Supreme Court Halts COVID-19 Vaccine Rule For US Businesses

FILE - The Supreme Court shown Friday, Jan. 7, 2022, in Washington. The Supreme Court has stopped the Biden administration from enforcing a requirement that employees at large businesses be vaccinated against COVID-19 or undergo weekly testing and wear a mask on the job. The court's order Thursday during a spike in coronavirus cases deals a blow to the administration's efforts to boost the vaccination rate among Americans. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

BY MARK SHERMAN AND JESSICA GRESKO

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has stopped a major push by the Biden administration to boost the nation’s COVID-19 vaccination rate, a requirement that employees at large businesses get a vaccine or test regularly and wear a mask on the job.

At the same time, the court is allowing the administration to proceed with a vaccine mandate for most health care workers in the U.S. The court’s orders Thursday came during a spike in coronavirus cases caused by the omicron variant.

The court’s conservative majority concluded the administration overstepped its authority by seeking to impose the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s vaccine-or-test rule on U.S. businesses with at least 100 employees. More than 80 million people would have been affected and OSHA had estimated that the rule would save 6,500 lives and prevent 250,000 hospitalizations over six months.

“OSHA has never before imposed such a mandate. Nor has Congress. Indeed, although Congress has enacted significant legislation addressing the COVID–19 pandemic, it has declined to enact any measure similar to what OSHA has promulgated here,” the conservatives wrote in an unsigned opinion.

In dissent, the court’s three liberals argued that it was the court that was overreaching by substituting its judgment for that of health experts. “Acting outside of its competence and without legal basis, the Court displaces the judgments of the Government officials given the responsibility to respond to workplace health emergencies,” Justices Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor wrote in a joint dissent.

President Joe Biden said he was “disappointed that the Supreme Court has chosen to block common-sense life-saving requirements for employees at large businesses that were grounded squarely in both science and the law.”

Biden called on businesses to institute their own vaccination requirements, noting that a third of Fortune 100 companies already have done so.

When crafting the OSHA rule, White House officials always anticipated legal challenges — and privately some harbored doubts that it could withstand them. The administration nonetheless still views the rule as a success at already driving millions of people to get vaccinated and encouraging private businesses to implement their own requirements that are unaffected by the legal challenge.

The OSHA regulation had initially been blocked by a federal appeals court in New Orleans, then allowed to take effect by a federal appellate panel in Cincinnati.

Both rules had been challenged by Republican-led states. In addition, business groups attacked the OSHA emergency regulation as too expensive and likely to cause workers to leave their jobs at a time when finding new employees already is difficult.

The National Retail Federation, the nation’s largest retail trade group, called the Supreme Court’s decision “a significant victory for employers.”

The vaccine mandate that the court will allow to be enforced nationwide scraped by on a 5-4 vote, with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh joining the liberals to form a majority. The mandate covers virtually all health care workers in the country, applying to providers that receive federal Medicare or Medicaid funding. It affects 10.4 million workers at 76,000 health care facilities as well as home health care providers. The rule has medical and religious exemptions.

Biden said that decision by the court “will save lives.”

In an unsigned opinion, the court wrote: “The challenges posed by a global pandemic do not allow a federal agency to exercise power that Congress has not conferred upon it. At the same time, such unprecedented circumstances provide no grounds for limiting the exercise of authorities the agency has long been recognized to have.” It said the “latter principle governs” in the healthcare arena.

Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in dissent that the case was about whether the administration has the authority “to force healthcare workers, by coercing their employers, to undergo a medical procedure they do not want and cannot undo.” He said the administration hadn’t shown convincingly that Congress gave it that authority.

Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett signed onto Thomas’ opinion. Alito wrote a separate dissent that the other three conservatives also joined.

Decisions by federal appeals courts in New Orleans and St. Louis had blocked the mandate in about half the states. The administration already was taking steps to enforce it elsewhere.

More than 208 million Americans, 62.7% of the population, are fully vaccinated, and more than a third of those have received booster shots, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. All nine justices have gotten booster shots.

The courthouse remains closed to the public, and lawyers and reporters are asked for negative test results before being allowed inside the courtroom for arguments, though vaccinations are not required.

The justices heard arguments on the challenges last week. Their questions then hinted at the split verdict that they issued Thursday.

