There are millions of Nigerian youth today whose potentials have gone rogue because of the failure of successive government to create an excelling springboard off an economy that has marginalised them time and time again. The rhetoric around hushpuppi’s actions is exacerbated by a false dichotomy, it shouldn’t be a question of his stupidity or sagacity, after all, its little by little that a pig’s nose enters the yard. Whether in science and technology, sports and recreation, manufacturing or engineering, there are huge opportunities for a government who understand the basics of developmental state to harness its young population, it takes real skill and talent to pull off what he did. 
Unfortunately the lacklustre response from the men of the ballot papers leaves much to be desired. That failure by government has in part marred economic prosperity and made the youths the forgotten young boys and girls of our country, like a sheep lacking a shepherd, many make their marks taking off from a point of disadvantage because of the non existing catalytic synergy between them and the political elite. This political ineptitude has produced a “hushpuppi” and other cyber-criminals from Africa’s “city upon a hill”
The reason why Hushpuppi has calved a negative image on the global scene is closer to home than it seems. This trend of our youthful countrymen scamming some of the richest men and women on the planet at the scale and success they have is not beyond belief, it is a symptom of the political sickness, our leaders should face the court of public opinion for serious negligent and gross misconduct. Hushpuppi may be a lost soul, but sadly his story represents millions of wasted youths, more sadly, it represents the failure of the mediocrities parading themselves in political office.
The Scottish government has given the green light for weddings and civil partnership ceremonies to resume once again from June 29, however this must take place outside and numbers kept low in order to maintain social distance guidelines. This comes as good news to several couples and partners who have had to defer their happiest day.
The Scottish government announce Thursday plans to allow retailers to open their doors again from June 29. This will see non essential shops many of whom have been seriously impacted by the pandemic try to jump start their businesses once again. However only shops with entrances and exit doors can open from Monday 29 June provided public health guidance like social distancing measures has been implemented. The advice for the general public is still to work from home wherever possible.
Many Britons including millions of youths all over UK will not remember the woman fondly called “the forces’ sweetheart” for her role in World War II when she sent forth troops with an entertaining song “we’ll meet again”, which helped raise the morale of the British soldiers in their battle against Nazi-Germany, Dame Vera Lynn who died today at the age of 103 will forever be remembered. Her family has released a statement that they were “deeply saddened to announce the passing of one of Britain’s best loved entertainers”. Dame Vera’s association with the British army is a life long one, her many legacies will live on.
Celebrities across the continent would have to do more to influence government policies in their country. Indeed Africa boast of many of them in their nest of millions. Be it in the music, film or entertainment industry, football and other sports, the voice of celebrities is so powerful it could resonate the unheard voices of the poorest of the poor in the community. Whether it is in Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa or Zimbabwe, Angola or Congo, Africa has a pool of some of the most talented and influential celebrities in the world. What is starkly different however is that African celebrities rarely intervene in government policies to protect children and the most vulnerable in their societies. The English footballer Marcus Rashford wrote to MPs requesting them to extend food vouchers to poor children in the community, they listened, now the poorest of children will not go hungry. In contrast, African children are at the receiving end of this coronavirus pandemic, with millions already living on extremely poor diet even before the pandemic. With no serious policy to mitigate poverty throughout the virus crisis, children don’t have the voice to air their pleas, no one to lean on, no one to speak for them. It’s high time Nigerian celebrities and indeed celebrities across Africa start using their celebrity influence in shaping government policies for the benefit of the most vulnerable in their community.
All over the world rape is a story so common, our dear country Nigeria is not an exception to this social malaise. It rarely ever makes it into the newspapers, and that is worrying. The victims fear stigmatisation and pass over reporting the crime to the police. In developed world there are departments in the police force trained on the subject and this shows in their response when a victim comes to report the crime. You can almost certainly picture a Nigerian police man being highly insensitive about this matter, “why you go hin house”, “but he’s your boyfriend”, “why you too wear this kain cloth”, the list of blame game one liner is endless. The assumption that what women wear can provoke a man stems from rooted stereotypes about male and female sexuality. Rape is a serious wrong committed against women, it interferes with women’s dignity. This is something our constitution takes seriously; the right not to be subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment is a fundamental human right.
The name Africa still resonates sufficiently to animate interest, even though the subject of attention is not any of its country playing significant role in the world order. As the world’s fastest growing continent, this apparent strength has not translated into plain economic significance, the exponential growth has been more counter productive than favourable. As the world’s second largest and second most populous continent in the world accounting for around 18% of the world’s population, it is not surprising why the likes of China sees the continent as an important economic market, to put it in lay terms – a gold mine.
Before coronavirus unleashed its fangs, it was business as usual. Holiday makers gallivanted from nation to nation, cruise liners thrived on an insatiable appetite of their customer’s desire to see the world, travel agents created the dream holidays, airliners transported billions of people round the world and the stock market unravelled ownership claims on businesses, the rich got richer and the poorer’s purée peaked promptly. Five months on, you don’t need a crystal ball to realise that life as we know it may never remain the same again, and rightly so, it shouldn’t.
PDA (Public Display of Affection)- We all love a bit of cuddle, kisses, hugs and handshake, this represents the method and levels of endearment we have towards one another, but under the current health climate, this nomenclature of our lives would have to diminish if we want to win the pandemic war.
VACATION – in the early days of the virus, it accelerated its spread by using humans as its transport. From Italy to Barcelona, Paris, Dubai, London, New York, Cyprus, you name it, holiday makers brought more than chocolate boxes back home, they brought back a deadly virus also. Stupidly, some are already looking forward to another holiday destination, the virus is still out there and would remain out there for some time yet.
