https://twitter.com/Abraham_Idowu/status/1691838614353711173?s=20


The Fuel Subsidy Removal Palliative Nigeria Needs

Some points that need to be made clear to the public and the govt on this CNG hue and cry👇🏾

CNG is part of the domestic natural gas industry that is subsidised. This subsidy has stunted the industry for decades and is the reason domestic gas doesn't flow as abundantly and reliably as export gas. Industry players have long protested against this and, if the govt is serious about improving power supply drastically, then those subsidies will have to go soon which makes it deceitful to encourage anyone to convert their cars to CNG burners in search of cheap fuel. This price regime cannot last and we shouldn't complicate domestic gas / power sector reform by entangling them with fuel subsidy issues.

The govt's plan to establish 35 CNG stations in by 2024 is inadequate. This works out at roughly one CNG station per state. We can imagine all CNG vehicles in Lagos state for example queueing up to refuel at one station. We shouldn't even imagine all CNG vehicles in the whole of Niger state driving 100s of Kms to go queue at just one CNG station.

After decades of pushing CNG Europe is yet to achieve even 1% penetration in the automotive sector which confirms the unworkability of a CNG solution for transportation. This is despite its significant reliance on Nat Gas and the extensive NG infrastructure it has in place.

Instead of reinventing the gas wheel we should instead go back to our long-standing butanisation policy and build on the progress made so far. Already we have 1,000s of LPG filling stations all over Nigeria with millions of happy users. The govt can within months churn out additional 10m mini cylinders with burners to give to the less privileged all over the nation. Each unit will cost less than the #48k cash palliative that was going to be given to millions of families but, instead of cash that disappears without a trace, it would deliver branded all in one gas cookers with cylinders that the recipients will still be seeing and using when the next elections come.

Subsidising LPG to make it more attractive than kerosine and firewood would ensure the benefits reach all Nigerians including those who already have gas cookers so both the middle class and masses will have an immediate and long-lasting benefit. The volume of LPG that cooking and even running a few converted cars on LPG will use will never break the bank especially as LPG can't be profitably smuggled. Decades after Ghana introduced LPG subsidies most cars still run on liquid fuel.

LNG plants and refineries produce copious amounts of LPG as ‘byproduct’ so as more refineries / LNG / petrochemical plants become reality Nigeria will be awash with enough LPG supply to meet our needs and export. Being a byproduct of other unsubsidized items the subsidy won’t stop investment in those primary products and subsidy payment can be made a tax credit depending on audited volumes supplied to the local market which would eliminate most of the current scams.

The butanisation policy was declared partly to save our forests especially in the drier northern part of Nigeria. This was before the environment became all the rage. Resurrecting that policy now in such a massive way will indeed save our forests but also win for the govt much PR mileage with western govts / influential persons / institutions. With the right packaging the govt may even obtain grants from such entities in support of the roll out.

LPG reduces carbon emission not only when it replaces wood but also when it replaces kerosine as it is cleaner burning. Unlike kerosine it can not be used to adulterate diesel or other more expensive products. Incentives should be provided to domesticate the production of LPG fibre cylinders and burners.

We should be able to not just meet 100% of our domestic needs but also capture the entire ECOWAS market and beyond. Friendly policies also need to be made by state governments to encourage siting of wholesale and retail LPG plants.

And Long Bridge is located in Ogun state actually but haters must hate.

DOptical:


The bullshit. I think you're projecting your village on Lagos.

Meanwhile, Lagos-Ibadan express is a federal road, not necessarily Lagos government's responsibility. Lagos government will first have to take orders from the federal government if they want to do anything. They can't do anything without federal government giving them the go ahead first. Moreover, flooding is not an unusual sight.. it happens everywhere, including in European countries. Of course measures need to be taken to control it.

Where all the money went?

First, let me point out that someone made such economy possible for Lagos to be generating a lot of money despite the fact that he met little, not helped by the seizure of Lagos' allocation by Obasanjo

So what the money was used for?

Investment into Lekki seaport.

Investment into Eko Atlantic

Investment into largest Africa rice mills.

Investment into metro rail.

Investment into Lekki free trade zone.

Good health care and services.

Regular payment of salaries and Pensions..

And so-on..

“One of them called Kenneth, a well known person in Maiduguri, has the largest brothel here. The other one is Ifeanyi, who is either a retired or dismissed soldier. The other guy is called Doctor; he works at the teaching hospital. The owner of the brothel inside the Shagari Low-cost community is called Monday.

https://twitter.com/Abraham_Idowu/status/1632480534340202498?t=aSM3SIOA3IWWKXwjIvdVNg&s=08

Congratulations on your hard-won electoral victory @officialABAT The good Lord has seen it fit to bring you in at this critical point in the affairs of our nation when we must take hard decisions crucial to our economic rejuvenation while managing a riled up populace./1

The hardest economic decision you must take as soon as you are sworn in, if it is not taken for you by the outgoing govt, is the removal of petrol subsidy which we are told currently costs us N4T per annum, enough money to build a dozen LAG-IBD Expressway / 2N Bridge every year/2

a totally inexcusable waste for a nation as infrastructurally hamstrung as we are. Yet how can any wise govt willfully stick a burning ember into the bone-dry sticks already gathered by various forces? I have heard talk of salary increases and the usual palliatives but a 200%+ /3

increase in the cost of petrol will require us to dig deeper if we are to avoid a national ship wreck. In the last few years many old friends have retired from the teaching service of @LASG after 35 years having attained top levels as school principals and directors in the /4

education ministry. Most are living in Lagos/Ogun as tenants while a few lucky ones have built modest homes in Ogun state. As for teachers so for civil servants, soldiers, policemen etc across the whole of the Nigerian public sector. It didn’t use to be so. It shouldn’t be so./5

This problem presents a great opportunity for making the needed change somewhat palatable. Govt must be seen not to be removing subsidies to then be stolen but for the actual benefit of the people. A very visible way of achieving this would be to secure a consensus of all /6

stakeholders to commit annually N2Tof the ~N4T cost we shall be saving into delivering 200,000 low cost housing units, 1-3BR, to govt employees all across Nigeria every year. 1.6m units of housing in 8 years to eliminate one of the greatest pain points for govt employees that /7

is also the greatest excuse for delving into corruption. N2T is a lot of money and govt employees are not the only people in Nigeria but when govt employees are defective the entire nation cannot work. N2T is a lot of money but 200,000 houses a year for the next decade would be/8

a massive stimulus to the real economy and one of the ways we upshift to sustained double digit economic growth. N2T is a lot of money but it isn’t a gift and will be deducted at source from govt wage bills so 100% recovery is assured and by the end of the decade it should be/9

a self-sustaining social welfare fund. N2T is a lot of money but an announcement of a schedule stating that all govt employees employed between 1983-1992 will receive keys to their houses before December 2024, 1993 – 1998 will receive keys before December 2025 etc will go a /10

long way to show that this govt is truly about serving the people and even when hard decisions are made they are for the ultimate good of the populace. Every govt employee of whatever stripe will feel invested in the system and will become a defender and not saboteur of same. /11

LASG celebrates just such a scheme for 4,000 LASU employees. This proposal merely scales up the concept and takes care not just of eggheads but everyone from the raw army combatant putting his life on the line on the islands of Lake Chad to the extension farm worker in Oyo /12

helping to bring our agriculture into the 21st cent. May God who saw you fit for national leadership at this crucial point also grant you the courage, wisdom and grace to do what is right and not just what is popular IJN. @jidesanwoolu @tundefashola @KashimSM @elrufai @Mr_JAGs

https://time.com/6260906/train-derailmentments-how-common/

Train derailments are quite common in the U.S. The Department of Transportations’ Federal Railroad Administration has reported an average of 1,475 train derailments per year between 2005-2021. Despite the relatively high number of derailments, they rarely lead to disaster.

The pictures don't support the story. I see a man being prayed for. We are used to such twisting of the truth by Obidients

Which group was attacking and destroying INEC offices in Anambra and entire SE? Which entity has said no one must come out to vote on Saturday? Why is no one in this clip mentioning that entity but suggesting it is non Igbo actors at work?