A separate vaccine mandate for federal contractors, on hold after lower courts blocked it, has not been considered by the Supreme Court.

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Associated Press writer Zeke Miller contributed to this report.

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This story corrects that four justices noted dissents in the health care vaccine case, not just Alito and Thomas.

Nobel Body Criticizes Peace Prize Winner Abiy Over Tigray

FILE - Ethiopian government soldiers ride in the back of a truck on a road near Agula, north of Mekele, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, Saturday, May 8, 2021. Ethiopia's government has announced on Thursday, Dec. 23, 2021 that its forces will not advance deeper into the Tigray region. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)

BY JAN M. OLSEN

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK (AP) — The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which awards the prestigious Peace Prize, on Thursday issued a very rare admonition to the 2019 winner, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, over the war and humanitarian crisis in his country’s Tigray region.

“As prime minister and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Abiy Ahmed has a special responsibility to end the conflict and contribute to peace,” the Oslo-based committee said in a statement.

Abiy won the prize, in part, for making peace with neighboring Eritrea after one of Africa’s longest-running conflicts.

The committee said that “it must be emphasized that Abiy Ahmed’s prize was awarded on the basis of his efforts and the justifiable expectations that existed in 2019,” adding that “the historical backdrop included an authoritarian governing system and widespread ethnic conflicts.”

In November 2020, Abiy’s government allowed Eritrean forces into Tigray as they together pursued the Tigray leaders after political tensions erupted into war. Some tens of thousands of people have been killed, and hundreds of thousands now face famine as Ethiopia’s government has kept almost all food and medical aid from Tigray since late June.

“Since the autumn of 2020, developments in Ethiopia have escalated to a comprehensive armed conflict,” the statement said. “The humanitarian situation is very serious, and it is not acceptable that humanitarian aid does not emerge to a sufficient degree.”

The conflict entered a new phase in late December when Tigray forces retreated into their region amid a new military offensive and Ethiopian forces said they would not advance further there.

The committee also said that its deliberations are confidential. “Furthermore, it is not our role to provide continuing commentary on Ethiopian developments or to assess the position of a Peace Prize laureate after the prize has been received.”

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Associated Press Writer Cara Anna in Nairobi contributed to this report.

Why Western Education Cannot Save African Nations

BY FRANCIS OGBIMI

TODAY, after 61 years of independent existence, Nigeria is best described as a failing nation, a nation incapable of solving any problem, a nation without a direction.

Nigerian federal, state and local governments cannot pay salaries as when due. Nigerians are hungry. The nation is confronted by mass unemployment, poverty, civil strife in all regions.

Virtually all Nigerian youths would rather leave Nigeria to any other nation and never return if they have the opportunity to do so. The nation produces only agricultural goods; the nation does not produce manufactured goods; productivity is very low. Why is that the situation in Nigeria?

If wisdom had characterised Nigeria’s development endeavour, at Independence on October 1, 1960, and thereafter, Nigerians would have asked many questions to start with. Some of the questions would have been: Who are Nigerians and other people of the Black race? Why independence on October 1, 1960? How do donations develop, what is the experience of other more scientifically-advanced and productive nations?

Nigerians would have found out that the Black race is the people who have always populated the African continent. Brace (1971), then Curator of the physical anthropology at the University of Michigan’s museum, United States of America, writing about what had been learnt about the origin of man, articulated that culture is central to man’s evolutionary success; culture includes not only the high points of arts, music and literature but also all those things that result from cumulative effort of other people and previous generations.

Man is not just an animal that possesses a culture, but an animal that cannot survive without culture. The brace also theorised that man could not exist, if each had to discover anew the control of fire, the manufacture of clothing and shelter, the sources of edible substances, and the guidelines for workable interrelationships, to say nothing of the mechanics, electronics, chemistry and physics on which human life depends today.

Man originated in Africa and all his forbearers were Black and through adaptation, some people became those now called White. Non-perishable cultural elements have an antiquity of about two million years in Africa. The cultural tradition of which they are part continues without break, expanding to occupy the tropical and temperate parts of the Old World around 800,000 years ago, and ultimately developing into all the cultures in the world today.

The Carthage Empire was the unchallenged world power during the period 750-264 BC (Allcroft and Mason, 1958). Carthage formed close links amounting to effective predominance over most of the areas in North Africa and all directions in the Mediterranean during the period.

