On June 1st 2018, I was in a convoy from the Akure Airport to Ado-Ekiti. My husband DR Kayode Fayemi was being led back into Ekiti by excited party people and Ekiti citizens. As we got to the outskirts of , Ikere-Ekiti, I saw two old women running besides our vehicles, waving brooms and shouting, ‘Oko arugbo ti de o’, ‘The husband of the aged is here’. One of the women looked like she was in her eighties, and my heart was in my mouth as she ran with the energy of someone three decades younger.

The Social Security Scheme for the elderly known as Owo Arugbo, (money for the elderly) which was one of the key achievements of the JKF1 administration (2010-2014) was abruptly discarded when he left office. During the JKF1 period I also coordinated a Food Bank/Soup Kitchen project for the elderly and other vulnerable people. As we found our way into Ado-Ekiti that day, other elderly citizens joined in the excitement of running alongside the convoy for as long as they were able to. JKF had promised that he would revive the much-loved social security scheme that had enabled so many elderly citizens live lives of dignity and independence if he won the election. The sheer joy and excitement on the faces of these old people that day was a sight to behold.

In June 2019, the staff of my Ekiti Development Foundation started the process of compiling names and doing due diligence for ‘Ounje Arugbo’, (‘Food for the elderly’, a rebranded version of the previous Food Bank project) which we formally launched in September 2019. During the registration exercise, my staff came back from Ikere-Ekiti and told me that one of the old women they had documented there did not just need help from the Ounje Arugbo project. She would need a lot more. Mama Jolaade Osho’s name had been given to the team as one of the beneficiaries to be registered, but she could not make it to the registration center because she was too frail. My staff decided to go to her home, where they knocked on Mama’s door for over twenty minutes before she opened it for them. She was found living in such filth and squalor, they were shocked. That is how Mama Jolaade Rachael Osho became my adopted mother. I got her a new place to stay near her family home, employed two carers who worked in shifts, and got a doctor to check on her regularly. She never lacked anything till she drew her last breath.
Rachael Jolaade Osho was one of the nine children of her mother, Mrs Abigail Oyebade Osho, and a father with several other wives, Mr Benson Osho of Apelua compound in Okeruku quarters of Ikere Ekiti over a century ago. In trying to determine Mama’s age, we came up with a range from 105-115. Based on respected sources from the town, it has been determined that she was not less than 110 years old. Mama was a Princess, from one of the Ikere ruling families. According to the history she recounted, Mama Osho witnessed the installation of four Kings in Ikere kingdom during her lifetime. Even though Mama lacked material wealth, she was richly blessed with good health and a very long life. Mama Osho didn’t receive any formal education. However, she was hard-working and ventured into weaving and sales of the popular cotton fabric known as “KIJIPA.” She spent most of her youth trading in fabrics and agricultural products such as cocoyam and palm kernels.

As was customary during her time, she was married off to her first husband known to her as ‘Akowe Agba’. She did not know his real name. She was not happy in the marriage so it did not work out. Mama Osho got married again, this time to Mr Alakatakiti Sakiu who sadly died, leaving her alone in the world. She then moved back to her father’s house in Apelua compound, Ikere. Mama lost all her children to untimely deaths thirty-forty years ago. This resulted in a life of agony, stigma and when she was no longer able to fend for herself, poverty.

Mama Osho was not the only elderly person in Ekiti State living under such circumstances. Since her case became public in July 2019, I have taken over the care of three other old women just like her. One of them has children, but they are unable to fend for themselves not to talk of their mother.

