09012021 - Nigeria must stop paying ransom to kidnappers

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22—SATURDAY Vanguard, JANUARY 9, 2021 Recent developments in our space have brought up the issue of doing DNA tests on children to the fore. The DNA test is meant to confirm the paternity of the children. What is DNA? DNA is deoxyribonucleic acid. Both parents supply the DNA of a child;that is where the genes of the child are warehoused. Genes are units of heredity, which are transferred from a parent to offspring and are held to determine some characteristics of the offspring. The implication is that everyone inherits the DNA of both parents. Let us ignore other technical jargons of DNA and concentrate on why DNA tests to determine paternity has become an issue. According to Wikipedia, “a DNA expert from Lagos University Teaching Hospital claimed that 30 per cent of the Nigerian men who went to paternity testing centers (paternity testing laboratories) were not the biological fathers of the children in their custody.” While this figure is not representative of the Nigerian population, 30 per cent remains a high figure. About six years ago, the manufacturers of Durex condoms conducted a survey, which showed that Nigerian wives are the most unfaithful in the world. How they came about this result and how we came first in this list of shame are still inexplicable to me because we are supposedly a very religious, conservative and traditional society. Infidelity puts a knife on one of the fundamental threads that hold marriages in place: trust. What is trust? Trust, in the context of marriage, is a belief that your spouse is good, reliable and honest. Marriage is based on trust. If you do not trust the person you want to get married to, do not go ahead. That is my gospel to everyone preparing for marriage. But some go ahead because of lust, desperation or the belief that they can change their potential spouse. I have also said severally that in marriage, expect change from only one spouse: you. But there are some husbands, who look like they were spectators rather participants in the production of their children DNA test? Why not? But... You have no right to demand that your spouse should change from what you knew before marriage to fit your expectations. So, if you take your korokoro eyes enter one-chance marriage, anything you see inside, take. But some of these cases, leading to DNA tests to determine the paternity of the children, have nothing to do with trust at the time of wedding. The breach of trust happened after the m a r r i a g e s commenced. Breach of trust shatters spouses; it strips the husbands naked in public. There are few things as traumatising as unknowingly bringing up another man’s children, thinking they are yours. I can never understand why than some wives are so callous and mean to husbands they profess to love. I watched a man weeping profusely on television after finding out that the 37-year-old man he had called son from birth is not his biological son. It was a very sad sight. When push comes to shove, every husband or man in doubt has every right to do DNA test to confirm the paternity of his “children.” Why spend the rest of your life in doubt and torment? It is physically and mentally draining. But not every man needs to do tests to confirm the paternity of his children. For some, res ipsa loquitur (the fact speaks for itself). I saw a man with an unusual shape of head in a church one day. His three sons with him had the same unusual shape of head. What does he need a paternity test for? My eldest daughter came to me and accused me of passing on my “scattered teeth” to her. She also accused me of passing on my poorlyshaped legs to her. She did not stop there, when we travelled home on a short holiday, she examined her grandmother’s legs carefully and exclaimed: “Mama, so you gave my father the ugly legs that he passed on to me.” Beyond our striking facial resemblance, we have other similar features. Why do I need a DNA to confirm that she is my daughter? Two of my sons are replicas of their older cousins (my brother’s children). Situations like these are the res ipsa loquitur. But there are some husbands, who look like they were spectators rather than participants in the production of their children. The children look like, and have all the features of, their mothers, but no visible features to link them with their fathers. Those are some of the situations that breed suspicions. Even worse, the children may have some features of their mother’s ex or a boss or colleague in the office. For such men, if you are in doubt, find out. But I advise such men to do it discreetly so that if it is false alarm, they can carry on as if nothing happened. If you accuse your wife falsely, it can set your home on fire. The wounds of such distrust scarcely heal. I have heard of a wife, who asked for divorce, on grounds