10 states contribute 116.8% of the total and people don't even see how ridiculous the data is but are fighting for bragging rights?

I had my baptism in *hell 21 years and three months ago. Like you I resisted and thank God the leader of the gay ring was eased out in 2004 so i could complete 20 years before finding my level for not unrelated issues now being promoted by the organization itself. You did right and just stay faithful to your God and conscience. I am 58 this month and can tell you I have absolutely no regrets. I can look back and see how life has panned out for many of us and, again, no regrets.

Sixfiguresmart:
Happy to get an oil and gas job. Dream come true. Everything was perfect with me. 3 years into my job, a new boss showed up. A light skin Nigerian male. His wife and kids were in Canada. I visit the gym 3x per week.

He requested to go to the same gym. Pretended to work out and asked that I mentored him. It all happened fast. I thought he was responsible as he was married. He started touching my body inappropriately. Caressing my chest holding my arms. Thought he was enamored by the muscles only. I would somehow break him off and redirect him to the session.

Then, after work it was about meeting me, talking to me, confiding in me. Initially, I was happy to build a close relationship with a boss. Of course, that's my career growth right there.

Not until, this night, he invited me over to his lounge. As soon i arrived, he undressed to a G-string, I was dazed for real. He tried to kissed me. I blocked it. Then, came the love, the feeling, and sex plea. So, I took my leave quickly. Felt disappointed and betrayed. I told no one but my bestie who laughed over it and made a mockery of the whole thing. Telling me that he would have busted his ass for the money.

All I needed was my job and no drama. He advanced toward me several times. Showered me with expensive stuff. I rejected everything he offered. I couldn't shake him anymore, no hugs, nothing. I felt truly perplexed cos he was very connected and has brothers and relatives in top positions in Chevron. I met with him, talked to him man to man politely. He told me he had been in it since he was 14. I asked him if he would love that life for his kids. He said, no! So, I told him that I have a faith, a conscience and a commitment to my God. That I would not entertain homosexuality. So, after more attempts, the hate set in.

Well, my final year in Chevron was horrendous until i finally got axed 17 months after my new boss showed up. I moved on with my dignity but with a bigger lesson in life. I kept it a secret for many years. Only my bestie new about it.

Many men are victims. People hardly believe the few who cry out. Many will question the authenticity of my history and blame me afterall. Making it harder for the next man to come out.

Many argue that they will beat, hit, or punch a man for advancing toward them. There are consequences. Read your room. Justice hardly comes in a world of injustice. Sometimes, the best thing to do is walk away.

vanbonattel:
What a long epistle of hate against the Igbos as usual.

Idowudiot, face your region where fulani kidnappers are moving hundreds of your farmers. Have your kinsmen who fled to Benin Republic returned? What about Sunday Igboho and his watery beans plight?

What does one say to people like you? Maybe you are literacy challenged because Igbos are actually being held up as an example to other tribes including Yorubas in this essay

meth – Nigeria’s Rebirth Begins?

Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.
2 Chronicles 7:14 NLT

Since the second half of 2021 a very unusual thing has been happening in Nigeria. A section of Nigeria, a major subnation for that matter, the Igbo nation, has begun looking in the mirror and speaking some truth to itself. Not the whole truth yet but, very unusual in Nigeria, some truth that is self-critical, self-indicting. Igbos at community and even state level have begun speaking up about the pure evil that meth (MM), seed of water, methamphetamine, constitutes to them. Suddenly, in the face of thousands of precious family and community members losing it all to this cheap synthetic drug, Igbos are rising up and saying enough is enough. Those addicted to the drugs are being flogged, some to repentance and others to death. Drug pushers are being banished from communities but not flogged yet and not handed over to the appropriate law enforcement agency, the Nigerian Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).

Communities are not leading the NDLEA to the meth factories yet. The NDLEA is not being invited to look closely at suspected drug barons and their assets yet. Drug business is no longer business as usual but it is still business. It may no longer be acceptable to manufacture and sell MM to fellow Igbos in Igboland but there is no opprobrium yet if you bring in container loads of illicit codeine destined for other lands beyond the Benue and Niger rivers. Even now many are still looking for outsiders to blame for MM’s devastation of the homeland while others are insisting nothing significant is wrong and the plague is exaggerated or no worse than evils blighting other parts of Nigeria. A sickening version of whataboutism.

To the North of the Benue and Niger rivers we are witnessing similar strangeness. The Sultan of Sokoto and other eminent and not so eminent voices, the owners of the land and people, have joined the people they own and impertinent outsiders to say the North is at risk of being consumed by growing terrorism fueled by religion and social inequity which only breeds iniquity. These stakeholders are beginning to feel the heat of the bonfire that others have raised alarm about for decades now and we no longer hear anyone, apart from a very few fringe elements and agents provocateurs, asking that the various stripes of militancy in the North be treated with kid gloves. In the North too we are only hearing part of the truth. We are not hearing about the age long social inequity that created the intractable iniquity we now see all over the land. We are not being told of the mollycoddling by regional stakeholders that attended the initial stirring of violent extremism in the North over a decade ago or the weaponization of religion via the ‘political Sharia’ laws that greeted this republic almost two decades ago.

The South East and the North are however well ahead of the curve in Nigeria. They are beginning to introspect and have stopped seeing only imported trouble. They are beginning to accept that they are their own worst enemies, the demons they need to pray against can be seen in their mirrors. The South West and South South regions on the other hand remain totally sold to the idea that all their afflictions emanate either from other ‘enemy’ tribes or the wrong people in federal and state offices. Ritual killings, cultism, kidnapping, illegal bunkering (theft of crude and refined oil product), political thuggery, armed robbery, baby factories, drug pushing and drug usage are all prevalent across Nigeria but particularly prevalent in the three Southern regions with some of them like ritual killing, cultism and illegal bunkering entrenched most in the South West and South South but, as the two other regions begin to introspect and ask some of the right questions, the South West remains too ‘sophisticated’ to be bothered about the endless tales of crude butchery emanating from charnels like Soka in Ibadan and now even a substantial hotel at Ile Ife while the sense of entitlement of the South South to its ‘oyel’ seems unshakeable by even the now years old black soot phenomenon that has turned the Garden City, Port Harcourt, to an environmental cautionary tale.

Who is going to ring the alarum to wake up these still slumbering regions to the fact that all the issues listed above and more besides have become existential threats to them and the entire nation? What forces within each of the four regions will convoke the necessary stakeholder summits that will look with honest eyes at these bloodcurdling deviations from social norms and rules that we all mostly glossed over and continued to excuse until too many of the victims began bearing names we recognize? Who will hold the feet of these summiteers to the fire and ensure the whole truth is spoken and this entire truth is then disseminated to those who generally echo the voices of these opinion shaping stakeholders? How will our regional and national confession and repentance start from such summits and then cascade to the churches and mosques so that the priests who have been sleeping at the wheel are shamed into action and start preaching rectitude, repentance and return to the religious ideals the vast majority of us mouth every waking moment?

Nigeria is in deep trouble but its problems are multi faceted with each region more afflicted with certain vices than others. This has given most of us the luxury of always having something we consider worse happening in other regions that we can point at and say ours are not the worst region in Nigeria so why is a specific critique about us? Other times we claim that a specific party, tribe or religious group’s domination of power is the entire reason even age-old vices have become existential challenges. At various points in time terrorism in the North, for example, has been said to have been sponsored by the Jonathan regime, the US, as a tool for pushing out the Goodluck regime, General Buhari as a challenger, French and other forces caging Nigeria, then President Buhari even as an incumbent etc. For every evil that bestrides any region we have a dazzling selection of malevolent external forces that excuse the messes we have allowed to fester and our lack of action to overcome those problems and clean house. When all else fails we elevate relatively small problems above the major issues that should occupy us and you thus would find in the South West a lot of heat and noise generated over a putative Fulani colonization agenda to which hundreds of kidnappings and deaths had been traced. A Yoruba proto army was even created by South West state governments under the guise an interstate security outfit named Amotekun. In all the statements explaining the reason for its existence and arduous birth I struggled to find any sentence tasking it with taking on the challenge of rooting out the ritualists and their dens that had claimed thousands of lives in the South West over the last few decades. I couldn’t understand why it was so easy finding and chasing Fulani herdsmen out of our forests while ritualists and organ traffickers hiding in those forests and even in town where not a priority despite the much greater human toll.