In Yoruba communities, no woman is childless, every woman is a mother. Some women never have biological children. However, they join in raising the children around them, and when they pass on, those adopted children become part of her legacy. Sadly, these positive values have been eroded. Mama Osho had biological children of her own but they tragically pre-deceased her. Due to her age and lack of support, she slipped into grinding poverty. She was hounded, abused and abandoned by people who did not know any better. She was labelled a witch. Another lesson learnt from my relationship with Mama, is the issue of a lack of documentation and how we are allowing critical aspects of community memory to fade away. We discovered that there were no photographs of Mama Osho, except for the ones we started taking of her in July 2019. We have managed to piece an account of her life together using our interviews with her and various sources but it is still quite sketchy. I would love to see a documentation project that records the experiences of elderly citizens in our society before they pass on. There are still many Mama Oshos in our communities who live in isolation and penury, with only their fading memories for company. Memories no one is interested in, but which we so badly need as a society that is failing on so many levels. This is something that can be taken up by private foundations, faith based organisations or State Ministries of Arts, Culture and Tourism in collaboration with young researchers.
Mama Osho lived her last days in peace and dignity, as is the right of all people. On January 27th2020, the day of her passing, Mama had breakfast and took a nap. When she woke up she requested for pounded yam, her favourite meal which she ate almost every day. She went to the back of her house to feed the two big chickens she had been rearing to give to me and JKF. When she was done, she went back in, placed her head on her chest and slipped away peacefully. She had no aches or pains and she was not ill. Her time was just up. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to play a role in Mama’s life, albeit very briefly. If my team had not found Mama last year, and she had died alone in her room, she would have been buried immediately and unceremoniously, with hardly anyone to mourn her.

Mama kept telling everyone around her that I was her daughter who had left long ago and had come back. I am not sure if she meant it in the metaphorical sense or, due to her very old age, she truly believed it. In the end, what matters is that Mama died happy, knowing she was loved and cared for. Time and people abandoned her, but God did not forget her. The first time I met Mama last year, I promised her that when she dies, people will know she has children. Tomorrow, we will bury Mama. She will lie in state with coral beads on her neck and on her wrists like the Princess she was. People will file past the remains of the frail, helpless old woman who was teased, taunted and declared worthless because she had no one to care for her. She will be buried like the valuable human being she was, and I am sure she has a place waiting for her in heaven.
I am humbled by the kind words of many people from around the country and beyond who have been touched by Mama’s story and have sent messages of solidarity and support.

Please remember, there are still many like her around. Let us seek them out and care for them. Rest in peace my dear mother. You have earned it. I will never forget you.

By IKENNA EMEWU (People’s Daily Online)

The coronavirus (nCOV-2019) is fast spreading, now to over 20 countries. The fear coronavirus spreads is far bigger than the deaths and infections put together.

But a worse viral load is also somewhere in some other dimension working worse damage to humanity – that is the racism, profiling, hate and alienation of the Chinese person.

The social media in most parts of the world have hundreds of thousands of such hate harvest, most of all from societies that boast they are civilized and know better about what a virus should be and different from a citizen of a country from where a killer virus emanated.
For the coronavirus, China is the epicentre, the birthplace from where the world picks the vibes.

For the hate of it – hantavirus, the human and cultural offshoot of the coronavirus, the outer world is the epicentre. The vector is the media, especially the new media.
While in Europe and the Americas the Asian is the fall guy and ‘demon’ that deliberately created the virus, in Asia, the Chinese is singled out. So pathetic!

It’s quite worrisome that most of the reports about coronavirus induced hate – hantavirus, come from Asian countries close to China. Such news simmers in the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam etc.

The worst of the reported cases was that of Indonesia on Friday, January 31, 2020, that “China flew overseas Hubei residents back to the centre of the outbreak in Wuhan on chartered planes from Thailand and Malaysia, citing “practical difficulties” the passengers had encountered overseas.”. That doesn’t sound cheery or humane.

In Australia, after two media organisations had screamed headlines that were heavily loaded with negativity against the Chinese person, Global Times, a Beijing based media reported angst by 46,000 Chinese citizens who signed a protest against the reports and demanding a recant.

The Global Times report said: “More than 46,000 people have signed a petition demanding the Australian media to apologize publicly for racism against the Chinese community after two media outlets carried headlines and highlighted characters on their front pages which labeled the novel coronavirus-related pneumonia as a “Chinese virus” and hyped sentiments that would require Chinese children to stay at home.