of distrust, after the DNA results returned negative. But every husband whose mind is in turmoil has a duty to put his mind at rest. I know of a man, who had some suspicion about one of his children, who looked different from the rest of his children at birth and in infancy. He had a discussion with the wife. She was not angry about her husband’s suspicion, but had a good laugh. He assured the man that the baby was his; that she had never cheated on him. The boy is now a teenager and the features of the father have manifested; he also looks like the older siblings. Please have a heart-to-heart talk with your wife. If you are still unconvinced, do a DNA test discreetly instead of dying of high blood pressure. Some men decide to allow sleeping dogs lie. If you are comfortable that way, so be it. There was a photo of a Zambian couple with their little baby that went viral. Their baby looked every inch Chinese, and the wife works with the Chinese. Coincidence? The husband claimed the baby is his, so it is. Abi you want swallow paracetamol for another person headache? But one sure way of nipping this problem in the bud is to engage in natural family planning and baby sex pre-selection with your wife. Here you track her monthly cycle together. With a little investment in knowledge, patience and discipline, you will know when to engage in intercourse if you want a male or female child. If you do that, you know when the baby was conceived, so there is no room for suspicion later. Natural family planning means the wife will not use any artificial methods of birth control. It also means couples will stay off sexual intercourse when the wife is unsafe, except they want a baby at that time. It also means the couple will stay off sex to avoid confusion in the last five days preceding ovulation, learn a little more about reproduction, the X and Y chromosomes and timing of intercourse to determine the sex baby you want: boy or girl. You need to make a little sacrifice but the gains are overwhelming: determining the sex of your children and certainty of paternity. I am a living witness. Crises are part of our being as human, they come in different forms. Ability to crawl out of them makes one stronger. These are definitely not the best of times for the White House of the Nigerian banking sector. Chief Subomi Balogun and his First City Monument Bank (FCMB) are grappling with the effect of what has become a viral scandal. There are widespread allegations that the Managing Director of the bank, Adam Nuru and a former employee, Moyo Thomas, got too close for comfort. It is pretty difficult for me to wade into this crisis because only God knows the truth. At the same time, there are earthly avenues to sort things out. Until these are fulfilled, it does not sound tidy to jump into conclusions. Even in law, an accused person is presumed innocent until found guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction. This is also not exactly the case of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. I have drawn biblical allusions here because Chief Balogun will be a sad man now. One has to understand where he is coming from and why this trending scandal is not only a huge embarrassment but a pain in the neck. The founder of FCMB has never failed to credit God for all he has achieved in his almost 87 years of existence. Life has not been a bed of roses, yes. Out of vicissitudes came the monumental white structures littered all over. Born a Moslem, the Ijebu prince converted to Christianity early enough and owes much of his moulding to teacher Festus Oluwole Segun of Igbobi College, Lagos. The mentor climbed up the ladder in the Anglican Church. Bishop Segun was provost of the Cathedral Church of God, Marina, Lagos for 10 years before moving to the North as Bishop of Northern Nigeria. In 1975, he returned to Lagos to replace Seth Irunsewe Kale as Bishop and served until 1985 when Bank born in church near lagoon Moses Adetiloye stepped in. That upbringing became the force that worked positively towards the establishment of First City Merchant Bank in 1982. Reward may not come immediately in any good we do. The lesson is to be good at all times. During the war when many from the Eastern part of the country fled to Biafra, they did not reckon with some of the after effects. Landlords in Port Harcourt were forced to die of heart attack simply because the houses which they sweated to build had been taken away and labelled ‘ Abandoned Property’. In Lagos, Balogun had a neighbour, Alex Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme. The house Ekwueme built was maintained by his buddy while many did not get the same treatment. Balogun thus helped his pal to bounce back to life in good time while his erstwhile millionaire brothers were further pauperized by a miserly 20 pounds decree. Good begets good. In 1979, Ekwueme became Vice President of