVID-19 deaths. But Kyari’s death resulting from complications related to COVID-19 has a different hue, and given the high office that he occupied, has understandably attracted more attention. I knew the late Chief of Staff from a distance. In my days as Chairman, Editorial Board/Editorial Page Editor of The Guardian newspapers, Abba Kyari was one of our regular contributors and he was quite a compelling contributor each time he submitted a copy. 

I do not remember ever rejecting any essay that he penned. His writing style was lucid, with every sentence in place.  His understanding of public affairs was unimpeachable. He had been a journalist, rising to the position of an Editor, he also had a background in sociology, law, public administration and banking and he had strong connections with persons in high places. His essays showed an astute understanding of Nigeria and its many problems. The only problem was that he wrote long essays and commentaries but he got published nonetheless, often in a serialized format, because of the beauty of his thoughts and the lucidity of his prose which had an irresistible Oxbridge accent. Graduates of Cambridge and Oxford are trained to write in a peculiar manner: they are strong on logic and lucidity. But I don’t recall ever meeting Abba Kyari in person. We always spoke on phone and exchanged intellectual banter and I can attest to the fact that he was one of the brightest ones from the North. 

The closest opportunity I would have had to meet him in person was two years ago. I had written an essay in this column and he called to protest that I didn’t have enough information. He argued the government’s position. I disagreed. He then told me to call him up whenever I was in Abuja, and he would be glad to continue the argument and give me relevant documents.  I eventually found myself in Abuja and I called him. But his line was busy. It was clear to me that as the President’s Chief of Staff, he had a very busy schedule and could be often unavailable. That passed. There were other phone calls from him subsequently. But the one that I can never forget was a phone call from him on my birthday last year. I missed the call because I was busy co-anchoring The Morning Show on Arise TV. He later sent a text message: “Good morning sir, to wish you a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY, didn’t know Segun Adeniyi is your senior!!! Best wishes always. - Abba Kyari.”  As soon as I got off the set, I called him back. He said he was in London and with the President. He just wanted to wish me a happy birthday and see if the President could also say hello to me. But he was no longer with the President, happy birthday to me all the same. I thought that was very kind of him.  

With Abba Kyari’s death, Nigeria has lost a hardworking, dedicated, public-spirited intellectual, a man who wanted the best for his country, a loyalist and a patriot. It is instructive that Abba Kyari contracted the COVID-19 disease while on national assignment as the head of a Presidential delegation to Germany to negotiate a subsisting and on-going, proposed intervention by Siemens in Nigeria’s electricity sector. From Germany, he went to Egypt and on his return he held meetings with government officials and state Governors. Many Nigerians, including Nigeria’s First Lady, Aisha Buhari, and the National Security Adviser, General Babagana Monguno have had cause to complain about Abba Kyari’s overwhelming influence as President Buhari’s Chief of Staff.  Others referred to him as Nigeria’s de facto President. When he tested positive for COVID-19, there were comments to the effect that this was a case of Karma, because he had no business going to Germany in the first place. From that moment, his enemies wished him dead. Those enemies must not jubilate. As Chikwe Ihekweazu, the CEO of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) tells us - Corona virus “is not Karma. It is a virus, an infection.” For the benefit of those who accused Kyari of hijacking Presidential powers, my understanding is that there is no way any staff of the President can be more powerful than the President. What exists in the corridors of power is the same laws of power that have dominated palaces and power centres for centuries. Those who have the eyes and ears of the man of power, and who enjoy access to him, are bound to be more influential than those who do not have that advantage. Such persons are bound to be targets of envy, palace intrigues, in-fighting, mischief and malice directed at them by other influence-and-access-seekers whose protests are usually borne out of selfish interests of their own rather than any concern for public good. 

Abba Kyari was probably the most influential Chief of Staff in Nigeria’s Presidential Villa since the return to civilian rule in 1999, comparable only, with essential differences, to Obasanjo’s General Abdullahi Mohammed, and Mike Oghiadhome during President Jonathan’s early years in office. General Mohammed was a strong Chief of Staff but he could not overshadow his boss, President Olusegun Obasanjo who was an equally capable man and a workaholic. Oghiadhome ran the Jonathan office with clock-work efficiency but he also could not upstage his boss because President Jonathan was a hands-on, healthy, hardworking boss. Those who accuse late COS Kyari of being a surrogate President may have been unfair to him. He only became so dominant because the President allowed him. Both Abba Kyari and President Buhari needed each other and I’d rather remember him as a loyal and efficient man who ran the engine room of the Presidency diligently and kept everything together from 2015 till the time of his passing. He was also very self-effacing. He didn’t hug the limelight. He did not try to outshine the Master. His influence was felt and ascribed, not something he himself shouted on the rooftops. He helped his boss to build bridges. He was a perfect courtier and a master of the game of entrenchment. Most of the people who condemn him merely base their impressions on hearsay. 

One of the first messages I received after Mallam Kyari’s death read: “Reuben, I now fully agree with you that some demons are in the Villa in Abuja.” The message was in reference to a controversial article I wrote in 2016 titled “The Spiritual Side of Aso Villa” (The Guardian, October 14, 2016)  in which I argued, based on experience and direct observation, that Nigeria’s Presidential Villa is a haunted place, overtaken by demons and magic, and that anyone who works or lives there is a potential victim. The biggest achievement for anyone who works in that Presidential Villa would be to leave the place alive, and not to lose a family member, contract a deadly disease, or to go back home with all kinds of life-long afflictions. My thesis was opposed by persons who had never spent a minute inside the place, and whose objections were based on their own untested beliefs. Very few persons worked in the Villa since 1999, without making a sacrifice. Officially, Abba Kyari died of COVID-19; because he was elderly, and had other health complications, he could not defeat the disease. But I will not argue with those who go beyond science to adduce metaphysics for his case. Abba Kyari probably became a target the moment President Muhammadu Buhari publicly identified him as the go-to person in his government. In the court of power, when a leader openly identifies a favourite, he or she becomes a target for all kinds of arrows – verbal, physical and spiritual. Abba Kyari never knew peace from that point onwards. He lived long in any case. He was 81, we are told. Some persons insist he was 67. It is only in Africa that simple things like dates of birth or death are matters of speculation and controversy.     

So, what next for President Buhari? He must now appoint a replacement for Abba Kyari, and in so doing, he would need someone with the same intellectual heft and skills. The stability of his administration would depend greatly on how well he manages this moment of transition in the Presidential Villa. In appointing a replacement, he should look beyond ethnicity and religion and appoint a seasoned, experienced and competent administrator, who also understands politics and power. That said, there are many lessons to be learnt from the passing of  Malam Abba Kyari and certain unanswered questions need to be addressed.  One, if money could save a life, Kyari would be alive today. He was treated in a private hospital which must have been more expensive than an isolation centre. After his death, he was flown from Lagos to Abuja. His burial was also handled by a specially deployed team wearing Personal Protective Equipment. At great risk to their own lives, some persons followed his corpse to the Defence Guest House where prayers were held and Gudu Cemetery in Abuja to witness his burial. The Presidency insists that the right protocols for the burial were followed, and that the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control gave necessary approvals. The ceremony as shown on television however raised concerns. Nobody observed social distancing and it looked like there were too many people at a COVID-19 burial. The protocols were observed more in the breach! There should be a standard burial protocol for all COVID-19 persons. Didn’t the Minister of Information say the other day that COVID-19 corpses will not be released to their families? The public will need further clarification on this score. There must not be different rules for different people. And why did Kyari have to relocate from Abuja to Lagos to get treated? Are there no standard isolation centres in Abuja that can accommodate a top official?

One big lesson from it all is that COVID-19 is not a respecter of persons. It is an unbiased, egalitarian, non-discriminatory, non-partisan disease. Both the rich and the poor have fallen by its sword. In the last few days, there has also been an attempt by key persons in the Presidential Task Force to demonize private hospitals treating COVID-19 Task Force members. Could that have been as a result of Abba Kyari’s condition? Could Abba Kyari have survived if he was treated at the Lagos state isolation centre where many cases have been successfully managed? In ordinary times, Abba Kyari would have been flown in an air ambulance to the best hospital in the world. But with the entire world shut down, and every country in isolation, countries are left with no other option than their own healthcare systems. African leaders have failed over the years to invest in the development of world-class health infrastructure. Their standard option is to embark on medical tourism to seek treatment for the smallest of ailments, including toothache. In the time of COVID-19, this has been impossible. Hopefully when all of this is over, COVID-19 will prove to be a wake up call and a call to action, forcing African leaders to upgrade healthcare systems from the primary to the tertiary level. 

When Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom tested positive for COVID-19 and began to have respiratory problems, he was treated at St. Thomas Hospital, a publicly-owned hospital, by NHS nurses and doctors. He survived and has since been discharged. In his subsequent broadcast, he had words of commendation and praise for the NHS staff that attended to him. Our public health facilities should be good enough to cater for both the poor and the privileged. In addition to that would be the need to take better care of our health care professionals. The same health workers whose salaries and allowances are often unpaid, and who are perpetually threatening to go on strike are now the ones leading Nigeria’s war against corona virus. Sometime last year, the Minister of Labour and Productivity boasted that Nigeria has more than enough doctors and any doctor that wanted to seek greener pastures overseas was free to do so. Today, every country of the world is acknowledging the great work being done by doctors and nurses and other medical staff on the frontline and calling for volunteers.  Only a healthy country can be a productive country. We can learn a lesson from the transparent leadership demonstrated by UK PM Boris Johnson. Why for example was the identity of the Lagos private Hospital where Malam Kyari was treated shrouded in mystery for so long? And why was a large gathering allowed at the internment of the late Chief of Staff? Every person at that burial in Abuja should be corona-shamed and asked to self-isolate for the next 14 days! 

Abba Kyari’s death should also provide an opportunity for introspection about life itself. Life is short. No man can live forever. Nobody knows tomorrow. For Abba Kyari, the journey ended suddenly. Before he left Abuja for Lagos, he had issued a statement in which he said he hoped to get back to his desk shortly. He never made it back to that desk. He has now been buried not in Aso Rock, but in Gudu, in a shallow grave. The coffin in which his body was conveyed to the cemetery was left behind and set ablaze. The Presidency says there will be no condolence visits. Death is the most certain end for all men. Those who are tempted to gloat over another man’s death should be reminded of their own mortality… May the Almighty comfort the family that Malam Kyari left behind and grant him Al Jannah Firdaus. 

Whenever man is confronted with a terrifying aspect of the world in which he lives, his natural instinct is to seek to understand the new phenomenon and bend it to his will. Pre-historic man opted for ritual as a means of mollifying and dominating his environment, but man soon moved from the age of rituals to the age of science, the advancement of which conferred on mankind enormous powers of manipulation and exploration, and the illusion of omnipotence. The paradox, however, is that the more man conquers his space, the more he is confronted with the realization that there is still a lot about the world that he is yet to know. Science has helped man, but it has also failed him, and each time man is confronted with yet another unknowable, he falls back on his primordial code of religious ritual. 

Man also tries to tame nature, still, Nature continues to show him that there is something else that is beyond man. The limits of science that man has experienced is a reminder of the fact that man with all his intelligence cannot alter the Order of Things and of Nature. It is therefore instructive that the current Corona Virus pestilence has been traced to man’s tampering with animals: eating all kinds of animals, from snakes to bats, selling them in the markets, both clean and unclean animals, against the order of nature. When man engineers and suffers for his own vulnerability, he simply attributes the occurrence to a mysterious force, and at that moment, he remembers the superiority of the Cosmos and of an Original force that he refers to as God, and worships through the vehicle of religion. 

This has been an aspect of COVID-19. Religion has played a prominent role in the spread and containment of the disease, as cause and effect, as explanation, as obstacle and as balm and risk, with clear indications of the conflict between religious freedom and public good.  It is noteworthy that shortly after the formal announcement of the incidence of COVID-19 in Wuhan, Hubei Province in China on December 31, 2019, the next major item on the Chinese calendar was a religious, cultural and traditional event, the Lunar New Year, the Festival of the Spring, preparations for which actually begins as early as December 23 or 24.  Contemporary attitudes to religion in China are mixed and ambivalent, but even those who insist that the Chinese Lunar New Year is strictly cultural – a holiday period, a time to re-unite with family - do not overlook its religious overtones: the spirituality of it as evidenced by the “send off of the Kitchen God”, praying to the Jade Emperor God (the Bai Tian Gong), ancestral worship, visits to temples, the firing of loud firecrackers, and the staging of the Dragon Dance to scare off evil spirits. China may proclaim state atheism as an ideology, but the people are deeply religious at heart. 

At the commencement of the COVID-19 pestilence, religion was the first victim. China promptly shut down many parts of the country. The Lunar New Year 2020 could not be celebrated. No temple was opened. No dance or festival could take place. Persons who had travelled from one part of the country to the other to observe the two-week Lunar New Year festivity were stranded either in transit or behind closed doors. For me, this was the first indication of the meeting point between COVID-19 and religion. Lunar Year 2020 – the Year of the Dog - is the dullest ever in more than 100 years. The people of China complied. They did not insist that the world will end if they did not send off “the Kitchen God.” Nobody protested that they must have “the Dragon Dance.” People moving beyond superstitions and obeying the call of science is important in the war against pandemics.

As the virus embarked on a trans-national journey, we encountered other scenarios elsewhere. South Korea was the next major stop for the virus after China. As COVID-19 sero-prevalence in that country jumped drastically, it was observed by the authorities that religion was a major obstacle. South Korea which had successfully combatted the SARS-Cov epidemic, with its highly sophisticated medical facilities, suddenly found itself unable to check COVID-19. The figures climbed daily and the highest numbers were reported from the Daegu region. Eventually, the explosion in numbers was traced to a Christian group known as the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, a secretive religious group that is regarded as a cult. Even the Catholic Church called for a dissolution of this occultic church where members refuse to obey rules of social distancing, and hence endanger themselves and others. The 88-year old leader of the group, Lee Man-Hee and 11 others are likely to be charged for homicide and violation of the Infectious Disease and Control Act. Angry South Koreans want the church disbanded. But it was not only in South Korea that religion presented itself as a risk. 

In various parts of the world, believers have become slaves of the faiths that they profess, and ignored the warnings of health authorities and political leaders. On the Muslim side, believers, in search of COVID-19 protection, trooped to holy sites in Saudi Arabia to kiss the Kaaba and receive cure, protection and salvation. The Saudi government has since suspended pilgrimages to Mecca and Medina, and is considering cancelling this year’s Hajj.  Even the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem has been shut down. In Iran, an epicenter of outbreaks, home to major Shiite shrines, the authorities, after weeks of resistance and denial, have finally shut down shrines in Mashdad and Qum. Across the Middle East, Friday prayers have been cancelled. All major holy sites of the Islamic religion are on lockdown. In India, where the people love religious rites like Lollipop, the government cancelled the annual festival in honour of Lord Rama in Ayodha. In Iran and India, the people protested. They were not pleased at all. On the Christian side, churches across the Western world and elsewhere have been shut down. In Italy, another epicentre of the outbreak, and home of the Vatican, Catholic Mass has also since been cancelled.  Even the Pope now conducts virtual Mass. In one church in Italy, members of the congregation were asked to send family pictures. Family portraits replaced human beings in church. Corona Virus has changed the mode of worship and everything else. 

In Africa, the response of religious leaders to COVID-19 has been for the most part, ridiculous, if not absurd, with only a few voices of reason in-between. It is difficult to overlook the opportunism of these African religious leaders. The first pattern that emerged was that of many religious leaders, mostly Christian Pastors claiming that they had predicted the Corona Virus affliction or that they have an idea of what the cure would be. Nigerian clergymen – Prophet G.F. Adetuberu and Prophet T.B. Joshua were said to have predicted Corona Virus long before it happened, and their followers provided video evidence to that effect. The latter Prophet would later speak up when he predicted that COVID-19 will disappear after a heavy rainfall on March 27. Many Nigerians looked forward to that rainfall on March 27. People tend to believe pastors and astrologers in Africa. On March 27, there was no heavy rainfall, and the number of COVID-19 cases in Nigeria has increased geometrically since then! 