In a similar way every unearthing of baby factories in the South West raises more ire among Yorubas than discoveries of ritualist dens even if more corpses are found in the dens than babies in the baby factories. The otherwise inexplicable misdirection of greatest ire is understandable once we realise that the names of the demoniacs in charge of the ritual killing den would typically be Yoruba while the equally possessed baby factory entrepreneurs would typically be from the South East. The same way we excuse our corrupt fellow tribesmen we have for decades minimized the atrocities of our violent criminals and the crimes that are typical of our tribes are described as ‘businesses’ while crimes less typical of us are the atrocities the law enforcers and the nation should focus on. Even when we have the exact same offence happening we always find excuses and justifications for those carried out by kith and kin while we reserve our moral outrage for those perpetrated by others. You will for example find the same friend who groans about the unending carnage in the North reassuring you that security officers and civilians being roasted and eaten in the South East is an insignificant and exaggerated matter. Indeed such a friend may go as far as reassuring you that the South East is the most peaceful part of Nigeria so other Nigerians should tend to their own hellholes and not give the South East an underserved bad name. Yep. In the face of evidence of large scale cannibalism you still get such mindless defensiveness. Apparently not enough names of the victims of the cannibals are known or resonate with the opinion shaping elite for even a halfhearted purge of the evil to commence. Maybe if the police do their job and publish the full list of victims who have become dinner in Orsu we shall be jolted to repudiating this too even if only as halfheartedly as the ongoing inchoate mpkuru mmiri campaign.

I began writing this piece before 2021 yuletide and, as I come back to it to wrap it up this first week of 2022, I find the owner of Rivers state, Governor Wike, has suddenly realised that the black soot inducing illegal bunkering isn’t just a federal problem or even a badge honor. He has proscribed all illegal bunkering in his kingdom. Also the Ezes and priests in Imo state have found their voices and are now speaking, still in muted tones, about the onslaught of kidnappers in the state. Maybe this is because the Ezes still standing can recognize the names of too many peers among those who have not only fallen but been turned into dinner in Orsu. My prayer for every part of Nigeria in 2022, as we rev up towards the 2023 general elections, is that we all begin to recognize names and faces we know among the thousands of victims of all the heinous crimes that now pervade our regions and nation. I pray that our hearts be cut to the quick and we are forced to humble ourselves, pray, seek God’s face and turn from our wicked ways so that He hears from heaven and brings genuine healing and rebirth to this great and consequential nation in Jesus name.

Abraham Idowu
January 5th, 2022

And this is why they wail and keep sponsoring all forms of terrorism. Pindipi know they have no hope when it comes to infrastructure delivery and spending Nigeria's money for Nigeria instead of aloota continua. They just had to change the game to one about security where they know they have enough mercenaries and confused people to use to keep the country boiling but since SI was neutralized has there been any herdsmen wahala in the SW again? Even the SE, NE, NW, NC and every other part of Nigeria will know peace before 2023 in Jesus name. God rules in the affairs of men, nations and generations and the children of belial had better get that into their thick skulls.

The NCDC FB post states: ✅Backlog of discharged cases and deaths for Lagos State from 4th August 2021

Positivity rate of just 3% and just four deaths with all four happening among the 99%+ of the population that is unvaccinated and this guy feels he has the authority to impose a vaccine mandate?��‍♂️��‍♂️

In this case he has scammed himself. He go beg these peeps laslas and settle them with plenty money if dem go gree at all. They are ready for him and he has boxed himself into a corner

Wike buys insurance for life after office. If they win he will have immunity constitutionally. If they lose he will claim any prosecution is persecution for opposing the ruling party. Either way it is a rational use of the tens of billions of naira that it will take to finance the gambit.

Is that the same Buhari he told us in church he asked to donate minimum ₦30m to the same citadel? As a sitting president where was he supposed to get that money from? As a Muslim why was such a demand being made of him? May God forgive us all.

The govt shouldn't fall into the trap of arresting him and helping him become the latest hero of malcontents so he creates a platform for a 2023 presidential run. He never tires of saying God has long told him he will be president and the saviour of Nigeria. Na small separate am from Okotie when it comes to having wet dreams about Aso Rock.

Always try to deduct self interest from anything Bakare says before swallowing it. I worshipped with him for many years between the mid 90s and this current dispensation nevertheless I was dismayed when he became running mate in 2011. Thank God that was a bust else Nigeria might have been at war for years by now. I know he can never accept God preferring PYO over him but God is God and he is just one Abeokuta pickin that keeps forgetting how kind God has been to him. God still pass him and all embittered souls who can't separate personal ambitions and disappointments from national discourse.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-56391643 Kenya withdraws from ICJ case over Somalia sea border at last minute

KEVIND:
When We Finish With Kenya In ICJ,They'll Not Remain The Same - Nnamdi Kanu's Lawyer


https://www.nairaland.com/6635711/when-finish-kenya-icjtheyll-not

Very far from the best way to go and we are just storing up trouble for tomorrow as discussed here

https://www.nairaland.com/6497933/memo-rotimi-amaechi-president-right

I have long said that the Nigerian armed forces are overstretched and do not have spare troops to deploy anywhere. When you have to borrow from NE to tackle SE you should know they are scraping the bottom of the barrel. Na bombing we go dey hear next same as in the NW because they simply do not have spare boots to put on ground. I have no idea why the last six years weren't spent doubling the size of the NA especially. Eyes off the ball?

Same issues raised in this nairaland topic https://www.nairaland.com/6453134/memo-pmb-national-security

https://www.sunnewsonline.com/memo-to-transport-minister-the-president-is-right-on-sgr-for-eastern-railway/

Memo To The Transport Minister: The President Is Right On SGR For Eastern Railway

Abraham Abiodun Idowu

In the last few years the ruling party at the federal level has rightly highlighted its resurrection of the comatose Nigerian railway system. After many false restarts since the RITES contract that spanned the late 70s into the early 80s, the national railway system is finally seeing significant investment and achieving major milestones like the completion of the Abuja - Kaduna, Warri - Itakpe and Lagos – Ibadan sections of the Western and Central lines both of are Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) lines. These sections have been completed using Chinese funds, companies, equipment and expertise with Nigeria providing about 10 percent as counterpart funding and lower level labour but with a new crop of Nigerian engineers and technicians being trained in China to ensure we can pick up where the Chinese leave off. The federal government can claim that it could have done even much more if it had timely legislative backing for the loans financing the projects but luckily that excuse no longer obtains and that brings me to one major reason I concur with the President but disagree with the Transport Minister on building the Eastern Line from Port Harcourt – Maiduguri as a SGR line.

A couple of months ago the Transport Ministry announced it had concluded plans to sign a contract for the rehabilitation of the Eastern line which would extend from Port Harcourt to Maiduguri and traverse the South Eastern states and the eastern Middle Belt states. At a cost of about $3b it would be a little fraction of the more than $10b expected final cost of each of the Western and Coastal Lines. The Coastal Line will be from Lagos to Calabar. The Eastern Line is so cheap because it will not be transforming the century old and dysfunctional Narrow Gauge Railway (NGR) but will merely upgrade it while retaining the basic configuration with its limitations relative to SGR lines. I was not sure I read right and waited for a backlash from the populace but it seemed many missed the issue until a couple of weeks back when the governor of Rivers State, Mr Nyesom Wike, pointed out the blatant inequity.

Soon after the governor said his piece the Transport Minister, Mr Chibuike Amaechi, came out to defend the decision. He stated that the nation is constrained by the lack of funds and so cannot afford to spend the equivalent of what it is spending on the Western and Coastal Lines on the Eastern Line. He went on to say the president, General Buhari, had insisted for a long time that the Eastern Line should be transformed to the same standard as the rest of the three railways corridors but he, the minister, had eventually won him over and had his way. He further justified his decision by saying that there is only a 20 percent difference in speed between SGR and NGR systems.