Nigeria. He worshipped at the same Cathedral Church of Christ, known to Bishop Segun and Chief Balogun. You would not believe what happened inside that church. Chief Balogun had been struggling to get licence for a merchant bank. Bureaucracy tossed him up and down and was almost going to push his dreams into the blue Marina across the church. He got to church early enough and wanted his friend, the Vice President, to just say hello. Tight security would not let that be. The chief and his wife did not give up. One of them had to touch Ekwueme’s Ishi Agu attire, like the woman with the issue of blood did in the Bible. That was the miracle. Ekwueme turned, saw his friend and wife. Right there inside the church, Balogun opened up on his banking licence frustrations and the Vice President asked him to consider it done. That was how Balogun who had left ICON Merchant Bank as Executive Director became the first Nigerian to solely set up a merchant bank. FCMB was therefore born in a church near the Lagoon. You see why holiness means a lot. This story of Adam and Eve maybe part of temptation. It is morally wrong to sleep with another woman while you are legally married. The court and DNA tests may have to come in. It is also wrong to condemn an organisation simply because two employees were alleged to have gone too close to themselves. This is like calling all Nigerians looters because some politicians are busy pillaging our commonwealth. I feel for the two children who have become objects of ridicule. No test has been carried out to determine that they do not belong to Dayo Thomas. May his soul rest in peace. Many are condemning Moyo. The man at the centre, Nuru, has not spoken. I think there are Even in law, an accused person is presumed innocent until found guilty by a court of c o m p e t e n t jurisdiction. This is also not exactly the case of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden many hypocrites around us. Marital issues are not solved through social media. Some of those who are shouting crucify him are worse than he goats. They are making life miserable for these kids. In all these, I know calm will return. I want to enjoy more of FCMB Christmas carols. Chief Balogun loves children, that caused him to donate his Otunba Tunwase National Paediatrics Center, Ijebu Ode to the University of Ibadan. The guilty should be afraid. Truth will prevail. An acting MD, Yemisi Edun, has taken over. She was one of the three Executive Directors. And out of the three, two are women. Definitely, the bank allowed them to climb on merit.
Trump is a symbol of white supremacy. White is supreme. Trump was president. It didn’t matter what he grabbed and whom he grabbed; white women voted for him. He was white, brash and bare-knuckled against racial niceties as whites should be. And they liked him so. Political correctness is white cowardice. If Trump weren’t white, he might have been on the sex offender’s register. But since he was the epitome of white purity, he got away with everything. Trump said he could shoot someone on the fifth avenue and get away with it. We had thought it was an exaggeration or a truthful hyperbole. But it has become an understatement. Trump has shot the republic in the heart and will get away with it. He committed egregious impeachable offenses, did naked quid pro quo, used official position to his private advantages, appointed his children to high offices, and let them run everything and bully people. He got away with a few scratches. White is supreme. If Trump were black and used foul words, conjured pejorative epithets for political opponents—Nasty Nancy, Crooked Hillary—chewed taboos like a baby chewing candy, Trump would never be an American president. But white makes things soft and blurry. He showed his color; his color is extreme-white. When Trump started, he created ‘lying Ted’, mocked the disabled, and demonized the media. He could have been stopped. If he were black, he would have been labeled unstable, uncouth, uncivilized. During the 2016 campaigns, he said he would jail his opponent. If it were in Africa, the US secretary of state would have flown in to issue warnings about free and fair elections. When he pressured the Justice ministry to re-open investigations against Clinton, America didn’t remember the rule of law. When he pressured Ukraine to investigate Biden, his 2020 potential opponent, most American lawmakers stood by him, encouraged evil, and Trump labeled the impeachment process a witch-hunt. We all saw Trump side with racist groups and praise Klu Klux klan in the open. They saw him call African countries shit-hole countries. Before then, he had done the knee jerk Muslim countries visa ban. But Trump White is supreme: Trump has undressed America’s hypocrisy is the real white, so whatever he did was tolerated since he served white prejudices like none other. He was the man brought in to deal a blow