Other Pastors have also offered solutions. By February 5, a Ghanaian Pastor, Daniel Obinim, CEO of the International God’s Way Church launched a Corona Virus Anointing Oil which he claimed would cure the disease. A bottle of the oil costs 200 Ghanaian Cedis (about 37 US dollars) and according to him, it has been approved by the “heavenly department of the FDA”.  Obinim would later deny the claim. But there has been no denial yet from a Kenyan colleague of his, Climate Irungu Wiseman, founder of the Bishop Climate Ministries in Camberwell, London who is also selling a protection oil called Plagues Divine Protection Oil, at the rate of 91 pounds per bottle. Bishop Climate claims that his oil works and he has since sold over 1, 000 bottles. In Nigeria, Pastor Elijah Ayodele also says he has found a Corona cure: holy water and anointing oil- the only difference is that he is willing to give out his solution free of charge. It is not only African pastors that are guilty. Pastor Kenneth Copeland says he can blow Corona Virus away.  Pastor Jim Bakker, another US televangelist claims he can cure corona virus too. 

The effect is that across the world, the religious right has been defying stay-at-home restrictions to hold vigils and prayer sessions in the belief that Corona Virus can be cured through supernatural means. They have in many countries received the support of political leaders. In the last month, the Presidents of the United States, Uganda, Kenya, Ghana and South Africa have declared National Days of Prayer. The Vatican is not left out. On March 27, Pope Francis declared a Special Day of Prayer. He was joined by Catholics worldwide. Religious groups have also declared special days of fasting and prayers. This may be an expression of faith and social solidarity, but it has also prioritized superstition over science. It has also prompted many church-goers to reject the health guidelines on Corona virus and insist that they are covered by “the blood of Jesus”. But of all the claims by Pastors that I have read about, the most ridiculous would be that of a certain Nigerian Prophet, Dr. Goodheart Val Aloysius, the Metropolitan Senior Pastor of Father’s House International Church in Calabar. “My Father, My Father” as he is otherwise known, has called on the Nigerian government to gather all COVID-19 patients in the country together in one place and on Monday, April 13, he will pray for them and they will all be healed. He says if he fails, the government of Nigeria should ‘hang” him. It will be nice to see a rope around the neck of many of these Pastors who have been misleading people. The Federal Government should take him up on his offer, and get the hangman ready. 

So far, security agents have had cause to disperse worshippers who fail to obey the rules of social distancing, but perhaps the time has come for religious leaders to be arrested and punished. In Lagos, Nigeria, two Pastors have generated even more disturbing controversies by claiming to know the source and nature of the Virus. On March 27, Pastor Johnson Suleman of the Omega Fire Ministries was reported as having said that the virus is a “chemical weapon” invented by the Chinese to embarrass US President Donald Trump. He added that the disease is spread through testing and hence, Christians should not go for testing or use any Corona vaccine, lest they are turned into slaves under a New World Order. The dust had hardly settled on Apostle Suleman’s conspiracy theory when another famous Pastor, Chris Oyakhilome stretched the New World Order Theory further by announcing that there is a connection between 5G technology and Corona Virus and that the Nigerian Government is laying 5G fibre cables in Abuja and Lagos to promote an anti-Christ agenda. Whatever may be the purpose of these Pastors making all kinds of claims, they have not been helpful at all. Corona Virus has turned pastors into scientists, herbalists and historians. They should be called to order!

The bigger problem may well be that political leaders are also buying into the spiritual narrative and after days of lock-down in Nigeria, many state Governors are beginning to lower their guards. Last week, the Katsina state government announced that it had lifted the ban on Friday Jumaat prayers. In Bauchi state, the state Governor Bala Mohammed who tested positive for COVID-19, and later tested negative, went straight to the mosque for Friday prayers. The pictures did not show him observing social distancing! Some other states in fact more or less suspended the stay-at-home order. In Abia, Ebonyi, Ondo, Ekiti, and Niger states, Christians were told they could go to church for Easter. Ondo state has since done a volte-face after recording a second Corona case. In Abia, the excuse is that the state has no reported case of COVID-19.  Governor Okezie Ikpeazu in fact boasted that there will be no COVID-19 in the state because it is the only state in Nigeria that is mentioned in the Bible! Ikpeazu has a Ph. D in Biochemical Pharmacology. Corona Virus is beginning to make ordinarily intelligent people sound strange. On Friday, mosques in the Middle East were empty. On Sunday, the Pope conducted Easter Mass in an empty Cathedral. Africans are busy carrying received religion on their heads! If they were making original and informed statements, we would understand, but most of them are merely imitating the ultra-religious right in Europe and North America without making an effort to think.   

The duty of the religious community and its leaders is to support the people and lead them aright, not to use Holy Books to promote disease, murder and suicide. But let us reserve words of commendation for those religious leaders who have demonstrated leadership and commonsense.  Some churches and mosques, in the face of it all, have contributed in cash and kind to the war against COVID-19, in addition to the direct distribution of relief materials to aid the poor. I also salute those Nigerian Pastors who have refused to join the 5G conspiracy theory and any such other theories. In Rivers State, Governor Nyesom Wike, on Thursday, April 9, held a state-wide broadcast in which he relaxed restrictions on religious gatherings for Muslims and Christians in the state. The Catholic Church in the State opposed the Governor’s directive and asked its congregation to stay home and stay safe. That is leadership. No political leader should politicize COVID-19. Wike eventually reversed himself. At the appropriate time, there will be need to look at the heroes and villains of the Corona Virus season, surely most of the villains will be political and religious leaders who opted for myth, conspiracy, superstition and witchcraft. Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari has extended the lockdown order in Ogun, Lagos and the FCT. Ekiti state has also done so. Religious bodies must comply. 

Social distancing is a privilege. It means you live in a house large enough to practise it. Hand washing is a privilege too. It means you have access to running water.  Hand sanitisers are a privilege. It means you have money to buy them.  Lockdowns are a privilege. It means you can afford to be at home. Most of the ways to ward the Corona off are accessible only to the affluent. In essence, a disease that was spread by the rich as they flew around the globe will kill millions of the poor. All of us who are practising social distancing and have imposed a lock down on ourselves must appreciate how privileged we are. Many…won’t ve able to do any of this” – Jayshree Shukla, India, March 22, 2020. 

To the relief of many Nigerians who had been inundated with conspiracy theories about the status and whereabouts of President Muhammadu Buhari, and his level of involvement in the war against COVID-19, the President, obviously in response to pervasive public opinion addressed the nation in a televised broadcast on Sunday, March 29, more than a month after the first index case in Nigeria was reported. As at the time of that broadcast, the country already recorded 97 confirmed cases and 2 deaths. This was a jump of more than 400% in one week.  The numbers kept increasing. Fear gripped the land. Whereas Africa had significantly low numbers compared to the numbers of confirmed cases and deaths in Europe and the United States, African countries faced a similar exponential rise in COVID-19 figures. With the fragile health systems in Africa and shortage of medical personnel, many African countries were compelled to ramp up their COVID-19 containment measures. President Buhari’s broadcast could not have been more auspicious: a better late than never effort nonetheless.  He provided an outline of all the measures that had been introduced so far by the Nigerian Government to stem the tide of COVID-19. He also announced additional measures to protect livelihoods, businesses and the Nigerian economy. 

There were many grey areas in the President’s speech, but it was obvious that the government was going through a learning curve. How for example would Nigerians access the cash transfers that was promised? Schools across the nation are all on holiday, yet the President announced a school-feeding programme? Attempts have since been made to either modify or clarify some of the grey areas. The biggest of all the measures, and the most far-reaching is the announcement of a cessation of all movements in Lagos, and Ogun states and the Federal Capital Territory for an initial period of 14 days with effect from 11 pm on Monday, 30^th March 2020. “All citizens in these areas are to stay in their homes.” Food processing, distribution and retail companies, petroleum distribution and retail entities, power generation transmission and distribution companies, media workers, seaports and private security companies were exempted. The lock-down became effective as directed, except in Ogun State which asked to be allowed to commence its own lock-down on Friday, April 3 to allow the people to stock up on food and other items. President Buhari singled out Lagos, and the FCT because these are the two areas with the highest number of COVID-19 cases, and Ogun - because of its proximity to Lagos. As it turned out, state Governors also took the initiative to either declare a curfew in their states or shut down their borders. There has been a race to set up isolation centres across the various states. 