The Australian daily tabloid newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, published on its Wednesday’s paper a report titled “China Kids Stay Home,” according to a photo of the paper circulating online.

The report indicated that the New South Wales government warned “parents not to send their children to school or daycare if they have recently been in China” due to “fears over the fast-spreading coronavirus outbreak.”
In reaction to this odd trend, Bloomberg, a US platform captured it aptly that: “Airlines halt flights from China. Schools in Europe uninvite exchange students. Restaurants in South Korea turn away Chinese customers.

“As a deadly virus spreads beyond China, governments, businesses and educational institutions are struggling to find the right response. Safeguarding public health is a priority. How to do that without stigmatizing the entire population of the country where the outbreak began — and where nearly a fifth of all humans reside — is the challenge.”

In the US, a Chinese American celebrity, Michelle Phan said she’s been targeted with a barrage of racism on twitter amid Wuhan coronavirus scare. And in one of the instances, she replied: ‘Why are some of you telling me to go back to eating bats? I’m American you ignorant f—s.”
There have been many other reported cases of such hate attacks in Canada where the government of Ontario and the school board had to issue warning that no Chinese citizen should be maltreated or stigmatized because of the coronavirus outbreak.

In an interesting contrast, governments of many countries and intergovernmental bodies including the World Health Organisation (WHO), the EU, India, Pakistan, the Vatican through Pope Francis have praised the Chinese authorities for concerted efforts against the scourge and even offered to assist.

Dropping aside the usual antagonism, a US media organization published reports praising China’s openness in managing and reporting the incident and also allowing the outer world to see what it’s doing to curtail the spread especially the WHO that has visited Beijing and interacted with President Xi Jinping. The report noted that this open and transparent approach is a deviation from the way China handled the management of the SARS outbreak in 2003, applauding the positive dimension.

So how do we reconcile a situation where governments praise China and pledge support in this challenging time while the citizens walk in contrary direction, compounding the problem with stigmatization? That becomes a task for the governments to senitise the uninformed citizens to act properly.
However, it’s many thanks to scientists in Australia and Ghana that have assisted with researches that created vaccines against the virus. After Australia announced the breakthrough, Ghana told the world that two students of pharmacy who trained in China when the first minor coronavirus outbreak occurred cloned the virus with samples they obtained in China then and also volunteered to fly to China and assist in fighting this death agent.
Sincerely, if I have the scientific weapon and know-how, I would target to obliterate this virus. Yes, I would rather fight the virus that has traversed continents and nations.

But now, I haven’t the equipment to stop coronavirus from spreading and killing the Chinese mostly, I would readily deploy the little weapon in my hands and within my reach – love, to love the Chinese and not mistake him or her for the virus.

Since the Chinese is NOT the virus, I rather fight the virus by loving and embracing the Chinese. I won’t be fair to him/her and humanity to alienate or profile or castigate the Chinese spared by the virus at a time I should be consoling them for the loss of lives, peace and livelihood.
That is what humanity rightly demands of us.

By Zhong Sheng

China and the U.S. officially signed the phase-one economic and trade deal in Washington on Jan. 15 local time. The international community believes that the signing of the deal is beneficial to China, the U.S. and the whole world at large.

Such analysis indicates that though the world has always been tested by the choice between isolation and opening in recent years, all countries share common aspiration for open cooperation, as the irreversible trend of economic globalization is a general consensus reached by the world.

The current situation further explains Chinese President Xi Jinping’s remarks at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland three years ago. On Jan. 17, 2017, Xi, in his keynote speech, put forward China’s understanding and proposals of economic globalization, shared Chinese solutions to global economic issues, and pointed out that China’s development is indeed an opportunity for the world.

Answering to the questions of the time, such as “what has gone wrong with the world” and “how should we respond”, Xi noted that in the face of both opportunities and challenges of economic globalization, the right thing to do is to seize every opportunity, jointly meet challenges and chart the right course for economic globalization. Hailed as “sunshine in the winter”, Xi’s speech has injected energy for economic globalization against a headwind.

