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Edo State’s Struggle for Meaning The 2020 Edo State Governorship Election in Retrospect

November 30, 2020

‘The Impetus of My Life and Work is Love.’ OluTimehin Adegbeye's First Draft

November 27, 2020

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The Measure of Our Lives Gender and the English Language

November 25, 2020

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Governor asks Nigeria to fight Boko Haram with mer

Governor asks Nigeria to fight Boko Haram with mercenaries.
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According to Channels, the Borno State governor, Babagana Zulum, recommended to a visiting presidential delegation that the government hire mercenaries, following the killing of 43 farmers on 28 November in the Koshobe area near Maiduguri.
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Zulum suggested that the government hire mercenaries to clear the Sambisa forest of insurgents, and immediately recruit the youth of Borno into the armed forces to increase their military strength.
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The governor also asked that the country collaborates with the governments of neighbouring Chad, Niger, and Cameroon, in eliminating militants operating along the shores of Lake Chad, and in helping Nigerian refugees living across the border return home. He said that greater financial support for Borno, as well as increased military backing, will go a long way in solving the insecurity crisis in the state.
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The presidential delegation, led by Senate president, Ahmed Lawan, said the armed forces had been given marching orders to fight the insurgents wherever they were hiding, adding that President Buhari remained committed to fighting insurgency in Borno.
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📝: Wemi x Abdul-Azeez, Editorial Assistantd.
📷: Borno State governor, Babagana Zulum, prays during a funeral for 43 farmers who were victims of the recent attack on rural communities in Borno. Jossy Ola / Associated Press

WHO: Malaria death toll likely to rise due to COVI

WHO: Malaria death toll likely to rise due to COVID-19.⠀
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According to Reuters, a statement from the World Health Organization has warned that disruptions to services designed to tackle malaria by the coronavirus pandemic will cause deaths from Malaria to rise this year, likely exceeding those from COVID-19.⠀
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More than 409,000 people - most of them babies in the poorest parts of Africa, were killed by malaria last year, according to the WHO global malaria report, and COVID-19 is likely to make that toll higher in 2020.⠀
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A large portion of the global population is at risk of contracting malaria - and it still kills a child every two minutes. Despite this, the focus of global funding and attention has been diverted, making preventable child deaths more likely.⠀
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The director of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, Peter Sands, expressed frustration that policy makers around the world were transfixed by COVID-19, but paid little attention to a disease that kills more than 400,000 people every year, mainly children. He said to reporters, ‘this is a disease we do know how to get rid of - so it is a choice that we don't.'⠀
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📝: Wemi x Abdul-Azeez, Editorial Assistants⠀⠀⠀⠀
📷: Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organisation (WHO) speaks at the UN Office in Geneva. Elma Oki / UN

Today in 1949, Pablo Escobar was born.⠀ -⠀ On

Today in 1949, Pablo Escobar was born.⠀
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On 01 December 1949, Pablo Escobar, Colombian criminal and head of the Medellín drug cartel, was born in Rionegro.⠀
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Escobar began a life of crime as a teenager. In the 1970s, he became part of a criminal organization that later became known as the Medellín cartel. At its most active, the cartel supplied an estimated 80% of the cocaine smuggled into the United States, his illegal wealth making him one of the richest men in the world, according to the BBC.⠀
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He funded various projects to aid the poor, which along with his humble roots earned him ‘Robin Hood' comparisons, despite the violence his cartel caused in the country. Escobar wanted political power to shield his criminal activity, and that perception helped him win an alternate seat in Colombia's congress in 1982.⠀
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After the USA issued an extradition order for Escobar, he went on the run, and his cartel targeted politicians and law enforcement. When many of his close associates were gunned down by police, he offered rewards for every policeman who was killed, leading to the death of more than 250 officers in Medellín. Escobar is thought to be responsible for about 4,000 deaths.⠀
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In exchange for not being extradited to the USA, Escobar surrendered himself to Colombian police in 1991. He escaped from prison in 1992, and after Colombian law enforcement located him more than a year later, he was killed in the resulting shoot-out on 02 December 1993. The Medellín cartel collapsed soon after his death.⠀
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📝: Wemi x Abdul-Azeez, Editorial Assistants⠀⠀⠀⠀
📷: Pablo Escobar at a party. American Heroes Channel