The lockdown in Nigeria is meant to enforce social distancing, and to check the spread of COVID-19, a measure that has been adopted globally to prevent persons from transmitting the disease. But here in Nigeria, the lock down has done more in terms of exposing and highlighting the character of our people, their circumstances, the attitude of state agents and the socio-political implications of the initiative. This has prompted calls for an African solution to COVID-19, and the description of social or physical distancing as an imported Western response. Africans by nature are communal; they are brought up to imbibe the philosophy of “ubuntu”: that is “I am, because we are”, and this is expressed in various forms: they eat together, indeed in many cultures, out of the same plate or bowl. They are happier when they are in a gathering either in the villages or in the cities. To ask an average African to lock himself up at home could be an inversion of his social reality. Even if it is possible for the mentally colonized middle and upper middle classes in Africa to observe social distancing at home and outside, it is near-impossible for the poor. The rich live in comfortable neighbourhoods, in flats, mansions or duplexes with small household units of not more than 4 or 5 persons, the poor live in slums and rural areas where they are huddled together in one room, or a room-and-parlour, in a six or eight-room building occupied by probably eight families, with each family having a minimum of six children, and all the tenants have at best access to just one communal bathroom, one toilet, and a well in the yard as source of water supply. In the rural areas, most families live inside a small hut. It is probably better to disperse such persons than to ask them to stay at home in the face of a communicable and deadly disease like COVID-19. 

Besides, many Africans earn their living on a daily basis. They are farmers or fishermen or traders who must go to work in the morning to survive. Sub-Saharan African countries do not have social safety nets, the types that exist in developed countries. In Nigeria, more than half of the population lives below the poverty line. Over 40 million persons are unemployed or underemployed. They have no access to food stamps or unemployment benefits. For these persons, life is a daily struggle. Even the employed are either under-paid and over-worked and their salaries and pensions are not paid as and when due. The other problem is that not many Africans believe in science: they are committed to traditional, superstitious beliefs: the animistic belief that there is no problem that cannot be solved spiritually through witchcraft, sorcery or the use of herbs and rituals, or the religious conviction that pastors and imams have the powers to solve any human problem. Getting such persons to respect science is a problem. In Osun State, for example, one Corona patient ran away from the isolation centre. He had to be hunted down and brought back by security agents. Poverty and ignorance complicate the people’s situation. The worst part is that the people do not trust their governments. This alienation between the people and their leaders makes the management of COVID-19 in Africa far more challenging. 

By the third day of the lock-down in Lagos State, the chickens had come home to roost. On the first day, there was relative calm as people generally tried to obey the stay-at-home order. On the second day, Lagosians had begun to complain, and rebel. I saw young men on the streets, playing football. Or simply walking up and down. On Wednesday, April 1, the Federal Government modified the directive by declaring that shops and supermarkets could be open from 10 am to 4 pm, and food markets from 10 am to 2 pm. It was a rather strange announcement because there was nothing said about how people are supposed to access the shops and supermarkets, since the ban on transportation was not lifted. What was meant to be a form of relief for the people ended up fuelling their anger. In parts of the country some state governments set up emergency food relief centres and embarked on the distribution of food items. Private individuals and non-governmental organisations also provided food and water in various places which in principle is a demonstration of public-spiritedness, but the relief efforts, public and private, were poorly co-ordinated. 

The poor fell over each other to collect packs of food or COVID food items, without observing social distancing. Government officials in Lagos State ended up receiving condemnation rather than praise. The people protested that they would rather be out on the streets to seek their own food and survival. One woman, a mother of four, disclosed on television that all she had left was N700, which is less than two dollars. The President announced cash transfers but we have only seen some government officials distributing raw cash. The Private Sector Coalition against COVID-19 and some individuals have raised as much as N19. 9 billion, but the poor people of Nigeria are more concerned about the risk of part of the funds ending up in the pockets of government officials.

Many Nigerians remain in denial, both rich and poor. They don’t understand why they should be told to stay at home or maintain social distance. In Cross River State, the Governor has made the wearing of facial masks compulsory for every one in the state, with penalties for disobedience. It is a way of forcing the people to realise that in these unusual times, health safety guidelines must be obeyed. The people’s reluctance to do so, has brought them in conflict with the security agencies. On Friday, April 3, a strong-headed Muslim cleric decided to hold evening prayers in Agege, Lagos in violation of the lockdown order. The worshippers were dispersed by security agents. Market women who did not obey the rules have also been forced to comply. On Sunday, April 5, the police arrested a celebrity actress and her husband for staging a crowded house party in Lagos. They have been charged to court and convicted. 

The only problem here is the high-handedness of the security agents. Rather than help the people through persuasion and advice, they have for the most part resorted to force. In Warri, Delta State, a soldier shot and killed a man who allegedly refused to stop at a checkpoint when he was flagged down. In Lagos, two soldiers in a recorded video that went viral, threatened to rape women and infect them with HIV for daring to challenge the military. In Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, a Police Sergeant assaulted and broke the arm of a medical doctor who insisted he was out and about on essential duty. The situation is the same in Uganda where security forces have been accused of excessive use of force. The best way to save the people from themselves is not by killing or maiming them. African governments must resist the temptation to use the excuse of COVID-19 to further dehumanize the people. In Botswana, however, where a 28-day lockdown has been declared, the people are complying without the security forces having to enforce the order. Different scenarios in Africa depending on the level of trust between the state and the people and the level of engagement. What is important is that the enforcement of lockdowns must be strictly within the ambit of the enabling laws. 

State authorities must be careful not to ignite a social crisis that may result in riots and mass revolt. Rather than take advantage of the people, because of the lockdown, security agencies should pay more attention to a likely rise in crime and social unease. One woman was on television the other day to lament that someone stole her pot of soup in the communal building where she lives. She had left the kitchen briefly. By the time she returned, her pot of soup had vanished! That is how it starts. For as long as the lockdown persists, without sustainable support from government, people will steal food and other things in order to survive. African leaders may end up paying a bigger price for neglecting their people over the years and for failing to build strong institutions. 

Steps should also be taken to stem the tide of infodemic, that is the alarming spread of misinformation. On Saturday, while taking notes for this commentary, I was bombarded with stories about how Corona Virus is linked to the 5G communication technology. I learnt that 5G masts were already being destroyed in the UK by angry citizens. Before I could investigate this any further, I received an international call from a very jovial friend:

“My brother,” he said. “I greet you Coronally, Coronally”. 

“Ore, compliments of the Corona season oh,” I responded. 

“A ku lockdown oh”

“I hope you are good at your end. Please keep safe.” 

Then all of a sudden I thought I heard something that sounded like a cough at the other end. I didn’t know when I threw my phone away on the bed. I had just read about 5G and the internet of things (IOT) and the likelihood of a radiation tsunami. What if it is true as alleged that viruses can travel electronically? 

“E ma wa ko ba mi jare? If you know you have a cough, or you are sneezing, don’t call me on phone! It is not good to take chances with this heartless COVID-19,” I muttered.  

The truth has since been told about 5G by those who should know. It is not the anti-Christ. It is not the Corona Virus. People are just so hysterical, one of the ways they try to cope is to just make up stories perhaps to manage the terror of time and uncertainty. Some Nigerians insist for example, that Nigeria should not seek the assistance of Chinese medical experts or accept any donations of test kits or ventilators from any foreign source. They think there may be a covert attempt to turn Nigerians into guinea pigs. After all, two French doctors – Jean-Paul Mira and Camille Locht - openly identified Africa as the best testing ground for possible COVID-19 drugs. Race is a worrisome dimension of the Corona Virus debate. 

So is the spike in cases of domestic violence and gender-based abuse. Lockdowns ordinarily should strengthen filial relationships especially between husbands and wives, but the opposite has been reported in France, the UK, Spain, the United States… and even here in Nigeria. Self-isolation and social distancing seem to be putting all relationships on trial. Even commercial sex workers have registered their displeasure! On April 1, we forgot to play pranks. On Palm Sunday, the churches opted for elegies, instead of odes. Our world is unravelling.  

Nigeria announced its first COVID-19 case on February 27 - an Italian who came into the country on February 24 and displayed symptoms of the disease while visiting Lafarge Cement Company in Ewekoro, Ogun State. He has been treated and discharged. Since then Nigeria has recorded a total of 111 cases, as at the time of this writing, with two reported deaths. The Nigerian government has introduced a number of measures: monetary measures by the Central Bank of Nigeria, and fiscal measures by the Federal Ministry of Finance. State governments and the private sector are also taking steps to contain the virus, treat the affected and prevent an escalation of the disease. But of all the measures taken so far, it seems to me that not enough attention is being paid to the psychological impact of COVID-19 and its effect on the mental health of Nigerians. Psychology is very important to our management of the pandemic. I am beginning to observe very unusual behaviour among Nigerians. People are responding to the Corona Virus pandemic in very unusual manners that may have a worse effect than the pandemic itself, such that long after the disease may have receded, we could have a large population of damaged persons who may be struggling with the after-effects. 