Economic globalization has always been a hotspot issue for the international society since 2017. In the past three years, the economic globalization encountered increasing countercurrent and opposition, and the discussion over where this process should go has never ceased. As the world is going through debates and introspection over economic globalization, it is also suffering from negative impacts caused by certain countries’ unilateralism and protectionism.

Facts have made it crystal clear that economic globalization is a “double-edged sword” that both drives global development and causes new challenges.

The world calls for light of wisdom especially in the mist. In the past three years, on multiple international occasions such as the World Economic Forum, the G20 Summit, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation  Economic Leaders’ Meeting, and Boao Forum for Asia, Xi’s speech delivered in Davos has been frequently quoted as it is able to help people eradicate confusion, treat economic globalization dialectically, draw advantages and avoid disadvantages, and explore the ways to eliminate the negative impacts of economic globalization.

Xi proposed to make economic globalization more open, inclusive, balanced and beneficial for all. This way, people of all countries will be able to share in the benefits of economic globalization and global growth. This bright prospect is what the world is working for.

Though protectionism is on a rising trend, open cooperation still enjoys stronger momentum. The latest results of trade liberalization and investment facilitation from Asia-Pacific to Africa, and from Europe to Latin America prove that only the path of seeking development through open cooperation represents the common aspiration of the world.

Truth speaks loud and will be heard.. Economic globalization has offered robust momentum for global economic growth, and promoted the circulation of commodities and capitals, the advances of technology and civilization, as well as the exchanges among different countries. It is an objective request raised by social production development, as well as a natural result of scientific and technological progress, rather than something made by certain people or countries.

Economic globalization may encounter problems and challenges, but the general trend of the integrated development of the world economy is unstoppable. Only by conforming to the trend can the world take control of the future. In the face of the global development issues, the world needs to enhance its confidence in open cooperation and jointly cope with risks and challenges to release more positive effects of economic globalization and better benefit every country and nation.

Ueli Maurer, President of the Swiss Confederation said Xi’s speech delivered at the World Economic Forum in Davos three years ago was still widely acclaimed by all so far when he visited China last April, and similar point of view is being expressed more and more frequently today.

The 2020 World Economic Forum is expected to kick off a few days later, where global leaders will give prescription over global economic issues and draw a blueprint for global development. Chinese wisdom is still worth learning in this process.

(Zhong Sheng is a pen name often used by People’s Daily to express its views on foreign policy.)

By; Jerome-Mario Utomi      

Aside from the traditional definition of democracy as government of the people, by the people and for the people, great scholars, commentators and political analysts, had at different times and places shared their thoughts about this form of government- it meaning, concepts, survival, merits and demerits.

Part of such conversations in the past gave birth to the global believe that the best defense of democracy is to stress the values that are essential to good governance, especially transparency and accountability, and to support civil society, independent media, and free flow of information. Together, these steps could lower the risks of democratic backsliding and improve lives in the practicing country.

Comparatively, regardless of nationality, countries that adhered strictly to these democratic ethos, today, display a number of common characteristics-internal development of the people, tackle  unemployment through creation of tenure-based and, endless employment to its people,  they consider and understand the critical importance of socioeconomic well being of the nation,  create  opportunities for participation in government, regard citizens as co-soldiers in the nation’s development army with equal ranks, display real commitment to the business of governance and promotes a common value system, and most importantly, instead of pursuing  strictly financial objective when managing the affairs of their nation, they formulate and implement policies that improve the live chances of their people.

Unfortunately, not so could be said of nations that flagrantly ignores democratic ethos.

Infact, the practice of democracy in such countries is often always not       only challenging and costly. This claim is evident in two major areas- over blotted costs of governance by elected officials and burden of harsh/poor policies placed on shoulders of citizens by elected and appointed public officials

Nigeria and of course the vast majority of Africa countries provide good examples of nations with such virtues and attributes.