Carthage and Rome fought the First Punic War about 264 BC when Rome had no Navy. Rome learnt, built a Navy and rivalled Carthage. By 146 BC, Rome destroyed Carthage and became the world power (Errington, 1972). Rome later expanded to include most of the areas occupied by modern Europe. The area now occupied by Western Europe was the ancient Gaul; it was harnessed into the Roman Empire about 55 BC (Carrington and Jackson, 1954).

The period 500-1470 AD, witnessed the flourishing of independent states and empires in West Africa. Among these were the Ghana, Mali, Songhai, Kanem-Bornu, Benin and Oyo empires, and the Hausa States which were clustered along the southern frontiers of the Sahara (De-Graft Johnson, 1955 and Clark, 1971). The last empire in West Africa was the Songhai which existed during the period 1488-1591.

The western portion of the Roman Empire was smashed by Germanic tribes in 406 A. D. (Carrington and Jackson, 1954; and Blakeley and Collins, 1975). Europe then broke up into small kingdoms which developed into and remained French-Latin Europe till the 13th century. Islam was introduced into the Iberian Peninsula by Arabs and Berbers in 711 A. D. (Webber and Hussey, 1941).

An independent Arab emirate was established in the Peninsula and became a Caliphate in 929. The capital, Cordova became a centre of art, learning and refinement. The Arabs developed the Peninsula to the extent that it was the most advanced part of Europe till the end of the seventeenth century.

Europe and America were not among the Great Medieval Civilisations, GMCs. The GMCs were India, Africa and the Islamic world (Gottschalk, et al., 1969). The Medieval period was the period before 1500 AD. Before 1300, the level of scientific and technological development in many respects was lower in the Western world than in the GMCs; in those civilisations, science had flourished during the Dark Ages of the West.

The West did not immediately begin to make the great scientific strides that it later showed itself capable of making; there was a centuries-long plateau between the absorption of oriental, Islamic and African scientific knowledge and independent Western science (Gottschalk, et al., 1969). During the period African Empires flourished and occupied southern Europe, European history shows that Africans were very generous; the Africans willingly transferred their inventions and those of other MGCs like China and India to Europe (Cardwell, 1974).

The Iberian Peninsula broke up into two kingdoms, Spain and Portugal, in 1497. Spain and Portugal were the two nations that were strong enough to champion the so-called Discovery Voyages in which Africa and America (the New World) were rediscovered by Europeans.

The special advantage which the Iberians derived from their Arab-African association underlays their special performance in those voyages. The Iberians had been trained in seafaring by Arabs and Africans. The voyages marked the beginning of the period since Westerners began to exert a strong influence on Africans in the 15th century.

The African-Caucasian encounter since the 15th century can be subdivided into three phases. The first phase covered the period 1440-1850. This is the period the Caucasians subjected millions of Africans to slavery. The enslavement was explained in terms of Darwin-Malthus theory of the survival of the fittest.

The second phase covered the period Westerners partitioned Africa into the units now called nations as it pleased them. The third phase covered the period 1950-now. This is the period Westerners granted African nations independence and began to indoctrinate and plan for the slaves who returned to the continent and those whom they had colonised for over a century in the African continent. That was why Nigeria became independent on October 1, 1960.

The principal instrument for indoctrinating Africans to think and do things the way they ought not to, has been Western education (Western social sciences and related areas of study) which all African nations have as a colonial heritage.

Western education cannot ask and answer fundamental questions about African and Africa. That is why Western education cannot be the basis for developing Africa. If African intelligentsia/intellectuals were not indoctrinated, they would ask why Africans were enslaved and colonised and would not wait for Europe and America to plan for Africa.

As Nzimiro (1976), observed, a nation whose soul is controlled by models of thoughts beamed from a society with a different historical experience, social structure and world outlook, is bound to suffocate its youths and thinkers.

Such a nation, because the thought process of its citizens is guided from abroad, cannot question the basis of its existence. Nigeria’s stagnation, economically and politically, is explained. African nations must establish an African educational system to produce people who can think to enable Africans to make rapid progress.

Africans who have been acquiring Western education are indoctrinated, not educated. Indoctrinated people think and do things the way they ought not to think and do.