COVID-19 pandemic is probably the biggest scourge and uncertainty that the world has faced since the Spanish Flu of 1918 -1920 and the World Wars of 1914 and 1944. Uncertainties induce stress. People respond to change in unusual manners and coping mechanisms may be different and elastic. Nigerians don’t seem to be handling the psycho-social implications of COVID-19 too well. With the two-week stay at home order that has now been announced by President Muhammadu Buhari in Lagos, Ogun, and the Federal Capital Territory, we may be dealing with something fatal. How will people cope? How can they be helped to cope while staying at home to prevent a community spread of the scourge?  

I first noticed the psychological crisis that we face when immediately after the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and the Federal Ministry of Health announced that sanitizers, face masks and gloves can be used to protect oneself against COVID-19. Nigerians didn’t take chances. They bombarded all the available shops and super markets. When President Donald Trump assumed the role of a scientist and further announced chloroquine as the clinical solution to COVID-19, many Nigerians bought up all the chloroquine tablets in the city of Lagos. Long before President Buhari announced a two-week lockdown of Lagos, Ogun and the FCT, Nigerians had also already begun to stockpile all kinds of items. It was worse a day after the Presidential address. Even street corner shops had long queues of persons, buying things they may not need, or perishable items that they can do without. A week ago, I went to a confectionery, I saw people struggling to buy bread. One man bought 20 loaves of bread! When he was accused of greed and insensitivity, he told his accusers to shut up. After all, he was spending his money.  At another super market, I saw a guy struggling with three trolley loads of toilet paper. I saw him as he loaded the toilet paper into the trunk of his car. I was actually also going into the same supermarket to buy toilet paper. Afraid that the fellow may have emptied the entire store, I didn’t know when I blurted out: 

“Oga, na wa for you oh. Wetin?”

“What have I done?”, he responded.

“Oga, look at all these packs of toilet paper. Na only you dey shit for Lagos?” 

“Man, you can’t blame me. Have you not seen what is happening in London? People are stockpiling food and other essentials. I advise you to do the same. Buy whatever you can buy because we don’t quite understand how this Corona thing will turn out.”

When I got into the supermarket, I was confused.  Entry was controlled, the managers having adopted what they called a “Q” system. Despite the fact that there was no crowd inside, the few persons allowed in at a time were busy buying every available item as if the world was about to end. I saw a lady with a trolley- load of eggs. I ended up observing other people. I really couldn’t buy as much as I wanted. I felt as if I was surrounded by persons suffering from what psychiatrists call obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), or better still, anxiety disorder. COVID-19 has turned so many persons into mental health cases. Fear has driven the people into all kinds of strange behavior. The fear of dying and suffering is probably at the root of man’s survival instinct. My doctoral research in thanatos and thanatomimesis showed that the fear of dying is perhaps worse than death itself. See, for example: Leo Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Illyich (1886); Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain (1924), and Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, On Death and Dying (1969).  In the face of COVID-19, many are dying silently out of fear, panic and anxiety. Who will save or help such persons?  

Perhaps the biggest psychological indication that I have observed is the crisis of “over-confidence” fuelled by the illusion of control, dangerously complicated by ignorance of an African peculiarity. Over the weekend, I was in Ogun State. I was shocked to see the markets bustling with reckless energy and stupid community spirit. Nobody was observing social distancing. I saw young men hugging each other, shaking hands and carrying on as if COVID-19 was a foreign tale told by idiots. At a point, I had to challenge a group of youths, huddled together, playing draughts (that is -  checkers), excitedly, without a care in the world. 

“Eyin boys, what you are doing is not right. Have you not heard of Corona? You should observe social distancing. This is not the time to play draught, back-slapping, sitting close to each other. Corona Virus kills,” I said. 

“Baba Alaye, e gboju n be. Corona is a big man’s disease. It cannot do anything to us.  It only affects corrupt people. Awa o je gbi, a o le ku gbi. We are not corrupt. Corona cannot touch us. Let the elite deal with their problem. Corona for where? Me sef, I be Corona. If Corona see me, we go look at each other Coro, Coro. Oju koro ki i pa oju koro je.”     

I tried to offer some information. I didn’t want to antagonize them, so I put the blame on the Ogun State Government, not doing enough to sensitize and mobilize the people to see reason and respect Science. I talked about the supremacy of Science in these strange times… It didn’t work. 

“Egbon, oro alakowe le n so yen o. We local people have a solution to it. I know the herbal concoction that will drive Corona Virus away, by the time I use herbs, with incisions and spiritual meal, Corona will pick race so fast, it will find itself back in China. Awon a ti tani. Egungun be careful.”

I was perplexed. Corona Virus is a matter of life and death. It does not respect geography. It does not distinguish between members of Nigeria’s political parties: it doesn’t know whether you belong to the Peoples Democratic Party or the All Progressives Congress. It is a contagion, a deadly, infectious disease. The smartest scientists in the world are struggling to understand what it is. Some characters sit in Nigeria’s rural communities and insist that they have a herbal formula or a spiritual formula that can cure Corona Virus. If Corona Virus moves from Nigeria’s cities to the hinterland and rural areas, we should expect death on a ferocious, Italy-like scale. 

I mentioned ignorance earlier. There are also some religious leaders going about telling the people that Corona Virus cannot touch Christians or Muslims. One popular Pastor even preached on Sunday that whoever goes for testing is likely to be infected and so, no Christian should go for testing because Corona Virus is a manifestation of the anti-Christ. In Katsina, one Muslim cleric insisted on holding Friday prayers in defiance of official directives. The State Task Force on Corona Virus dispersed the crowd. What followed was that some of the members of the group stormed a police station and burnt down the vehicles in the compound. They said they were defending their right to pray and assemble. They are mad. Every Pastor or Imam who violates the rules on the containment of COVID-19 should be arrested and made to face the full wrath of the law.  

Some Corona Virus lawyers have also been quoting the law and insisting that government does not have the right to shut down borders or states or ask people to stay at home. You see: the psychological aspect of Corona Virus should be addressed! Law is made for man, not the other way round. Corona Virus is a threat to human existence. No responsible lawyer should insist on those rights that can accelerate the extermination of the human race. Whoever is not happy should go to the courts and test the law: there are enough laws and precedents to sustain a counter-argument. 

Along the spectrum of the psychotic disorder that COVID-19 has generated is the growing community of hypochondriacs and germaphobes. Have you met anyone like that in the last few weeks? I have. I am talking about the “don’t-touch-me” “don’t-come-near-me”, “maintain-social-distance” crowd. These are overnight scientists. When they step out every morning, it is as if they are approaching a war zone armed as they are with face masks, sanitizers, and sanitary wipes. One even sprayed me before I could say “good morning”. They have become obsessed with COVID-19. They soak in every piece of information on social media, particularly WhatsApp where a unique type of psychosis is on display. Every minute you are likely to get a forwarded message saying one thing or the other about the disease. I can’t fully recall all that I have read - from conspiracy theories to jokes to treatment advisory: turmeric, ginger, lemon and all sorts. 

Ordinarily, human beings are tactile. They like to relate with one another. We like to touch each other. All of a sudden, we are being told that we cannot touch, hug, kiss or do all the things we ordinarily do. Social distancing has disrupted our lives. I try to imagine what life would be like after Corona Virus. We simply have to re-learn the habits that used to govern our lives. Even the way we speak has changed. Corona has affected human language and may find its way into the English Language dictionary. One famous phrase today is COVIDIOTS – persons who refuse to self-isolate or respect official health advisory on Corona Virus like the Pastor who says the disease is anti-Christian and the Imam whose followers attacked a police station in Katsina. You may also have heard of the word CORONIALS. These are children who may be born in the season of Corona Virus, products of love and passion in the time of COVID-19. 

I recall meeting a lady the other day and somehow we started talking about Corona Virus, the key subject of the year. She told me: 

“My biggest problem is that my husband is now always at home. He likes to watch football, but there is no football anymore on TV.  All the European Leagues have been suspended. He has become restless and demanding. I don’t know how I will cope with him.” 