Mr Amaechi is a public figure I have long admired from a distance especially his dogged pursuit of the objectives he believes in. I have been quite impressed with how he has made new railway lines spring up in Nigeria despite the paucity of funds. I have been aligned with the principle that all nations borrow especially for infrastructural development and, as the federal government in which he serves continues to remind us all, Nigeria is actually under borrowed but is challenged in revenue collection. Without infrastructure we cannot grow the economy, create jobs or justify collecting revenue from cynical citizens. With those as the rationale for the builder financed railway boom, one must wonder how the same logic of borrowing today for a better tomorrow failed once it became the turn of the Eastern Corridor.

We are Africans and surely understand how to manage large and diverse households. How can anyone convince the citizens from the South East especially and the other areas along the Eastern Line that they are not seen as the poor cousins in the Nigerian family who must make do with hand me downs and other symbols of marginalization? How does the Federal Government rationalize to itself this blatant marginalization of a group that has long proclaimed to the whole world that it is marginalized? We have long been tortured by tales of woe about South Eastern roads being the worst in the nation and now we want to set things up so similar claims can validly be made about the South Eastern rail line for the next several decades? Above all else political leaders must be politic but this is the most impolitic government decision I have come across in a long while.

The excuse that the difference in speed is just 20 percent is far from acceptable because that means if an SGR could deliver passengers or cargo from Port Harcourt to Maiduguri in 14 hours the NGR would do the same in about 17 hours. Beyond speed and promptness we also have the cargo handling capacity of both systems and the SGR again beats the NGR. When we come to safety SGR again takes the trophy.

Lastly we should examine the minister’s basic premise of lack of funds. The federal government provides just about 10 percent of the contract sum for each railway project as counterpart funding while the Chinese provide debt finance for the rest. All the railways are expected to generate the revenue to pay off the debt used to construct them without further recourse to government coffers. It is debatable if that model will work eventually but, as long as we have chosen to believe that fiction for the Western and Coastal Lines, we cannot choose to grow cold feet when it comes to the turn of the Eastern Line. Another $11b to $14b for the Eastern Line on top of the around $30b being spent and mostly borrowed for the two other lines is not going to bankrupt our $1 trillion (2020 PPP estimate) economy or significantly dent our already far from stellar sovereign debt rating.

Mr Minister, you have misadvised the President in this instance and I hope you will listen to the voices raised against this decision and ensure the President’s initial preference is actioned. Rebuilding an NGR through the South East of Nigeria will only hand a propaganda coup to certain fractious voices in our nation and when this tale is told and retold in years and decades to come the fact that you, a son of the soil, persuaded the ‘outsider’ to shortchange ‘your own people’, will not be highlighted. It will be seen as a continuation of the presumed conspiracy by the rest of Nigeria to hold the South East and South South regions down. Please save our union and do not needlessly empower those who war against the soul of Nigeria.

Ultimately the various railway lines are meant to generate the funds to pay off the loans used to build them. We all know that is not going to happen as long as they are managed by a government agency so we should start having the conversation of how we ensure these debts do not come back to haunt us all. Executive Order 007 of 2019, that empowers businesses that are hindered by poor public infrastructure to rebuild them at their own cost and recover that cost from future taxes, maybe points the way forward. Just like the roads that Dangote enterprises and others are now building out of their cashflows, the new railways will be of greatest use to large scale manufacturers like Dangote Cement, Bua Cement and Nigeria Flour Mills.

As a first order of business the federal government must mandate all our cement manufacturers to build branch lines that connect their factories to the main trunk lines being built by the government now. Dangote cement for example has its entire 32 million tons capacity at Obajana, Ibese and Gboko either on the rail line or within 50km of it. Building spurs that run through its factories so that cement is moved straight from the production line onto railway wagons would be the height of efficiency which would cost it mere tens of millions of dollars. This move would relieve Nigerian roads and road users of 4,600 deadly cement juggernauts, with 60 ton payloads I really stopped seeing them as mere trucks a while ago. This is a necessary complement to the strategy of connecting all our seaports to the railway network in order to make our roads less congested, safer and longer lasting. Fortuitously most major Nigerian markets were built on the railway corridors so setting up depots close to those markets for wholesalers and others to patronize would complete a seamless distribution network.

If such large manufacturers can be persuaded to connect their factories to the rail network then it should be relatively easy to persuade them to lead consortiums that would buy majority stakes in each line so they can manage them as private sector entities with a much higher chance of staying viable and generating revenue to pay off the loans used to build them in the first place.

These are some of the steps the current administration needs to take in the next two years so that these issues do not become lost in the usual inter regime cacophony. This is one more reason the Transport Minister must not allow himself to become trapped in a bitter quarrel over why only one long marginalized section of the country is being lumbered with an NGR line in the 21st century. One European nation chose to adopt a different gauge from its neighbors to make difficult its invasion by those nations. Surely we are not trying to create a de facto infrastructural division of our nation. There is much work to do to ensure this nascent railway revolution does not yet die in the incubator as so many other national leaps forward have in the last four decades. May God grant our leaders on all sides the wisdom, understanding and discernment required to take Nigeria to the promised land.

Opinion piece published in The Guardian on Monday 8th March by a nairalander as a full page advertorial (page 42):

Memo to PMB: National Security

15 years ago I set about setting up homes in Ghana even before I had a home in Nigeria because I believe that safety is a higher priority than other desirables in life and, even back then, I was afraid that Nigeria was in a state and on a trajectory that made eventual civil war and mob rule a quite likely outcome. Yes, the ‘civilians’ had inherited a messy situation but from the get-go in 1999 they were making valiant efforts to further compound the mess they met on ground. My hope was that my homes in Ghana would afford me a safe bolt hole if the proverbial ever hit the fan.

In late 2019 I went to discover Ketou, my maternal grandmother’s ancestral home in Benin Republic. The evil seeds of omission and commission sown in Nigeria by leaders and followers before and since 1999 had begun to really flourish and my anxiety level about the sustainability of relative nation peace and personal safety had ratcheted up. The mindless sabre rattling and mostly surreptitious egging on of the dogs of war that accompanied the general elections that held earlier in the year made me realise that nothing beyond the grace of God was keeping Nigerians from turning our nation into a hellscape drenched with our own blood.

Six years ago when I published various memos to you on Revenue, Education and the like I didn’t think there would be a need for a bloody civilian like me to ever counsel a general on national security but that is where we are now and I must step into this martial ring where so many super heavyweights have been wildly swinging to little effect for years now.

In the two years since the 2019 elections the ante has been raised successively by various challengers of the national security apparatus from the Boko Haram we already knew in the North East to bandits in Zamfara and beyond, IPOB in the South East and South South, marauding herdsmen in every part of our nation and now state funded Amotekun in the South West and state disowned Eastern Security Network in the South East. Everywhere one looks the federal might is being challenged with Nigeria’s armed forces and other security outfits consistently giving an underwhelming account of themselves.

The image of our national security agencies almost cowering before every kind of armed rabble has been so disconcerting that many Nigerians, especially from the South, have decided the only possible explanation for such national impotence must be instructions from above to allow certain forces run riot nationally to ease the purported land grabbing agenda of one of Nigeria’s many transnational tribes, the Fulani. The presidency’s ignoring of this highly toxic charge even while things got worse over the last few years has only allowed this theory to go mainstream so that today you can barely find any Southern Nigerian, educated or not, who does not outrightly believe it or think it highly likely.

Yet I and many others have for decades seen the signs of a failing state writ large all over our ravaged nation. Foreign intelligence agencies and crises experts even planned to issue Nigeria's obituary long before now but we have persisted almost inexplicably as a nation despite those gloomy predictions. As far as the American CIA was concerned there should have been no Nigeria in place for a General Buhari to rule over in 2015 much less in 2021. A few Nigerians, unfortunately much fewer in the South than the North, thus do our best to cast our minds over all the hard facts and history that brought us to the sorry pass we are now and focus on those in thinking of a way out, a safe path to Nigeria's still feasible future greatness, our Manifest Destiny some will be bold to say.