NIGERIA: Checkpoints As Threat To Citizens’ Safety

THE GUARDIAN EDITORIAL BOARD

The perennial menace, (it is difficult to not to term it so) of police and military checkpoints on Nigerian roads was brought to the fore by a Southeast group, Cultural Credibility Development Initiative. It complained in a letter to the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Usman Alkali Baba, and the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Lucky Irabor, about the ‘strangulation of Igbo land with checkpoints’ and the “suffocation caused by the humongous number of checkpoints in Igboland.” The group alleged existence of checkpoints at every kilometer that create five-kilometer –long traffic snarl and demanded that these ‘security’ posts be reduced by 75 per cent.

A media report has gone so far as to say that the Southeast geopolitical zone ‘‘can be rightly said to be under siege by soldiers and the police.’’ While no one doubts that the nation is on the precipice security-wise, police checkpoints have been so abused as to compound rather than relieve citizens of their misery. This situation needs be reformed.

Security officers at checkpoints have been accused by not a few persons, high and low, of excesses that patently violate the rules of engagement on their duty. House of Representatives member, Ifeanyi Momah, has gone so far as to accuse checkpoint officials of human rights abuse, ‘‘devastating, degrading, and inhuman treatment’’ of citizens that include whipping women and searching traditional rulers ‘‘in an embarrassing manner.’’ No less a person than the President-General of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Nnia Nwodo, reportedly accused security agents of using the checkpoints to extort, harass, and intimidate road users. Vehicles, from motorcycles to large trucks are forced to pay varying sums according to type and size of goods. It is also reported that checkpoints are deliberately set up on market roads. The question cannot but be asked: how can the security agencies receive cooperation and intelligence while they behave in ways that generate distrust and ill feeling against them?

Checkpoint, by ordinary meaning of the phrase, simply is ‘‘a place where traffic is stopped so that it can be checked’’ for any act of illegality.
Of course, it is used in other lands within and at the borders. Alas, like many other things that are borrowed from other jurisdictions, some crooked –minded Nigerians have devised a way of bastardising a sound idea and a good process to enable them derive personal benefit. Indeed, with the aid of modern technology, human factor in checking people and vehicles for illegal items has reduced. But those who would gain from not adopting this method will not let it happen. A journey that should take a few hours ‘costs’ hapless travellers twice or even thrice precious time. The received opinion is that checkpoints have been turned into ‘‘toll gates’’ and ‘‘collecting centres.’’

The menace of extortionate security men at checkpoints is nationwide. Countless times, literally, police chiefs have directed their officers and men to desist from mounting checkpoints unless they are approved for specific reason. Successive IGPs have had to order their men off the road because they do not do what they ought to by law. Besides, they tend to go beyond their briefs. Policemen on legal checkpoints have been repeatedly told that they have no business checking the documents of vehicles, unless a particular vehicle is reported missing. They hardly comply with this simple order from ‘above’. In late September 2017, the then IGP Ibrahim Idris ordered that checkpoints be dismantled ‘‘to enable ease of business in Nigeria, safeguard and guarantee free passage of goods and travellers throughout the country.’’ Indeed, according to the police spokesperson, Moshood Jimoh, ‘‘special X-squad teams of the force have been deployed throughout the country with strict instructions to arrest, investigate and discipline police personnel violating the IGP directive.’’ Mohammed Adamu had, in December 2019, directed that ‘‘only checkpoints and nipping points that are operationally expedient for crime prevention and other forms of key duties’’ should be allowed on the roads. Adamu went further to specifically address the heart of the problem about checkpoints. He admonished that ‘police officers posted on checkpoint duties are expected to eschew corruption …be firm…courteous and polite to citizens.’’ That was two years ago. If anything changed, the Cultural Credibility Development Initiative, the Ohaneze Ndigbo leader and the House of Representatives would have no cause to lament.

Early December 2021, a resolution of the House of Representatives asked the IGP to order that ‘‘illegal and unnecessary checkpoints’’ be dismantled. Where checkpoints were not properly mounted, they have caused accidents many times. Just one example: along the Owerri-Onitsha road, on November 28, 2021, a fully loaded articulated truck rammed into vehicles stopped at a check point. 20 people were killed.