“Madam”, I said as quietly as I could. “Don’t worry. You will be fine. The worst that can happen is that in nine months’ time, we will come for the naming ceremony of a CORONIAL baby.”

“Me? I reject that. I am done. What do you think I am? A baby-making machine?. You can’t sexualize me. I am a professional,” she thundered.

I didn’t push further but a big concern about the Corona Virus lock-down is that nine months from today, we may end up with a spike in Nigeria’s population. Husbands are being forced to stay at home with their wives. A week ago, commercial sex workers in Nigeria were already complaining that Corona Virus is not good for business. The stock exchange in that sector has crashed, far worse than the spot price of crude oil, and the crisis in the foreign exchange market. All the customers are now at home. They are not allowed to keep roaming about, sowing wild oats. 

In Germany, a state official committed suicide because of Corona Virus. SUICIDE! But perhaps we should also worry about substance abuse. Across Africa, people are abusing drugs, herbs and alcohol. I have seen young men in our local communities who insist that Corona Virus cannot survive in an alcoholic environment and so from sun up to sun down, they are busy taking alcoholic drinks to attack any virus that may find its way to their throats. To the best of my knowledge, the only link between alcohol and COVID-19 is the advisory that we must all use alcohol-based sanitizers. I have also heard the tale being bandied around that Corona Virus is an evil spirit and that marijuana and cigarette will neutralize it. I don’t think that is true. But of course, the COVID-19 crisis has created a virtual and physical industry in myths, conspiracy theories and fake news. The way I see it, the world is going crazy and we need to deal with that. 

Governments, in countries, where it is possible, should not just mobilize doctors and nurses, they should immediately mobilize psychologists, psychiatrists, mental health experts, and counsellors who can help stem the tide of global psychosis, before and after COVID-19. The latter is even more important because the pandemic is disrupting the equilibrium of households and livelihoods. It has also made small scale entrepreneurs who are hiking prices for opportunistic reasons crazy. Unfortunately, the emerging poverty and hunger viruses may last longer than Corona Virus. We are certainly in a tight corner. Beyond social distancing, we should reach out to one another as a community and as friends, families and colleagues. The short and long term solution to this plague probably lies in collective strength, co-operation and good leadership at all levels.   

Devil is on the loose,
Fire is on the loose
This could be our noose
Unless we cut the noose

Someone loves the noose
He rigidly fiddles for the noose
Cos he has nothing to lose
If we all face the noose

Our necks are tightened by the black noose
Black patriots cry about the noose
Even white strangers cry about the black noose
Yet fat messengers of the noose
Indolently remain on the loose
To praise the hands of the noose
Till the raging fire of the noose
Consumes us with herdsmen's noose

Who then shall tell the news of the noose?

(c) Hope Eghagha

This is my third commentary on the Corona virus pestilence (see “E ku Corona o” – ThisDay, March 3, and “Amala and the Corona virus patient” – ThisDay, March 10), and now, three weeks later, the most important subject still remains this mysterious plague that has changed the way we live, the way we think, the nature and character of markets, physical and futures, the face of globalization, relationships, and the world as we know it. This is not the first time a pestilence will afflict the world: commentators have traced the genealogy all the way to pre-historic times, with the most often quoted being the Biblical times, at the time of the 10 Egyptian plagues and  the travails of Jews in Egyptian captivity, 5^th C, BCE, as narrated in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, the Plague of Athens (430 BC), the Black Death (1346 -1353), the American Plagues (1519),  the Great Plague of London (1665 -1666), the scourge of cholera (1817), the Spanish flu which infected 500 million people (1918 -1920), and in more contemporary times, the outbreak of  HIV/AIDS (since 1981), Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) – since 2002,  Zika (2015 -2016), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) – since 2012, and Ebola – since 1976, most impactful 2014 -2016, 2018 -2019. But whereas the death rate for these other diseases may be on the high side, the current strain of Corona Virus code-named COVID-19 has proven to be worse than anything else mankind has seen. It spreads like wildfire. It has no known confirmed cure and science has not yet fully decoded it. World leaders from Boris Johnson to Donald Trump, UN Secretary General, and Angela Merkel have compared what the world faces and is experiencing to a state of war, and indeed mankind is at war, a different kind of war, which exposes humanity to the full extent of its own vulnerability.  

In the natural chain of being, man sees himself at the head of the chain. He imagines himself to be the master of the universe, the most wondrous creation of God, gifted with immense cognitive powers to dominate and master the environment and modify nature to his own will. At the height of his glory, man celebrates his own genius and invincibility. Epistemological advances from pre-history to the present have thus been about man and the beauty of his capacity to tame nature and the environment and cast himself in the image of God. But for all his accomplishments, the biggest irony is that the more man seeks knowledge and attempts to master nature, the more he is reminded of the dimensions of the unknowable, the infinite immensity of the Cosmos, and the more this happens, man strives further, literally struggling with the proverbial task of Sisyphus in one myth and that of Atlas in another. In the face of this existential, or ontological dilemma, man is ultimately reminded that he is no more than a gnat, a very small part of the cosmos. Covid-19 is a reminder of this infinitesimality of man in the scheme of things. 

It is also a  most humbling experience about the power of science and reason, for it is clear to me that even if science catches up tomorrow with this rampaging mystery, and the Gordian knot is deciphered, there is no guarantee that humanity will not again be confronted with another challenge. Natural disasters have buffeted the world. Corona Virus has dismantled the well-known Elizabethan Chain of Being template on which many societies are based, even Queens and Princes are in self-isolation today. Celebrities and the High and Mighty have been humbled. The streets are empty. The markets are grappling with unusual demand and the crisis of supply. The world is literally on its knees. We are all left wondering: why? We can’t touch surfaces. We cannot hug loved ones. We cannot sneeze or cough. Or kiss. We are told to stay away from others. The same world that is supposed to be a global village has suddenly become a vast collection of neighboring but isolated islands. All the things that make us human are suddenly weaponized as tools of separation by a pestilence called Corona. In the year 2020, mankind has been reminded of the limits of its own intelligence. Is this a test? From where? And by whom?  Or is this a case of man overreaching himself, using his own intellect and ego to self-destruct and cause havoc for the community of a hitherto “coherent” whole? 

Throughout known history, whenever man faces a crisis of such unknowable nature, his tendency is to resort to religion, faith, and ego. Ego, first: man believes in the worst of circumstances that he is invincible. In the face of Corona Virus, we have seen scientists racing against time, we have seen competition between the United States and China – the race is more about who will be the first to find the cure. Added to that is the racial dimension amplified by the megalomaniacal US President Donald Trump who insists on referring to COVID-19 as the Chinese Virus. This is not the the time for the world to play the politics of ego. What humanity needs is social solidarity in the face of one of the worst manifestations of Evil since the Biblical Last Temptation. Faith, second: Human beings are animals of faith. They simply believe that no matter what, they will defy every odd. This is the source of all the conspiracy theories around and about Corona Virus: from black people insisting that black does not crack and that even Corona Virus cannot affect a black man to the delusionary thinking that Corona Virus cannot survive in the Tropics. The same people have since heard about the status of Idris Elba and his wife, both as black as this writer, but they won’t listen. They have been told that a Nigerian in Canada, another in the UK,  and another Nigerian in Nigeria yesterday, have died of Corona Virus, still they won’t believe. They insist that the consumption of alcohol or brewed Neem leaves (Dogonyaro as it is known locally) would help. President Donald Trump turned himself into a self-appointed Chief Medical Director of the world when he announced that the use of chroloquine phosphate is the cure for Corona Virus. He has since been disowned more or less by the US Food and Drug Administration agency, the FDA, which says it is still investigating possible cures for Corona Virus and has not made any discovery to that effect. Nonetheless there are persons around the world who by Trump‘s say-so have embarked on chloroquine self-medication.  President Trump’s declaration is irresponsible. Over the weekend, Nigeria recorded cases of chloroquine poisoning simply because some people listened to one powerful fake doctor called Donald Trump. World leaders have every right at this moment to empathize and show solidarity but they also have a duty to make only strictly responsible statements.  