While our Manifest Destiny might be debatable, there is not much to debate about Nigeria being a highly consequential country in this time and space. It is difficult for anyone to imagine everything being right with Africa or West Africa without Nigeria getting its act together and it is impossible to imagine a peaceful and prosperous Africa if Nigeria ever slides into outright civil war. Those who have managed such a regionally crucial nation of roughly 200 million people have not done their job in building for it an army that is fit for purpose, internally and externally, in the last four decades. An army that would have sorted out the Sahelian menace the way it dealt with the Liberian and Sierra Leonean wars almost single handedly few decades ago but today is itself prostrate before forces similar to those depredating Mali, Niger, Chad and Burkina Faso, our neighbors lying mostly in the Sahel. From being a regional power we have been reduced to a pawn not just on the global chessboard but one that even our local politicians push around for their own political agenda.

The Nigerian armed forces were already broken and not fit for purpose by the 1990s when Generals Babaginda and Abacha deployed the little we had left as part of ECOMOG forces. While I remember President Shagari procuring Alpha jets and other significant bits of military equipment, there were no such memorable military purchases for three decades until President Jonathan began the initially abortive moves to buy some Super Tucano light attack and counter insurgency turboprop aircraft primarily to deal with the Boko Haram threat. That of course was after billions had reportedly gone down the drain buying used Alpha jets without engines and combat helicopters without rotors. For eight years General Obasanjo focused all his energy on ensuring his ‘boys’ in the military couldn’t upset the apple cart for General Danjuma and himself. Despite the global goodwill he and Nigeria had at that time none of it was invested in getting significant quantities of surplus military equipment from our friends in the West or beyond. By the end of General Obasanjo’s eight years Nigeria was lumbered with an army of ‘anything goes’.

Though the US embargo on supplying Super Tucanos was lifted a few years ago and payment made, we are yet to receive delivery of any of those much-needed ground attack planes. A few helicopters have been procured but the nation has had the misfortune of needing to urgently rearm and reman just when the financial resources to so do have been least available. Nigeria has just 21 combat aircraft in service according to a Wikipedia article, a mix of four decades old Alpha jets and new Chinese aircraft, with just 15 more combat aircraft on order. A nation of almost one million square kilometers and leading power in the eight million square kilometer ECOWAS space.

Beyond the gross fighting platform inadequacy of the various wings of the Nigeria Armed Forces we have a mindboggling under manning of all three arms and the paramilitary forces. Data available online tells us we have 135,000 military personnel in total. 80,000 paramilitary (civil defense?). This is as at 2019 according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies. What these bald numbers do not tell us is that we have clerks, doctors, musicians and co in this total. We also have massive chunks of the fighting men committed to protecting oil and gas assets in the Niger Delta, fighting Boko Haram in the North East and as part of the Joint Task Forces in about 33 of our 36 states.

135,000 gross total would have given an average availability of 3,750 soldiers per state and ranks Nigeria at 152 out of 172 nations ranked on a soldier per capita basis. At seventh place in population ranking globally we find that the six countries more populated than Nigeria have an average of 1,047,500 persons in uniform and this is counting active duty soldiers only. Brazil, which is just three percent more populated than Nigeria as at 2020 estimates, has 1,340,000 reserve forces and 395,000 paramilitary in addition to producing virtually all its own arms including the Super Tucano we have been begging to buy for a decade now. No surprise then that, despite its equally severe socioeconomic challenges, with its crime ridden favelas being just a small part, no internal or external force has risen to challenge state power. The Nigeria Police Force (Service?) is hardly any better manned with that favourite whipping boy of Nigerians coming in at 123 out of 172 nations on the same cop per capita basis with only 350,000 persons in uniform.

With all the prior deployments of the military that we have in Nigeria to the Niger Delta, the North East and state JTF, the reality is that the average Nigerian state cannot call upon even 1,000 available soldiers even if death dealing Martians land in Eagle Square tomorrow. The Nigerian federal government simply does not have the men to send to combat any fresh challenges to its authority be that threat herdsmen, militants or plain criminal kidnappers. This explains why we mostly send in the air force to bomb Zamfara militants instead of the boots on ground required to not only flush them out but deny them future access. Trying to bomb mobile forest dwelling militants from the air is a sign of weakness and desperation and not a sign of a nation that can project appropriate deadly force throughout its territory.

While one can understand why the federal government cannot reveal to the whole world that it doesn’t have an army to call upon to deal with various threats to the state, for fear of emboldening various enemies of the state, but must instead bribe and indirectly empower its mortal enemies, there is no obvious explanation for the lack of concerted efforts in the last decade, especially with the advent of Boko Haram, ISWAP, IPOB and similar threats, for emergency recruitments to at least double the size of the armed forces or, preferably triple it. During the civil war when we realised we faced an existential threat the federal government was able to massively expand the armed forces literally overnight and this went a long way to make that war short and sharp with hostilities concluded in a mere 30 months despite the very significant and coherent prowess of Biafra.

My assessment of the Nigerian armed forces suggests that it is not only broken but also broke. When the nation had a bit of change to spare and should have built up men and materials the bulk of the budget was stolen and only made billionaires of almost every person that made it to the rank of a General. Today there is much less money to throw at the problem while it is not clear if the problem of grand corruption has been effectively checked. We received reports from men deployed to the North Eastern theater lamenting unpaid allowances and lack of equipment though I must say it is has been a while since I came across such reports.

While we have little funds available to the federal government, even that little is largely wasted on issues that are surely of much lower priority than saving Nigeria from the jackals gnawing at it from every corner. In the midst of our national poverty the federal government still found it expedient to hand N700b to the power ministry to support power generation in the two years before the 2019 elections, a subsidy of a privatized industry that entrenched private interests and cowardly political considerations had stopped from operating in accordance with the terms of the privatization contracts. Surely a nation that appreciates that national security trumps all other needs and wants would not throw away $2b that it couldn’t afford so cavalierly but it gets worse as we are currently in the process of borrowing $500b to waste on revamping a national television network that no one watches. In what universe is the Nigerian Television Authority a higher priority than funding more men and equipment for our overwhelmed military? In the 32 years between 1988 and 2019 Nigeria spent, I hope not just budgeted, $230 on the military on a population per capita basis and ranked 127 out of 150 nations for which there were complete records in that span, says the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Less than $10 in the average year on each Nigerian. In that same three decades we have the following per capita military spending records for our ‘peers’: Botswana - $4,789, Algeria - $3,863, Gabon - $1,882, Chad - $525, Zimbabwe - $767, Egypt - $1,326, Angola - $2,985, Namibia - $3,330, South Africa - $2,307 and Brazil - $3,054.

When this peanut gets to the military what does it do with it? The Generals used to, we hope that has now ended, carve it up and pocket much of it with crumbs going to arms, active service personnel and the retired. That last section surprisingly might be the most significant as Nigerian soldiers are allowed to retire with FULL PAY after just 18 years in service. ‘Full pay’ is in caps because Nigerian military pension is actually the same as the CURRENT salary of those on the same rank as the pensioner left service on which is a big reason we have military pensioners permanently protesting that their pensions are not up to date or paid and why those still in service have vehemently refused to be moved to the private pension schemes that operate in almost every other part of the economy today. If the military were to actually pay all pensioners what they are owed I doubt if there would be enough money left to pay serving soldiers much less buy bullets. I have a sibling who retired at the grand age of 38 around 1990 after 20 years in service and has been a government pickin since then. This is a blatantly unsustainable situation and must be fixed if any additional fund to be provided by the federal government is to have the desired impact. Beyond the cost of these pensioners who are mostly below 60 years old is the fact that they are not organized into a usable reserve force that could be called on in the sort of extremis we now find ourselves. Many continue picking up their full pay while exerting themselves as private security operatives in various formal and semi formal structures. Such overflowing energies should be channeled into at least part time protection of the state that continues to pay them beyond its actual capacity.