Clearly, checkpoints are not serving the pure and simple purpose that they are meant for. In the Southeast, police posts are attacked and sacked at will, About 30 communities are reported to have been taken over by criminal elements. These are happening all over the country. Criminals move freely on highways, terrorists with ease, trucks transporting aliens with their deadly arms hidden on the floor of the vehicles move through so-called checkpoints. Often, it is the local vigilante teams that accost, detect and arrest them, not at all the officials at the checkpoints.

The current IGP Baba promised, on assumption of duty in April 2021, a police force ‘‘guided by the principles of public accountability … conformity with the rule of law, compassionate servants and helpers of citizens.’’ Unfortunately, the conduct of his subordinates at checkpoints denies these good intentions. They constitute an existential threat to the convenience and safety of road users. Baba has much work to do to bring his wishes into reality.

Western Media Propaganda And Africa

BY OLUWATOYIN MAGBEGBEOLA

The depiction of Africa through the centuries has not changed considerably. In the past Africa was depicted as the dark continent. Polish-British novelist Joseph Conrad wrote the “Heart of Darkness,”which depicted the continent in unflattering terms. So it’s the same as ever before. Still, nothing has changed. Africa has been stereotyped by the Western media as a continent of wars, famine, hunger and disease. In their reporting they seem to say that nothing good can come out Africa.

On the other hand, the exploitation and expropriation of both natural and mineral resources by the Western countries had affected the continent negatively. It is a paradox that a resource rich continent like Africa is poor and its citizens struggling with existential challenges on a day-to-day basis. Yet the western media hardly highlight the roles of their governments and Western multinationals in the exploitation of Africa.

For Africa it’s double jeopardy in the sense that those who keep Africa down are also the same people who malign the continent and also dish out false and negative information on the continent. Not only is the information wrong, but the fact that they would rather stress the negative instead of reporting about the slow but steady progress being made in the continent. This should baffle any right thinking person. For me it smacks of an ulterior motive.

In the 50s or 60s, it was reported that Nigeria, China, and India were on the same level of development and progress. Although, Nigeria may have its own peculiar challenges, but today the country has made its mark as one of the powerhouses in Africa, and the world. Nigeria is the largest economy in Africa and democracy has taken firm roots in the country. Nigeria’s contribution to regional peace in West Africa and other parts of the continent is widely acknowledged. Besides, many Nigerians in the diaspora are making valuable contributions in their host countries.

Naturally most of those who are not Africans or are ignorant of the continent believe what they’ve heard or read about the continent from information gathered from the western media. Of course, they trust and rely on their media for news and reports. But truth is they were grossly misled. If you ask an average American or European to create or paint a picture of Africa in their mind, what you will get from them is that; Africa is a jungle, Africans are uncivilized, uneducated, and many more.

As a result of these stereotypes, it becomes easy to remain uninformed and ignorant of every tribe or culture in Africa by grouping these cultures into one image, forgetting that the continent is home to 54 countries, with over two thousand languages, multiple ethnicities and religions, economy and political systems. The grouping of countries in Africa into one is a disservice and patent disregard for the sensibilities of Africans, for it fails to recognize and respect the unique individuality of the African countries and people.


In addition, there was a time that the Western media played the big brother role in acting as a voice of Africa. Western celebrities were pressed into service to take part in the scene while trying to act as leaders in the development discourse about the continent. Moreover, in the early 2000s, Hollywood actors and actresses were given a role to play in raising awareness on the continent’s poverty, starvation, diseases, and many other negativities.

These Hollywood personalities acted as intermediaries for the collection of donations, that is, “one dollar to feed an African child”to be sent to Africa. They turned themselves into heroes that will save the continent, by spreading false images and narratives about Africa. There’s no denying the fact that there is poverty in Africa, but the truth is that there is poverty everywhere in the world. But why make the continent of Africa the face of starvation and poverty?.

If there is a need to help the continent, it’s better to bring in investments, and also champion skills development for the youths as well as financing for health, water and education development in the continent. Also a check on Politically Exposed Persons who loot their countries only to stash such loots in Europe and United States ought to top on the agenda of the Western countries. Besides, the West ought to enact legislations to discourage the offshore transfer of loots from Africa.

Obviously, the lack of empathy and disdain for Africa is reflected in the way Western media continuously portray the continent. On one hand, they’ll write on how “Africans are uneducated, uncivilized, poor, and barbaric,” but on the other, they will choose to depict wildlife in Africa to be majestic, brave, and pure.”