Religion: I have left this as a last point to be addressed because this is precisely what many fall back upon in a season of distress and so it has been. As Corona Virus arrived in Africa, and made its landing in a few countries, the people trooped to places of religious worship in typical default response. Africans, victims of Karl Marx’s often wrongly contextualized statement that “religion is the opium of the people” usually blame God for everything. They regard God as the ultimate solution, indeed as the know-it-all-Being, the invocation of whose name can provide all answers to everything on earth. Richard Swinburne, a theist argues in his book - Is There A God? (Oxford University Press, 2010), that whereas the existence of God is “the ultimate brute fact”, human beings also have “obligations” or what he calls “supererogatory good actions” or “moral truths” to which they must abide even as they profess their love for God. Africans often mix this up. As the Corona Virus pestilence spreads in the continent from one or two cases to over 1, 500 cases and over 50 deaths, more of the people rely on the assurances of Pastors and Imams who promise a cure or advertise the possibility of it. In Ghana, one Prophet said he had found an anointing oil to cure Corona Virus, and the Chief Imam of the same country reportedly announced that all Muslims are now free to consume alcohol to combat Corona Virus. While Europeans and Asians are in quarantine, Africans rush for anointing oil, alcohol and herbal solutions. When Trump proclaimed chloroquine as cure, they obeyed him robotically. In Nigeria, pastors and all sorts have come up with passages in the Bible to justify the pestilence and how the cure is spiritual. Corona Virus vigils and special deliverance programmes have since been announced across communities.  The people ignore science and reason and decide to follow religion. It is the most scandalous part of the experience so far in Nigeria. The matter was put to the test just this last Sunday. 

By Friday, the Federal Government of Nigeria had announced that no church or mosque or any event at all should have a congregation of more than 50 persons. To our utter surprise, the Friday prayer worship was held in mosques across the country. Every announcement that Jumat prayers had been shut down in Iran and the entire Middle East, and that Nigerians should do the same, fell on deaf ears. The people insisted that it is at a time like this that the people need God. The Christians repeated the offence on Sunday. Lagos and Ogun state governments had to call out Task Forces to disperse church services which violated the official directive that every one should observe social distancing. In Lagos, event centres were sealed off, bars and restaurants were shut down.  What is it about our people? 

There is a video now making the rounds on social media about how some persons in Zimbabwe had to be caned to get them out of church on Sunday. Nobody caned people in Nigeria. But given the fact that nobody has any right to endanger the lives of others or even commit suicide, I am recommending that this week, should any strong-headed person refuse to obey the directives on social distancing, either on Friday or Sunday, such persons should be physically whipped by Nigeria’s law enforcement agencies. Nigeria has recorded up to 40 cases of Corona Virus with one death. That was how it started in China, Italy, Iran, the US and the UK.  Nigeria should not become the epicenter of Corona Virus in Africa, just because some people believe that God will do it. The painful truth is that many Nigerians, Muslim and Christians alike, including the educated, suffer from the “Jerusalem syndrome.” This is the biggest threat to all efforts so far to contain the spread of Corona Virus. The Jerusalem syndrome is a form of mental disorder, a kind of delusion, the pain that believers inflict on themselves. Extremely religious people behave as if they want the world to come to an end, in line with their expectations and tantrums. They should not be allowed to put all of us at risk. 

Christopher Hitchens who likes to identify as a libertarian anti-theist, is the author of a book titled “God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything” (London: Atlantic Books, 2007). He argues in Chapter Two of the book that “Religion Kills” and in Chapter Four he writes: “A Note on Health to Which Religion can be Hazardous”.  It is perhaps not an accident that in South Korea, the most affected group is a religious congregation. Italy, the home of the Vatican, is the epicenter of the pestilence in Europe and has since displaced Wuhan as the global epicenter.  

Friedrich Nietzsche before eventually proclaiming the Death of God (1882), wrote about what he called the “futility of an illusion”, that is the illusion that religion can save humanity, or the futility of illusions that we embrace in order to make life possible. Sigmund Freud in 1927 wrote a similar book about The Future of an lllusion. Today, we are in the age of illusions. There have been too many illusions especially around the subject of the Corona Virus. People ignore the reality and embrace illusions. They want to live but they ignore the biggest threat of the decade. This is why in Europe, sanctions are being imposed on persons who refuse to obey the social distancing and lockdown rule. The UK Prime Minister has promised more drastic measures if people refuse to stay at home. In Italy, the police are out on the streets to arrest those who defy the Corona Virus order. Nigeria must follow up all existing measures with strict sanctions for those who continue to embrace the illusion that Corona Virus is a foreign virus. It is not. The pestilence is here. 

For a fact: Nigeria has adopted a number of measures: schools have been shut down, airports have been closed, state governments have responded, some steps have been taken to protect the economy and businesses (not far-reaching enough), but the big missing link, I insist, is the absence of sanctions for those who continue to argue that the pestilence means nothing because they believe “something” will protect them. That something may feed their illusions, but it may not protect others. It is because of such persons that Nigeria should impose strict, enforceable sanctions. As we have seen, Corona Virus is not a respecter of boundaries, nations, persons, status, faith or size. What is missing is what Nietzsche calls the “gymnastics of the will”, the will to confront a wicked problem with reason and common sense. Rwanda, Ghana and South Africa are doing much better than other African countries. Nigeria has the largest population in the continent. It carries a much heavier burden of its own and for the sub-region, if not the continent. We need more purposeful leadership, and a greater sense of urgency. Let me end this with this:  China has often proclaimed its love for Africa. It has managed so far to combat its own Corona Virus burden. Will it step forward at this critical moment to help Africa or look the other way?  

In the world of literature and the arts- imagic, plastic, graphic and visual – there is no power in the hands of one dominant, tyrannical individual as may be found in partisan politics, power is located in a widespread but felt realm of imagination, distributed into the hands and minds of many individuals, agents and reincarnations of the Muses, who distinguish themselves with the fecundity of their talent, the awesomeness of their imagination, and their natural capacity to build, illuminate, re-define and extend the traditions of human thought and accomplishments. It is our duty as a community and as beneficiaries to celebrate these special individuals whose outputs transcend the boundaries of colour, identity, race, ethnicity and religion, and who by their efforts in the kingdom of the imagination, affect, enrich and transform our lives. From the village, ancestral griots in Africa, to the ritual priests of Egypt, the priests of ancient Hellenistic post-ritual enactments, the gladiators of Roman festivals, through the centuries to the Alarinjo, Ayinla Omowura, Rihanna, Beyonce, and Tiwa Savage and all the poets, drummers, the dancers, actors and actresses, painters, wordsmiths, and the models who capture time and  space with their hips and swings, my firm belief is that humanity owes those who think, create, and engage society with their reconstruction of verbal and non-verbal imageries, a great debt of gratitude. Today, I devote this column and pay tribute to one of such persons: Odia Ofeimun, the poet, polemicist, author, journalist, publisher, and politician who turned 70, yesterday, March 16. 

At 70, Ofeimun has lived through many of the great events of post-independence Nigeria  and he is without doubt, one of the most articulate and persistent chroniclers and critics of that experience. He is a key voice in the perpetual search for a transformative, regenerative Nigerian revolution. For the better part of his life, Odia Ofeimun has devoted his time and energy to the task of “taking Nigeria seriously”, and yet this is a country that hardly rewards commitment and diligence. Instead, we reward characters who have no clear understanding of what it means to “take Nigeria seriously”.  In a country of 200 million people that can hardly generate up to 4, 000 MW of electricity, one clown from Niger State showed up in the Senate the other day and proposed a bill to ban generators. In Odia Ofeimun’s native country, so many other clowns have showed up over the years, but that has not deterred him from “taking Nigeria seriously.” Every brilliant Nigerian who continues to take Nigeria seriously is a patriot and an agent of change and hope. 