How does the military expend the rest of its minuscule budget that doesn’t go into salaries and pensions? It tries procuring what it can from all over the world. A look at the kit of the Nigerian Army especially shows kit from well over a dozen countries. The mind boggles at how effective training on and maintenance of such diverse range of equipment gets done. The most crucial issue though is that we procure next to nothing locally. Foreign procurement is fraught with embargos as in the case of the Super Tucano, long delivery times and endless variety of equipment as favored suppliers continue to change as international alliances evolve. Nigeria must go the Brazilian and South African route where most of their military hardware is produced locally by various private sector players with the quality high enough that they even export to developed world militaries. The DICON experiment has failed and it should be privatized with other private players encouraged in other to unleash the limitless potential of our people and save us from interference by foreign actors who embargo us for the flimsiest excuses and do not care much if the nation is bloodily dismembered. The recent procurements from Innoson Motors and other local manufacturers are a step in the right direction but we must move on to multi year development and procurement contracts with private manufacturers that will allow them to tool up and deploy the resources needed to deliver on mid and long term nation objectives.

While we work on seriously stepping up local production and procurement we still have multiple wars to win. We need to beg, borrow or steal equipment and even men. Nigeria is in a bad spot and cannot afford its usual big man pretenses. France, Germany and others are helping sort out ISWAP in four of our Sahelian neighbors but European forces on Nigerian soil might be a step too far. We however could explore at least borrowing kit from regional friends like South Africa, Egypt, Namibia and the like. We can negotiate for more surplus equipment from the US and other NATO nations. It is not impossible that even Russia and China could have materiel that they could gift to us. Their military stores probably need space to accommodate all the new kit they keep procuring. We need military and civil leaders ready to think beyond spending money we don’t have for the acquisition of critical materiel at this time. We need government to government engagement and not just engaging contractors out to make a buck. We need you, Mr President, going to the four corners of the world not just to get railway and dam contracts and loans signed but to go beg our friends to let us have some of their military ‘junk’. We are desperate and we need to see that you are fully conscious of how desperate things have become if the charge of your being a family head guilty of bringing his own family to ruin is not to stick and be your unfortunate and likely undeserved epitaph. Personally I find that narrative phantasmagoric but you must get out of Aso Rock and show us that you are taking this existential threat as seriously as the rest of us are. Your usual soft-spoken pabulum no longer cuts it and you are essentially sleepwalking Nigeria to a very bloody dismemberment. Neither you nor the rest of the political class that might be engaging in reckless brinksmanship is calculating the risks properly. There are already too many winds blowing against Nigeria's soul and no one can really predict what one more ill-considered puff can bring about be it ENDSARS, marauding herdsmen, overreaching IPOB, Amotekun, ESN or whatever else our misleaders come up with next.

The fact that one builds an air raid shelter doesn’t mean anyone looks forward to living in that austere space. I pray to God that I will never have to escape to Ketou or Tema. Everyone of you that calls the name of God should ensure you will be able to meet your maker with a clear conscience not only that you did not do anything you should not have done but also that you did do all you were supposed and given the responsibility to do. May the grace of God and the efforts of all patriots continue to keep Nigeria from the abyss that its enemies home and abroad desire that it falls into.

Abraham Abiodun Idowu

https://www./memo-pmb-national-security-abraham-idowu

Glo mega deal. ITB for 100k for one year. Works out at about 90GB per month for less than N9k. You get more than 1,000GB credited when you purchase

STATE HOUSE PRESS RELEASE
OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT

OSINBAJO WELCOMES COVID-19 RESEARCH GROUP'S REPORT ON LIKELY PREVENTION & TREATMENT DRUG

VP pledges FG's support so Nigerians can benefit

Team, composed of LUTH, Diaspora-based professors and scientists, notes encouragement from Presidency

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, has welcomed efforts by a team of Nigerian professors and scientists investigating the effectiveness of, and roles that Ivermectin drug can play in the treatment of the Coronavirus disease.

The team, which is composed of Nigerian scholars at home and abroad, has also submitted their report on the usefulness of the drug to the World Health Organisation which has already appointed a Peer Review expert from the United Kingdom.

Speaking yesterday while being briefed on the report by a team of scientists led by Prof. Femi Babalola, the Principal investigator, and Prof. Chris Bode, the Chief Medical Director of LUTH, the Vice President expressed excitement that Nigeria and Nigerians "are at the cutting edge of scientific research into the COVID-19 treatment."

According to him, "we have an opportunity here and I am so fascinated to hear this drug has been used in the treatment of River Blindness in this country."

While commending the efforts of the team, Prof. Osinbajo added that with the report, Nigeria is at an advantage both in knowledge and availability of the drug, especially since Ivermectin has been found useful not only in the treatment of COVID-19, but also as a prophylactic medication.

He disclosed that the Federal Government will explore further ways to support the research for the benefit of Nigerians and humanity generally, while also advancing the effective funding of scientific research in the country.

Members of the group named IVERCOVID Research Group are the Principal Investigator, Prof. Femi Babalola, an Ophthalmologist and surgeon; the Chief Medical Director of LUTH, Prof. Chris Bode; the Chairman of the Medical Advisory Council at LUTH, Prof. Lanre Adeyemo; a US-based Clinical Pharmacologist, Prof. Adesuyi Ajayi; two project virologists: Prof. S.A Omilabu and Dr. Olumuyiwa Salu; and also the Project Coordinator, Dr. Felix Alakaloko.

Both Prof. Babalola and the CMD, LUTH commended the Buhari Presidency for encouraging the research and thanked the Vice President for his personal role and support.

The report is titled, “A randomised controlled trial for the repurposing of Ivermectin in the management of COVID-19," and highlights are discussed below:

The research, carried out in the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) was undertaken following the report of a 5,000-fold reduction in viral load by Australian workers with in-vitro use of Ivermectin on COVID-19 in culture.

The PI has worked extensively with Ivermectin on the Onchocerciasis-River Blindness control programme, through which many Nigerians have used Ivermectin.

FINDINGS

The study revealed that the mechanism of action of Ivermectin, include “Inhibiting viral entry into cells nucleus; and “Direct suppression of viral RNA load of SARS CoV 2,” among others.

Ivermectin is orally absorbed with higher absorption as a solution better than tablets, and "The Mean Residence Time" (MRT) is 3.4 days. This informs the suggested frequency of dosing, i.e. twice a week.


The research’s Null hypothesis noted that: “Safe doses of Ivermectin are not useful in the treatment of patients with virology proven COVD-19 disease, does not lower viral load, and does not shorten time to negativity, neither does it cause improvement in clinical parameters when compared to Lopinavir/Ritonavir/Placebo.”

But its Alternative Hypothesis revealed that, “Safe doses of Ivermectin are useful in the treatment of patients with virology proven COVID-19 disease, lowering viral load, shortening time to negativity, and causing improvement in clinical parameters when compared with Lopinavir/Ritonavir/Placebo.”


RESULTS

In its results so far, the Study noted that the randomisation was effective based on distribution of age, sex and some clinical presentation at baseline such as cough and fever.

The overall results showed that the “Days-To-Negative (DTN) reduced by 3.8 days overall. While a few patients are negative by day two, 50 per cent are negative by day 5.”

The study indicated that Clinical trials of Ivermectin have been carried out in at least 21 countries worldwide, including Nigeria. It referenced the “Meta-analysis of clinical trials of Ivermectin to treat COVID-19 infection” by Dr. Andrew Hill, Department of Pharmacology, University of Liverpool, UK.


Highlighting the practical applications, the Study proposed that “Ivermectin should be considered for adoption into the uniform treatment guidelines of COVID- 19 in Nigeria,” noting the “potential use of ivermectin as prophylaxis Pending the rollout of vaccination programs or alongside it.”

However, the Study emphasized that Ivermectin “is not meant to replace other COVID-19 measures such as social distancing, face masking and hygiene, or vaccinations,” adding that, “It is possibly an additional tool which can be deployed to fight the pandemic.”

The group stated that it has forwarded a report of its findings to NAFDAC.

Laolu Akande
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Publicity
Office of the Vice President
12th January 2021

Why COVID-19 spares the poor, by Doyin Okupe

Have you been wondering why ordinary folks seem to be less affected by COVID-19? Whenever my drivers, house helps and security come back from their leave at home, I always asked them the state of things in their villages. Up till today in the last one year, none has come back with any news of deaths or serious illnesses requiring hospitalisation in their homes or surroundings.

