In Igbo cosmology of identity definition, a family of criminals does not stand for a family without good persons but a family where the hell criminals predominate and the good ones are unable to act to remedy the bad reputation of the family. This is idiomatically expressed in the Igbo saying: Ofu aka luta mmanu ozuo ora aka onu—“when one finger touches the palm oil it spreads to the rest.” That the Igbo as a...
Precautionary measures outlined by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, and awareness level of the dreadful coronavirus may be compromised by years of unhygienic practices and the state of markets in the nation. A typical market in Nigeria has lock-up stalls built by the government and sold to a few privileged ones while the majority are seen hawking their products which they either carry on their head or wheelbarrows. These markets know no barrier...
When it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic, African countries’ unique challenges demand a regional response from an institution with the medical expertise to address its needs and leverage its strengths—the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). On April 2, 2020, the World Bank Group approved its largest-ever support facility in response to an emergency. The first group of projects through its dedicated, fast-track facility for COVID-19 response provided $1.9 billion for 25...
Isolation from COVID-19 pandemic calls for resourcefulness: engagement and ways to encourage exercising the mind and body. _____ Many nations, including Nigeria, are on lockdown to contain the spread of Coronavirus. This brings to mind that we had been enjoying the privilege of liberty all along without even knowing it! The powerful is shaken, and the vulnerable weakened even the more. States closed their borders to forestall movement of persons. Except for the medical sector...
Writers aren’t born…they are self-made. Creative writers are therefore nurtured and cultured by self. Most writers I know carry a portable/digital recorder back in the days of yore. Today, it is in their hands. They carry it around all day, drive and text on it, and text some more even as the Professor is standing before them, wafting poetic. They sleep with this modern day contraption, and only record those moments with pure disdain for...
Millions of Nigerians are celebrating the death of Abba Kyari, in a most dramatic and downright startling manner. I have thought about Kyari as a person and how power can shape people, and this is what I believe: Perhaps, any one of us could become tomorrow’s Kyari, who was lured, exalted, and killed twice, by power. That is, any of these Nigerians jubilating over the death of Kyari could become the very person that every...
By Hon. Geoffrey Onyeama I first met Abba Kyari in 1977 at Warwick University in England. I had gone there to do law as a second first degree. He had come to do a degree in sociology. I had a pending application to do Law at Cambridge and when the result of that application came and it was positive, I left Warwick during the second semester. But my five months at Warwick was enough to...
How will history judge Nigeria’s leaders? History will judge them harshly for inaction, for sycophancy, for malfeasance, for causing the death of hope in a nation that’s mourning an ignoble tradition. The dearth of political leadership continues to impact the daily overall social condition for both the rich and poor in Nigeria. The five years of President Mohammadu Buhari’s administration and the past few months of the coronavirus pandemic have exposed just how much a...
The mentality of victims of the social system during a pandemic invokes a persistent sense of vulnerability to their oppressive leaders, nonparticipation in the civic process, distrust of the system, and often thoughts of negativity. With such a hopeless mindset, it is excusable when they are excited over the death of those who gradually drowned them into the darkest sea of social wretchedness. Anytime a dictator or an oppressor dies, there are often three major...
Only a global victory can end this pandemic, not a temporary rich countries’ win. By Abiy Ahmed The writer is prime minister of Ethiopia and the 2019 Nobel Peace prize laureate There is a major flaw in the strategy to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. Advanced economies are unveiling unprecedented economic stimulus packages. African countries, by contrast, lack the wherewithal to make similarly meaningful interventions. Yet if the virus is not defeated in Africa, it will...