Nigeria's long history of political defections. #O

Nigeria's long history of political defections. #OnSite⚡
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In our latest online essay, writer and journalist, Ope Adetayo, discusses Nigeria's history with defections going back to the First Republic.
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According to Adetayo, the First Republic (1963-1966) was exemplified by parties projecting a strong ethnic base. Coalitions such as that between the Igbo NCNC and the Hausa-Fulani NPC were formed but were short-lived as the NCNC pulled out due to ‘disagreement concerning the 1963 census, which allegedly favoured the northern region of the country'. A split followed that culminated in two different factions: United Progressive Grand Alliance (UPGA) and the rest of NCNC that would later form the Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP).
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Adetayo also cites defections in the Second Republic (1979-1983). Chief Akin Omoboriowo, defecting from the UPN to the NPN and Alhaji Abubakar Rimi, from the PRP to the NPP. Adetayo notes however that ‘the rate of defections has worsened in the Fourth Republic since the restoration of democracy in 1999'. Citing President Buhari as an example, Adetayo notes that in the 2003 and 2007 elections he contested under the ANPP and switched to the CPC in 2011 before merging with other parties in 2015 to contest under the platform of the APC from where he eventually ousted the incumbent PDP and secured the presidency.
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Adetayo argues, that the n-PDP 'will go down in history for its role in the first defeat of an incumbent president'. The n-PDP consisted of powerful members of the PDP including Atiku Abubakar, and Bukola Saraki who would become the Senate President. True to form, ‘by 2019, just four years after leaving PDP for APC, majority of the n-PDP's members had returned to PDP after accusing the APC of marginalizing its members'. Adetayo describes Saraki as the 'face of the crisis' for emerging as Senate President against his party's wishes in a move considered ‘a monumental act of indiscipline and betrayal to subject the party to ridicule'.
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For more on this topic, click the link in our bio.
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📝: Ope Adetayo⁠
📷: Large crowd at NCNC rally, Urualla, Nigeria. 1959. Eliot Elisofon

Nigeria’s national electricity grid collapses ag

Nigeria’s national electricity grid collapses again.⠀
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According to a statement from the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) and a Reuters report, Nigeria’s national electricity grid collapsed over the weekend of 28 and 29 November.⠀
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While power outages in Nigeria are common, electric grid collapses are less frequent but not unusual. The electric grid previously collapsed this year in June, April, and May. According to The Guardian, Nigeria’s national electric grid collapsed more than eleven times in 2019.⠀
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Last year, an umbrella body of electricity distribution companies in Nigeria decried the repeated collapses of the grid, stating that the TCN’s analog system had caused over 100 nationwide power breakdowns since the privatization of the power sector in 2013.⠀
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Nigeria’s debilitated power grid, along with the resulting unreliable energy supply, is a problem that significantly restricts growth in what is currently Africa’s largest economy.⠀
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Electricity tariffs recently increased significantly in Nigeria, almost doubling for many customers, in a move the government said was necessary to help electricity distribution companies generate more revenue.⠀
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📝: Wemi x Abdul-Azeez, Editorial Assistants⠀⠀⠀
📷: A busy road in Ikotun, Lagos. ILO / Flickr

Today in 1874, Winston Churchill was born.⠀ -⠀

Today in 1874, Winston Churchill was born.⠀
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On 30 November 1874, British prime minister during the Second World War, Winston Churchill, was born in Oxfordshire.⠀
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Churchill rose to prominence in British politics before the First World War. During the Second World War, he was instrumental in forming the Allied Nations, a coalition of nations against Germany, Italy, and Japan. Along with leaders from America and Russia, he helped shape strategy for their allied nations against Adolf Hitler.⠀
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Soldiers in Africa, under the banner of the Royal West African Frontier Force (WAFF), fought under Churchill and the allied nations. The forces for the WAFF were made up of troops from Britain's West African colonies in Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and The Gambia.⠀
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Churchill, who became prime minister once more from 1951-1955, has been criticized since his death because of his racist views. He supported Britain's plans for additional conquests, stating that 'Aryan stock was bound to triumph'. He also believed that being colonized was favourable for the 'primitive' and 'subject' races native to Britain's colonies, advocating against black or indigenous self-rule of British colonies in Africa, Australia, the Caribbean, the Americas, and India.
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📝: Wemimo Ogunmoyela x Abdul-Azeez, Editorial Assistants⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
📷: Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill shaking hands with Oba Adesoji Aderemi, the Ooni of Ife on the grounds of Blenheim Palace during the Commonwealth Prime Ministers Conference. 8 June 1953. Keystone.

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