I visited the Sabo Market in Sagamu (Ogun State) and the tomato market at toll gate in Ogere (Ogun State). I questioned many traders if any stall or store owners have been missing, or did not come to the market or have actually died. Responses were always negative.

So clearly the prevalence of noticeable infection with COVID-19 is less among the lower class and fatalities appear to be higher among the upper class. However, It is necessary to make some adjustment for the fact that deaths among the elite class readily get media attention than those of regular folks.

Melinder Gates prediction failed woefully because there was no way she could have foreseen this demographic prevalence factor in the spread of COVID-19. The overall infectivity and fatalities in Africa is disproportionately much lower than the rest of the World!!!

What is the magic here?
Simply put, the magic is SUNLIGHT. People who are daily exposed to sunlight are able to convert some chemicals in their skins to Vitamin D, especially D3. Scientist have incontrovertible evidence that Vitamin D seriously boosts the human immunity and actually have capacity to prevent respiratory and lung diseases. In the case of COVID-19, Vitamin D3 can prevent infection in some people and in others who still get infected , it decreases the severity of the infection and recovery rate is far better.

Recently a petition signed by 120 physicians spread across the globe (I have a copy) has been sent to world leaders and governments to treat vitamin D deficiency common in Europe and Americas, who have effective sunlight for just a few months in a year and hence have large numbers of the populace suffering from vitamins deficiency leading to high rates of susceptibility to covid19 infections and deaths.

Many of us elites in Africa are also Vitamin D deficient and this makes us ready targets for COVID-19 infections also. This is because we are hardly in the sun all year round. Yet a 30 minutes lounge daily in the bright sunlight gives one about 20,000 iu of vitamin D in our blood. This figure is much much more higher than our daily requirement, which is about 4000 iu of vitamin D.

This is why young people, students, hawkers, traders and many who toil daily under the Sun have very high immunity against COVID-19. So my dear elders, VIPs and Ogas please walk leisurely or lounge in the sun for 20 to 30 minutes daily, and with your face masks always on in public and observing normal COVID protocols, with daily supplications to the Almighty, you will place a ban on COVID-19 from affecting you and your household.

God bless you all.

Okupe, a Medical Doctor, was Adviser to former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=4500038003370623&id=100000934042999&sfnsn=scwspmo

Let me state this:
The decadence of Nigeria was long in the making.

While the Nigerian youth is angry today, Diasporans have been angry for a long time. Angry that they had to leave, and angrier that they can’t come back, leaving many feeling like they’re in exile.

The exodus and disenchantment started in the 80s. Ask your parents about the ‘Andrew’ commercial and ‘checking out’ (played by Enebeli Elebuwa, if my memory serves me).

Before many of us left, we also did our bit to ‘soro soke’ ‘Ali Must Go’ on my mind. Ask your parents.

Notable University of Ife activists included Dele Babatunde of blessed memory, Wole Olaoye Femi Falana, Femi Kuku, Victor Oladokun, Obinna Duruji, Greg Obong Oshotse and others. We all were involved in campus politics.

Though originally from Unilag, I must pay homage to the late Mr. Segun Okeowo, the tireless leader of the Nigerian Union of Students. He took OBJ on and paid the price.

Unilag expelled him. Ife later admitted him, during which time I, along with then Deola Ayodeji had the pleasure of sitting side by side with him in some of our classes in the English department.

A more subdued man, but he maintained a dignity that was enthralling, still. We obtained our degrees the same day. May he rest in peace.

Can anyone forget the day OBJ came to Fajuyi Hall and the amazing leadership provided by the late Dele Babatunde, who probably had not turned 21 at that time.

Many left the country, most stayed, all still yearning for a better Nigeria. Your parents may look old and irrelevant in your eyes. That will be a mistake. Ask them how it was. You might learn something.

I understand that this government acquiesced early in the protest and agreed to your initial requests.

I can tell you without any fear of contradiction that that was a first in the history of Nigeria. Nigeria’s young democracy did that.

That was more than we got from OBJ and his military govt.

Our rallying cry was: “We no go pay o! We no go pay! Extra kobo, we no go pay!”

Well, Ali didn’t go, and we paid the one naira increase(200% increase per meal) in cafeteria food that we were rejecting. And still, lives were lost.

I remember Wemimo Akinbolu, among others. May they all rest in peace.

Yet, activism and agitation continued until Nigeria became democratic.

Do you know that OBJ wanted a third term? But he didn’t get it. You were not the ones that fought that fight. Your parents did.

Your parents also put their heads down to work and give you the opportunities you have that allowed you to mount the uprising that you just accomplished. Many of them have battle scars. Now you know.

Most of the civilian leaders have been ex-military. So, we’ve had a ‘para-military’ democracy. So, it’s a case of ‘hot potato’.

This government just got caught holding the potato. No be today.
There’s movement, but it is slow & nearly imperceptible. This is where your own vision comes in.

You can’t burn it all down, & you can’t be complacent, either. What solutions does your ‘woke’, internet savvy, generation have?

Unfortunately, the young ones destroying properties today will be voted into office tomorrow, and will go the way of their predecessors.

What have they demonstrated so far that gives any indication that they will be different? Like begets like.

A house cannot be built in the air without a foundation. Do not disparage or discount what went before. You should do your part, but build on something.

All politics is local. International bodies can talk and condemn. The next day, a new crisis will subsume your own.

Do you have a voter’s card? Anyone over 18 who claims that their elders failed them should show how they have voted in previous elections.

Did you vote? If you voted, did you vote based on issues or based on your tribal leaning?

Did you take as much interest in the politics of your locale? Or was Election Day a vacation for you or for watching Big Brother? That was then. What do you plan to do in future?

Do you know the name of your local government chairman and councilors?

Do you know the amount of money those people are voted? What about your governor? Who is watching him/her?

Do the ‘angry youth’ know the budget of their states of origin and what the money is earmarked for, and whether it gets done?

Do you know the names and locations of your state & National Assembly members and hold them accountable?

Is Lagos the seat of federal government?

Do you know the difference between the responsibility of the state and federal government?

You can’t take over a system you don’t understand. 2023 is on the horizon. Is there a strategy?

Let’s not kid ourselves, protests are just a means of venting and creating awareness. And sometimes, we all need to vent.

However, venting does not produce long term positive results if the real work is not done.

We are all culprits regarding why Nigeria is the way it is. We cannot rile against a system that we perpetuate.

Is it ‘government’ that buys or sells exam questions?

Is it ‘the leaders’ that sit on your file in those offices until you have ‘appreciated’ them?

Is it the ‘leaders’ that import fake drugs?

Is Buhari the one driving facing on-coming traffic in your town?

Is it Buhari that sells the same piece of land to different people?

Is that person who builds your house with more sand than cement in government?

What about your mechanic that claims to have replaced something with a new part but only cleans the old one?

The lecturer that fails a student for not providing special ‘benefits’ nko?

Everyone knows a Diasporan who has tried to return to do something for the benefit of the country.

They have mostly been frustrated out of there, not by the government or leaders, but by the people that they’re trying to help, many of them among the ‘youth’. You can’t ignore that.

After ‘soro-soke’ nko? There should be ‘ise bere’(work begins).

Is anyone ready to do the work that is required? Soro soke is not enough o.

You must task yourselves with building the country you want, and that requires work.

Anyone who disagrees that the real work is more than talk is not telling you the truth.

Nation building is hard. It requires skills that many still need to learn. It is not too late. The internet is full resources. But who will stand up for that?

As many have now learnt, the razzmatazz of social media, though exhilarating, is fleeting. The smoke is clearing.

After protests and venting should come planning and dialogue.

That process requires listening, compromise, and a balancing of interests, especially in a patchwork amalgamation called Nigeria.

Many of us don’t have the capacity for that yet, but we must try.

Let the young people who wish to lead begin from the basics.

It is entirely possible that as soon as leaders emerge, the ‘youth’ movement will fracture into tribal and social camps.

That is a challenge you must face and tackle.