The man I celebrate today, Odia Ofeimun achieved intellectual maturity quite early and under quite inauspicious circumstances and this should serve as a lesson to the younger generation. Born and raised in Iruekpen in the Ekpoma Division of what later became known as the Mid-West, Odia Ofeimun arrived in Lagos as a secondary school drop-out and with nothing other than Primary School education. His father was a rich mechanic who fell on bad times. His grandfather was a man of noble extraction, with many wives and an active, fertile loin. Faced with family misfortune, Odia found his way to Lagos. His first job, as he told me the story himself, was as a factory worker in Ijora-Badiya area of Lagos. The name of the company is West African Thread Company. He did night-shifts, carrying load and managing to sleep wherever nature called. This did not discourage him.  He studied privately on his own and eventually wrote the School Certificate Examination, the famous GCE. He passed. He also enrolled privately later for the Higher School Certificate Examination. He also passed. In those days, the HSC was a prestigious piece of qualification. It was the ticket for Direct Entry admissions into universities. But there was something else about this factory worker: he loved words and he discovered poetry and literature. He scribbled on scraps of papers and notebooks. By sheer accident of fate, he sent a few of his poems to the then Mr. Wole Soyinka, who had become a celebrated African writer, and who was at the time putting together an Anthology of West African poetry. Soyinka has a life-long reputation for responding to every mail, especially from younger writers seeking his attention and support, and also being ready to encourage younger artists in general. In making his selection, Soyinka who did not now who Odia Ofeimun was, selected his poems and included them in the anthology. The factory worker became a published poet! Odia Ofeimun’s life would never be the same again.

Fate would also later bring him in contact with Mr. Bola Ige (as he then was), lawyer and rising star in the political firmament of Nigeria’s Western region.  Ofeimun’s HSC result got him a place at the University of Ibadan where he studied Political science.  He once told me Chief Bola Ige (as he later became) supported him financially. A few years ago, Odia Ofeimun visited the same factory in Ijora, Lagos where he was just a factory hand. He was surprised to find some of his old colleagues still on duty!  They had heard about his accomplishments. They were excited to see one of their own who had now become a superstar on the global stage. Ofeimun’s story is inspirational. Every young man who is depressed and thinking of ending it all at the Lagos Third Mainland Bridge, Nigeria’s suicide highway should remember Ofeimun’s story, the son of a bankrupt mechanic who made a name for himself on his own steam. Odia Ofeimun does not have billions in the banks, he has no powers to remove a traditional ruler from office, but the President of Nigeria has issued a statement congratulating him on his 70^th birthday!         

From a small factory in Lagos as labourer, Ofeimun created a manufacturing factory of his own. The only difference is that he manufactures words. He writes. He talks. He thinks. His factory of words is large, expansive, prodigious, his exports have earned him a solid, unimpeachable reputation. That dirty-clothed factory worker in Ijora is now a foremost public intellectual, and an undisputed leader in his chosen vocation, dressed in his own fashion choice of aso oke attires as a man of culture and as a promoter of African cultural symbols. It is a great privilege to know him.  It is a great blessing to be “one of the boys” of this immensely gifted writer who we refer to affectionately as “Baba” (for he is indeed a father figure in Nigerian arts and culture), or “Owanle” (in his native Esan language, that means “Elder”) or as most of us do, we just call him “Odia.” He doesn’t mind. He is a man completely without vanity, pretentions or affectations.

The thing that appeals to me most about him is his formidable intellect, which confers on him an unmistakable authority in both personal and intellectual circumstances. His mind is nimble and rich. He is able to turn every conversation into an argument and enrich it with his advantage of rich exposure. He is an orator even if he lacks the diplomacy of an orator seeking to win an audience to his side. Odia does not seek to persuade. He challenges you and he can be very obstinate with his views. He has an uncanny capacity to switch the template in an argument, he will take ownership of your argument, explain it better with facts, history and anecdotes, dismantle your original argument and then insist on his own original position. This unusual talent has brought him into conflict with those who consider him too intellectually aggressive and uncompromising. When he speaks, he sounds like he is writing. When you read his writings, he sounds like an orator’s delivery with all the emotions. This is both an advantage and a disadvantage. He got a full measure of the implications of this when as Secretary General and later President of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), he thought he was in a position to direct the past, present and future prospects of the association. He was stoutly resisted by those who thought he should not be allowed deploy literary leadership as a tool of management and organizational knowledge. Many years later though, it is beginning to look as if he was the actual owner of some, not all, of the arguments.  

Odia’s big shortcoming is that he does not hesitate to make his position very clear and he has enough vocabulary to prove his point. He is a voluminous thinker. Whereas his poetry is precise, his prose is a big volume of words, carefully scored to a rhythm. Every subject for him is a philosophical problem wbich must be analyzed to the point of exhaustion. Odia’s essays do not end; they stretch into other arguments.  Long before Corona virus became a public health crisis, Odia Ofeimun infected the younger generation of Nigerian thinkers with the coronavirus of thought and ideas in the public domain.

What we have in return is a rich harvest of over 40 books and seminal essays. A balance sheet of Odia Ofeimun’s public career further reveals a number of high points, beyond the narratives above. One, he was the Private Secretary to Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the legendary and iconic Yoruba leader in the middle and later part of the 20^th Century. Ofeimun competed for that position with some Yoruba sons, but he was Awo’s choice. Awo did not know him. He had never met him. He got the job purely on merit. Awo was a living legend and sage. Working for him was like serving tutelage at the feet of an Avatar. In due course, it was reported that some documents escaped from Awolowo’s private bedroom which showed up on the pages of a national newspaper, and exposed the great Awo to gross embarrassment. The Yoruba elements who never wanted Odia Ofeimun on the job conspired against him, and made him the scapegoat. Till today, nobody knows exactly what happened. But I am shocked that each time this topic comes up, Odia refuses to be malicious. He remains an Awoist and a friend of those he believes may have been behind his travails in the Awolowo household. He continues to adore and promote Awo.  

He moved beyond the Awo debacle to become a strong force in the market place of ideas. Man is born to rise and fall and rise again. He experiences the cycles of fate: he lives and dies and rises again. Odia Ofeimun’s life is a script written in the city of the Phoenix. His resilience is the stuff of genius. He served as a member of the Editorial Board of The Guardian newspapers. He was an editorial writer and an active contributor to the polemics on the pages of Nigerian newspapers in the 80s and early 90s. It is sad that there is no debate on the opinion pages of Nigerian newspapers today. Every character who ever passed through the newsroom is now a columnist. Opinionitis – a disease as bad COVID-19, is now rife. Creativity is scarce. We are now in the age of the columnist as a consultant-propagandist. Ofeimun belongs to a different generation. That generation survived for a while, until it ended up in the hands of anyone who ever wrote a news intro.  

After The Guardian, Odia went abroad. But fate bought him back and he lived in the Aromire- Ikeja area of Lagos where all the young boys learning to write poetry converged on his space and he became the Godfather of a whole generation of Nigerian poets. He later became the Chairman of the Editorial Board of The News and Tempo and was part of the struggle for Nigeria’s second independence- that is the independence from military rule and Northern totalitarianism. Odia’s journalism bears the same imprints as his poetry. A skilful reader of his writings  across the genres will see a persistent attempt to reach a high level of perfection and idealism, a devotion to humanism, and a determination to correct what is wrong with society. In his various essays, Odia is not afraid to engage in theoretical disputes. And is he fully armed? Yes, he is.  He is a romantic though. He does not often appreciate the aesthetic, delicate, distance between theory and action.  

He has always boasted that he is in a position to teach Nigerian politicians how to play politics. I guess this is why in 2015, he aspired to become Governor of Edo State. I wrote a piece in The Guardian in which I lampooned him.  It is good he didn’t make it. His fate would have been worse than that of Godwin Obaseki, current Governor of Edo State, whose biggest challenge is the scourge of the the politics of “Godfatherism.” Odia would have written poems and essays to attack the Godfather and his agents and he would have been in bigger trouble. 

I admire Odia Ofeimun. But I particularly do not like the fact that he extends his intellectual authority beyond his own limits. I recall how he tried in my younger days to act as a marriage counsellor: his only qualification being the fact that he was at my wedding and the naming ceremonies of my children. When he tried to start intellectualizing about how to be a husband, I reminded him that he had never married a woman in his life, and so, he should not act like the Pope. Once Odia knows your wife, you cannot take even an innocent female Personal Assistant to his house! He claims to be an expert in matters like that, when we all know that he and one famous Ijebu Chief’s daughter are…Okay, I have to stop there… Look at your ears, aproko somebody, you too like gist! Odia is a good cook. He knows how to entertain. He dances well.  He doesn’t drink alcohol, although if you invite him to a party, he is likely to bring a bottle of wine. He is a wonderful friend and mentor. My family knows him as Daddy Odia. From all of us, may you live long sir to become the Odionwele of your clan in Esan West Kingdom.  Congratulations.