to the pretensions of equality. Nobody of any other race could have lied so much, behave like an inebriated urchin, yet be venerated by many millions. He got 70 million votes in 2020. The same man who was so verbally incontinent he once told the dying public that bleach in addition to hydroxychloroquine could cure COVID. He didn’t bother with what the doctors thought of his prescription. Some of the doctors were willing to bow before him and inhale bleach. If Trump weren’t white, he might have been on the sex offender’s register. But since he was the epitome of white purity, he got away with everything With Trump, narcissism became a virtue, and fulminating ignorance in the white house became national strength. He made his advisers redundant, and they thought him a genius. Only when he booted them out of office did they come back to their senses. Trump didn’t dissemble. No-one was fooled. He announced he wouldn’t accept election results months before the election. He rejected the results and pressured state officials to repudiate the results. Trump and his Republican lackeys flooded the courts with election suits. They were almost all thrown out. Some of them were so comical they invited inquiries into Trump’s sanity. Yet 90% of the republican party continued to back his effort to denigrate American democracy. It’s baffling. Trump pours his scorn on African countries, yet many Africans thoughtlessly worship him as a deity and work for his political longevity with prayers and fasting. Trump insulted the hell out of senator Cruz in 2016, but Cruz has become Trump’s altar boy. A devotee who would rather have American democracy truncated than Trump yield to the wishes of the American people. Only a white man can be Trump. Black and Latino versions of Trump would have had inescapable jail careers in their youths. And if any of them got to adulthood through all the crookedness and ended in politics with such a filthy mouth, stinking SATURDAY Vanguard, JANUARY 9, 2021—23 past, and irreverent ways, he would have quietly been trashed at his political infancy. But Trump, who bragged about grabbing women by their genitals and violating them through his star power, has remained the Messiah. His sins weren’t overlooked; they weren’t sins. The symbol of white supremacy was beyond sin. He promised to Make America Great Again. So he tried to destroy NATO and the WHO. He dumped climate change and frolicked with Putin, Duterte, and Kim Jung un. He killed alliances and damaged American values. And they cheered him. They were delirious; their savior had come. Perhaps the same kind of greatness Hitler promised Germans and got them intoxicated enough to join him in doing things mad people wouldn’t do. He did great things. He once teargassed protesters in Washington to walk to a church’s door and take pictures holding a bible. He went there escorted by great men and military Generals. They didn’t deem him infantile. So it wasn’t quite disgusting to see protesters besiege and ransack the Capitol. Didn’t he, on national television, tell the Proud Boys to stand by? Despite the outrage, it wasn’t obscene; it was all too foreseeable. A president inciting people to attack the legislature. That might be the denouement, but the plot had been bare for a long time. Perhaps it was nice to see the Capitol police, who had early warning of this protest, capitulate and let white supremacists march into the hallowed chambers of American democracy with flags of bigotry. It was all about whiteness, so the police were polite. If Trump were black, he would have contained himself or booked a bedspace in an asylum. No one would worship the mischief of a black man in America. Except if the black man took to evangelizing white supremacy. But even then, despite the overzealousness he might possess, he would be labeled a counterfeit. Imagine a black president renaming the CNN Corrupt News Network and the majority in the American senate cowering? White is a privilege. I thank God for sending Trump our way. He laid bare the hypocrisy of America. s the TV showed Wednesday Anight, as a mob stormed the United States of America’s national legislature, I bemoaned Africa’s weak democratic institutions. Now and then, my “Big Sister,” Professor Tess Onwueme, she who has been nominated for the Literature Nobel Prize, that giant of African and world poetics, one of the purest diamonds that God decorated Nigerian intellectual firmament with, came across on the phone to ohhhhh and ahhhhh at the sorry sight. On leaving her, I would return to my phone conversations with Prof. Kingsley Macebuh—the younger brother of that incomparable original thinker, the late Dr. Stanley Macebuh, trying to make sense of the American tragedy and its lessons for Nigeria. Ambassador George Obiozor (ah! another Prof), once told me at the Abuja Sheraton Hotel in 1999, that Dr Stanley Macebuh was Nigeria’s Immanuel Kant, and