I promise you that a lot of well-intentioned Nigerians at home and abroad will rise & help you build.

Otherwise, the rot continues and you will be an integral part of it. #isébèrè

I reported on the scam being perpetrated at Shoprite here on nairaland seven years ago. Some abused me then for putting the job of the criminal cashiers at risk but today we all can see what they have achieved for themselves and us all. We either kill corruption or it kills us all

https://www.nairaland.com/1555715/watch-out-scammers-shoprite-ikeja

DEADLY COVER UP: Fauci Approved Hydroxychloroquine 15 Years Ago to Cure Coronaviruses; “Nobody Needed to Die”

Source: One News Now (by Bryan Fischer) republished by True Pundit

Dr. Anthony Fauci, whose “expert” advice to President Trump has resulted in the complete shutdown of the greatest economic engine in world history, has known since 2005 that chloroquine is an effective inhibitor of coronaviruses.

How did he know this? Because of research done by the National Institutes of Health, of which he is the director. In connection with the SARS outbreak – caused by a coronavirus dubbed SARS- CoV – the NIH researched chloroquine and concluded that it was effective at stopping the SARS coronavirus in its tracks. The COVID-19 bug is likewise a coronavirus, labeled SARS-CoV-2. While not exactly the same virus as SARS-CoV-1, it is genetically related to it, and shares 79% of its genome, as the name SARS-CoV-2 implies. They both use the same host cell receptor, which is what viruses use to gain entry to the cell and infect the victim.

The Virology Journal – the official publication of Dr. Fauci’s National Institutes of Health – published what is now a blockbuster article on August 22, 2005, under the heading – get ready for this – “Chloroquine is a potent inhibitor of SARS coronavirus infection and spread.” (Emphasis mine throughout.) Write the researchers, “We report…that chloroquine has strong antiviral effects on SARS-CoV infection of primate cells. These inhibitory effects are observed when the cells are treated with the drug either before or after exposure to the virus, suggesting both prophylactic and therapeutic advantage.”

This means, of course, that Dr. Fauci (pictured) has known for 15 years that chloroquine and it’s even milder derivative hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) will not only treat a current case of coronavirus (“therapeutic”) but prevent future cases (“prophylactic”). So HCQ functions as both a cure and a vaccine. In other words, it’s a wonder drug for coronavirus. Said Dr. Fauci’s NIH in 2005, “concentrations of 10 μM completely abolished SARS-CoV infection.” Fauci’s researchers add, “chloroquine can effectively reduce the establishment of infection and spread of SARS-CoV.”

Dr. Didier Raoult, the Anthony Fauci of France, had such spectacular success using HCQ to treat victims of SARS-CoV-2 that he said way back on February 25 that “it’s game over” for coronavirus.

He and a team of researchers reported that the use of HCQ administered with both azithromycin and zinc cured 79 of 80 patients with only “rare and minor” adverse events. “In conclusion,” these researchers write, “we confirm the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine associated with azithromycin in the treatment of COVID-19 and its potential effectiveness in the early impairment of contagiousness.”

The highly-publicized VA study that purported to show HCQ was ineffective showed nothing of the sort. HCQ wasn’t administered until the patients were virtually on their deathbeds when research indicates it should be prescribed as soon as symptoms are apparent. Plus, HCQ was administered without azithromycin and zinc, which form the cocktail that makes it supremely effective. At-risk individuals need to receive the HCQ cocktail at the first sign of symptoms.

But Governor Andrew Cuomo banned the use of HCQ in the entire state of New York on March 6, the Democrat governors of Nevada and Michigan soon followed suit, and by March 28 the whole country was under incarceration-in-place fatwas.

Nothing happened with regard to the use of HCQ in the U.S. until March 20, when President Trump put his foot down and insisted that the FDA consider authorizing HCQ for off-label use to treat SARS-CoV-2.

On March 23, Dr. Vladimir Zelenko reported that he had treated around 500 coronavirus patients with HCQ and had seen an astonishing 100% success rate. That’s not the “anecdotal” evidence Dr. Fauci sneers at, but actual results with real patients in clinical settings.

“Since last Thursday, my team has treated approximately 350 patients in Kiryas Joel and another 150 patients in other areas of New York with the above regimen. Of this group and the information provided to me by affiliated medical teams, we have had ZERO deaths, ZERO hospitalizations, and ZERO intubations. In addition, I have not heard of any negative side effects other than approximately 10% of patients with temporary nausea and diarrhea.”

Said Dr. Zelenko:

“If you scale this nationally, the economy will rebound much quicker. The country will open again. And let me tell you a very important point. This treatment costs about $20. That’s very important because you can scale that nationally. If every treatment costs $20,000, that’s not so good.

All I’m doing is repurposing old, available drugs which we know their safety profiles, and using them in a unique combination in an outpatient setting.”

The questions are disturbing to a spectacular degree. If Dr. Fauci has known since 2005 of the effectiveness of HCQ, why hasn’t it been administered immediately after people show symptoms, as Dr. Zelenko has done? Maybe then nobody would have died and nobody would have been incarcerated in place except the sick, which is who a quarantine is for in the first place. To paraphrase Jesus, it’s not the symptom-free who need HCQ but the sick. And they need it at the first sign of symptoms.

While the regressive health care establishment wants the HCQ cocktail to only be administered late in the course of the infection, from a medical standpoint, this is stupid. Said one doctor, “As a physician, this baffles me. I can’t think of a single infectious condition — bacterial, fungal, or viral — where the best medical treatment is to delay the use of an anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, or anti-viral until the infection is far advanced.”

So why has Dr. Fauci minimized and dismissed HCQ at every turn instead of pushing this thing from jump street? He didn’t even launch clinical trials of HCQ until April 9, by which time 33,000 people had died.

This may be why: “Chloroquine, a relatively safe, effective and cheap drug used for treating many human diseases…is effective in inhibiting the infection and spread of SARS CoV.” That’s the problem. It is safe, inexpensive, and it works – in other words, there’s nothing sexy or avant-garde about HCQ. It’s been around since 1934.

Given human nature, it’s possible, even likely, that those who are chasing the unicorn of a coronavirus vaccine are doing so for reasons other than human health. I can’t see into anybody’s heart, and can’t presume to know their motives, but on the other hand, human nature recognizes that there’s no glory in pushing HCQ, and nobody is going to get anything named for him in the history books. The polio vaccine was developed by Jonas Salk in 1954, and it is still known as the “Salk vaccine.” There will be no “Fauci vaccine” if HCQ is the answer to the problem.

So while Dr. Fauci is tut-tutting and pooh-poohing HCQ, Dr. Raoult and Dr. Zelensky are out there saving lives at $20 a pop. Maybe we should spend more time listening to them than the wizards-of-smart bureaucrats the Talking Snake Media fawns over.

Dr. Fauci is regarded by the Talking Snake Media as the Oracle at Delphi. The entire nation hangs on his every word. But if nobody is dying and nobody is locked down, his 15 minutes of fame fades to zero. Very few people are not going to be influenced by that prospect, especially when it’s easy to keep the attention of the public by continuing to feed the panic.

It should not be overlooked that there is no money in HCQ for Big Pharma since HCQ is a generic that can be manufactured so cheaply there is little profit margin in it. On the other hand, the payday for a vaccine will literally be off-the-charts. Who knows what kind of behind-the-scenes pressure is being put on Fauci and others in the health care establishment?

There is a monstrous reputational risk for those who will be found to have dismissively waved off a treatment that could have been used from the very beginning, even back on February 15 when Dr. Fauci said that the risk from Coronavirus was “minuscule.” How many lives could have been saved if the heads of our multi-billion dollar health care bureaucracy had been advocating for HCQ treatment from day one? We’ll never know. Instead, their advice has been dangerous and deadly in every sense of that word.

Someday – maybe even today – we will be able to identify the individuals who had the knowledge and expertise to make a global difference, but turned up their noses at the solution when it could have made all the difference in the world.

https://www.palmerfoundation.com.au/deadly-cover-up-fauci-approved-hydroxychloroquine-15-years-ago-to-cure-coronaviruses-nobody-needed-to-die/