Separate from other feeble policies in the past, the most obvious of such in Nigeria is the recent directive by the ministry of interior to the effect that henceforth intending married couples, worship centres and churches shall be made to pay a whopping sum of N 51, 000. The breakdown of this new fees going by the report is as follows; while marriage certificate goes for N21, 000, licencing of place of worship is required to pay N30, 000 before performing statutory marriages in Nigeria.

Expectedly, aside from the directive coming at a time when the list of action not taken by the government to better the lives of Nigerians remains lengthy and worrisome, Nigerians with critical interest have expressed fears that such directive similar to  the kind we used to see in China and Cuba have finally found its way on our political geography. And could come as strategic implication, capped with the capacity to set the stage for further abridgment of citizen’s fundamental and prevent religious groups from performing their statutory responsibilities.

This fears expressed by Nigerians cannot be described as unfounded as they are not alone in this line of thinking.

Recently, the coalition of civil society Organization (CSOs) under the aegis of the foundation for African cultural Heritage (FACH), during a press conference in Lagos, expressed similar displeasure about government decision. And queried why worship centres should be made to pay the sum N51, 000 in order to perform their statutory marriages.

Going by their explanation, not only is the directive so arbitrarily and capriciously imposed without consultation with veritable Nigerian stakeholders, the licences, they added, are in gross violation of section 7(5) of the 1999 constitution of Nigerian and section 6 (1) (2), 21, 24, 30, 36, 37, 38, of the marriage act. And submitted that there are other ways the ministry of interior could generate revenue other than placing unnecessary and extra financial burden on couples, churches, Mosque and places of worship in Nigeria. 

Interpretatively, Nigerians and the Civil Society groups, in my views are not sad that the Federal Government is thinking of creative and innovative ways of boosting its revenue base as it is not only necessary but eminently desirable. For without such levies, the government may not have the required resources to bridge the infrastructural gaps in the country as well as attend to the day to day demands of the state.

However, there are so many inherent ills associated with this particular directive by the Ministry.

Very fundamental is the stunning error of procedure that characterized the Ministry of Interior’s decision. As it is done in civilized climbs, what Nigerians with critical interest expects from the Ministry is not a directive but to have a bill submitted before the National Assembly- such process would make the process not only transparent but participatory as it paves way for stakeholders to make inputs at public hearing stage. 

Another observation that further plagues the directive, and did so well to qualify the Ministry’s action as an ouster of the local Government Areas, is the conviction by Nigerians of goodwill that Section 7 (5) of the 1999 constitution vests the “registration of all births, death and marriages solely rests on the local Governments area in Nigeria and not on the federal Government.

Again, aside from the illegality inherent in the ministry’s decision to single-handedly exercise the right to grant licences to couples, churches, and mosque and public places of worship, the consequence of the emerging strategy that places such responsibility on the ministry can only be described as cumbersome.

There is also a related factor.  

It could be recalled that the lingering legal battles between the ministry of interior and the local government Areas over the right to conduct celebrate, register marriages and issues marriage certificates is all based on the current policy of the ministry of interior. Most local government Areas have rightly insisted that the statutory powers to register marriage are being usurped by the federal Government through this new policy of the ministry of interior.

This, in my opinion is a clear indication that the current policy by the ministry is very unpopular and will continue to cause disaffection, mutual mistrust between the Ministry of interior and the people of Nigeria. And if allowed to stand, it can only but amount to an unjust code that is out of harmony with moral laws.

Like every other well meaning Nigerian, i believe and still believe that Nigeria is practicing a presidential democracy that promotes justice for the common good of Nigeria. Hence, it will be rewarding if the Federal Government unlearn the attitude of making decisions for pecuniary reasons that places extra financial burden on couples, churches and places of worship in Nigeria and imbibe habits that will enhance the life chances of the people.

Jerome-Mario Utomi (jeromeutomi@yahoo.com), writes from Lagos, Nigeria