WORKING CULTURE – the virus has taught us how we don’t all have to be in a four walls of an office complex before work is work, It is now more likely that working from home is here to stay.
DEATH IS ONLY A VIRUS AWAY – painful but true, this virus leaves grief in its wake, even survivors saw death in close proximity, they didn’t survive because they beat the virus, they beat it because they survived.
VACCINE – there is so much talk about developing a vaccine at a fast pace, but no regard has been given to the probability it may never work, there may be deja vu in the horizon. Otherwise, messiahs in lab coats will haste a concoction, then government will roll out compulsory vaccination regime. Considering no vaccine has ever been produced within a year, we will all end up as guinea pigs, nevertheless, it might still be our best shot at protection.
SCIENCE SCIENCE BLAH BLAH – a lot of talk about following the science, other than a handful of deaths in few countries, many more countries have recorded record high numbers, the science of death?
SMART COUNTRY FOOLISH COUNTRY – some countries like the UK and the US have released very high numbers of death toll while others like China, Germany, Russia have relatively low numbers. The latter countries have been smart enough to recognise the unhelpful reality of putting out a high number, after all, it serves no purpose other than death-shaming the country with higher and highest death toll, many also find it demoralising the mood of the nation, so is there any positive reason for putting the figures out there? The former countries on the other hand have lost their sense of self preservation, one death is bad enough, what difference does it make if the death toll is 10 or 100, is it a race to the pinnacle of death? Death wise number foolish!
HEALTHY REGIME – according to medical professionals, good health and strong immunity is the best shot of anyone surviving the virus, statistics has shown that most people who die from this virus have an underlying health condition and weak immunity. Statistics also show that the UK and the US lead the world in underlying heath condition including diabetes, obesity etc, any surprise why both countries have been severely affected?
THE FAILURE OF SCIENCE – from the onset, scientific research revealed that children are not affected by the virus and that in the worst case scenario, they only have mild symptoms, not long after that the world recorded children dying from the virus including one as young as six weeks old. Then we were told no evidence that the virus affects pregnant women nor can it be passed to their unborn baby, then boom!, one by one pregnant woman did not only contract the virus, in many cases their babies were born with the virus.
EVIDENCE – scientist always base their discovery on the presence of evidence. While this is a moot point, we all know from justice system globally that the absence of evidence is not necessarily the presumption of innocence. The entire scientific revelation demonstrate an over reliance on a methodology based evidence when it is clear that science knows little or nothing about this new virus. Since this new virus reveal its different shades everyday, evidence based science shouldn’t have driven guidelines, relying on evidence that may be present tomorrow but absent today is misleading and dangerous – what a complete fiasco.
HEALTH SERVICE REFUGE – unfortunately not many countries have good health care system, for some who have, it either comes at a heavy cost or not accessible. What the virus has demonstrated to us however, is the importance of a responsive healthcare in all societies.
BLOOD MONEY – what is it about the top wealthy countries in the world and high Covid-19 mortality rate? Is it a case of penny wise pound foolish!
POLITICIANS ARE MISTAKES AND THEY MAKE HUMANS TOO – politicians don’t make mistakes because they are humans, they are humans because they make mistakes. Many politicians have been criticised for their handling of the virus crisis, the variable outcome from country to country is inevitable, when the dice rolls, you can’t tell which side it would land.
ARE WOMEN BETTER LEADERS – we have only started seeing women leaders in modern democracy post World War Two, perhaps women leaders would have avoided the two world wars or achieve a much lower fatalities had they held the reins of power, but we would never know would we? What we do know however, is that countries with women leaders appear to have handled this crisis significantly better than their male counterparts, they have shown true leadership in the face of crisis. From Mette Frederiksen of Denmark to Sanna Marin of Finland, Erna Solberg of Norway, Tsai Zing-wen of Taiwan to Jacinda Arden of New Zealand, and from Angela Merkel of Germany to Katrin Jakobsdottir of Iceland, these women have not only shown true qualities of leadership, they have demonstrated the type of empathy and care we have never seen before from political circles.
THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM – there was always going to be higher fatalities in some jurisdictions than others, the countries parading lower numbers will be touted as the perfect exemplary for their counterparts with higher fatalities. But you could set two countries apart with similar measures and still have different outcome.
RIGHT vs GOOD – there comes a time when doing good supersedes doing right, thus the saying, “the greatest good for the greatest number”. It is surreal that China may have deflated their death toll, if true, then it is more likely other countries parading lower figures did too. Experts believe Chinese unemployment figures could be three times higher than reported as a result of the pandemic. Ofcourse this may not be the right thing to do, but if it is good for the country then we have to accept that is right.
POLITICAL POINTS – opposition parties world over, well atleast in modern democracy, have seized the opportunity to score points over the government’s handling of the virus crisis. And rightly so, what better opportunity could there be to reposition themselves for power, but the scapegoating and scare-mongering risk dividing countries when they should be uniting against a common enemy.
UNEMPLOYMENT – staggering rise in unemployment has already been seen in many countries as a result of the lockdown impact on the economy, that’s despite some countries furloughing staff and others giving financial mitigation to businesses and employers. The rise of unemployment is going to get worse and perhaps remain so for some time, apparently it will take around 11 years to return the economy back to pre-pandemic status.
THE ECONOMY – deeply buoyant and resilient economies, particularly the Group of Seven most prosperous Nations otherwise knows as (G7) have suffered a big hit with many suffering between 4% to 11% drop in their GDP, what chance does weaker economies stand? It is definitely not a good outlook for the future, unfortunately this will be worse than the Great Depression of the 1930s, billions of low paid workers worldwide will endure financial depression, when will it all be alright?