were he still alive, he would have given a stimulating insight into how the insurrection would affect the US for he was a philosopher; hey! Stanley was already an Associate Professor at the City College of New York and Columbia University when he returned to Nigeria. Obiozor made me study Kant, (1724– 1804), still the central figure in modern philosophy, despite the passage of the centuries. Kant once enthused: “Our age is the age of criticism, to which everything must submit” and that “Enlightenment is about thinking for oneself rather than letting others think for you”, according to the essay, What is Enlightenment? There, Kant expresses the Enlightenment faith in the inevitability of progress; a few independent thinkers will gradually inspire a broader cultural movement, which ultimately will lead to greater freedom of action and governmental reform. A culture of enlightenment is “almost inevitable” if only there is “freedom to make public use of one’s reason in all matters.” So, how much reason goes into government actions? Why did reason not tell US President Donald Trump that US assault on democracy acy;what lessons for Nigeria? Joe Biden won the election clean and square? What lessons lie for Nigerians in the sacking of the US Congress? What if President O l u s e g u n Obasanjo had lost the 2003 presidential elections to Buhari? What if Obasanjo’s Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar had won the 2007 election, would Obasanjo have allowed that result to stand? What if the incumbent President, Muhammadu Buhari had lost the 2019 election? What would have happened? I ask these questions because if any supporters of any Nigerian president had stormed the National Assembly as we saw on TV on Wednesday night, blood would have flowed across Nigeria as it would have assumed ethnic and religious colourations. Nigeria stood at the brink of the History will terribly condemn some leaders for debilitating, instead of strengthening,our democratic sinews precipice when Obasanjo lost the third term bid. But I will forever thank Obasanjo for knowing where to stop once the Senate voted down the scheme. What if he had dared everybody? What if some tough official in his administration had employed real strong arm tactics against say, the National Assembly? What if former President Goodluck Jonathan did not concede defeat to Buhari but had attempted to stop or reverse the release of the results which did not favour him? Please consider this: At 3:33 a.m., Thursday morning, Mr. Joe Biden received 270 Electoral College votes. At 3:39, the count was finished. Sen. Amy Klobuchar read the results— Mr. Biden’s victory—to a standing ovation from both sides of the aisle. Vice President Mike Pence completed his duties and announced Mr. Biden as the winner just after 3:40 a.m. And Pence is VP to Trump. Get the meaning? Mr. Pence had said he would obey the US Constitution … and he did. The US Congress had sat from 1pm on Tuesday till 3: 40 am, Wednesday Trump was President but he could not send the FBI, the Police or the Army to sack the Congress. Trump did not know where to stop. He tried to uproot the foundations of American democracy but failed. Would the members of the Buhari administration know when to stop if things went against them? Of course, I remember how a sitting Chief Justice was treated and a security agency invaded the National Assembly, but who has checked the effect of such on Nigerian democracy? An aide to Obasanjo, when it looked like Dr Alex Ekwueme would win Peoples Democratic Party nomination to contest the 2003 presidential election, asked me pointedly: “What if Obasanjo would invite the military to take over power? Who will stop him”? That aide, from Delta state, is in Britain now. I shudder at such scenarios. Democracy is fragile; Gen. Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida annulled a free and fair election and that still haunts Nigeria. To that we are adding Buhari’s suspected one-sidedness, killer herdsmen issue, disappearing Naira value. They will fester. Leaders’ shortsightedness bear disastrous results. But don’t ask how Americans elected Trump; ask the same question of yourselves. What if a Nigerian Trump were to ask the courts or our National Assembly TODAY to reverse an election result? I shudder; our democratic institutions are really fragile and when we humour dictators we enable them and enfeeble democratic institutions. National legislators and state Governors were more democratic and independent under Obasanjo than today. What about the judiciary? What about Nigerian Federalism? And is that not retrogression? Ah! history will terribly condemn some leaders for debilitating, instead of strengthening, our democratic sinews.
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09012021 - Nigeria must stop paying ransom to kidnappers

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