Furthermore, Africa has been mistreated by the West in light of the global pandemic with restrictions placed in the path of Africans travelling across the globe. It seems Africa has been unjustly singled out for no other reason than ethnocentrism.

Beyond that, Western media propaganda and diffusion of information in the continent is an example of new cultural imperialism. This explains why the British government spends 600 million euros annually on the BBC world service. And every week this broadcast network service reaches 96 million people in Africa, the channel’s largest audience.

The question is why would the British government spend 600 million euros every year to inform African people? Why would the French government spend €243 million every year to inform the African people? The answer is for the simple but grand purpose of the manipulation of the minds of Africans.

As they say a man without culture and tradition is a man without roots. And Africans are gradually losing their roots because of massive propaganda coming from the Western media. Also, the brainwashing is complete because Africans have replaced their mother tongue with the language of the colonizers. Thus most official communication in Africa is done via English, French and Portuguese.

As George Orwell said; “The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and destroy their own understanding of their history”. In short, it is to corrupt our understanding of ourselves, our realities, and our world by implanting in the minds of our young people ideas and concepts that are alien to us. The logic behind the huge media domination in Africa by these western powers is to prepare Africans for a subservient role in this world. It is a process of subtle debasement of the minds of Africans, by making our language and culture inferior.

Overall the negative behaviour of the Western media has been brought to the fore in the ongoing Ethiopian crisis. A media survey has indicated that some western media outlets have intensified false propaganda against Ethiopia over the past months in an attempt to fuel their hidden agenda in destabilizing the country.

The media outlets have been spreading false information and false narrative about Ethiopia. Media organisations such as CNN, BBC, Al-jazeera, and France 24, have been reporting extensively on Ethiopia over the past days. The reports are presented in the form of news, analysis, discussion, supported by animation, compilation of photos, and graphics.

These contents are all about creating insecurity among the people of the country. These media organisations are said to be working to control the news market by transmitting such contents as part of the coordinated campaign against Ethiopia in order to achieve their goal by misrepresenting the reality in Ethiopia. Of course, both the Ethiopian prime minister, Abiy Ahmed and Ethiopians in diaspora have condemned the Western media for their bias and misrepresentation.

No wonder, foremost African novelist Chinua Achebe once said; “Until the lion tells his own side of the story the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.” In this regard, it is important that the citizens of the continent will have to start telling their own story to the world through African media and other channels as well as through the entertainment industry.

In fact, Nollywood has a huge role to play in this, being the biggest movie industry in Africa. This can be done by promoting our tradition and presenting our culture on the screen for the world to see. African intellectuals must step out of their comfort zone and join the frontline in the battle to free Africa from cultural imperialism.

Today, Africans are still fighting to be portrayed in good light. Which is why the western media need to stop the false narrative and misrepresentation of the continent to the world. Africans are not pawns. Africa has a rich heritage and culture and with stories to tell. It’s only Africans that can tell stories about the continent to the world. Enough of the lies and exploitation that’s the stock-in-trade of the Western media. Africans should take charge and support one another.

The watchword should be unity in diversity. In the words of American civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr., “We must either stand together as brothers or perish together as fools.” That’s the only way to beat the pressure from outside.

Finally, Africans hold the key to the solution of misrepresentation by the Western media. To change the narrative of the West, there should be a conscious effort in the continent to build infrastructural interconnectivity as well as removal of all barriers that hinder free flow of people across the continent. Indeed, this will help remove the lack of knowledge of one another. Besides, it is incumbent on Africa to ensure political stability and also foster socio-economic integration.

NIGERIA: 2022: A Year To Be Extra Careful

BY HASHIM AMAO

TRIBUNE

“NEVER put too much trust in friends” is the second Law of Robert Greene’s 48 Laws of Power. With the torrent of heart-wrenching reports of rituals that marked 2021, the need to advise Nigerians – especially youths – is one among reasons that unsheathed my pen from its cap. Hopefully, they won’t turn a deaf ear to my words. Gone are the days when dignity and labour had no line of demarcation between them; the good old days when financial solace dwelled in legitimate work. Isẹ logun isẹ (Work is the antidote to poverty), a salient song matched with action was the one that moistened the lips of the old generation. Regard for humanity was at its acme, pleasure comes after exploits, likewise, human blood was sacred. Lately, the tide had taken a turn. The get-rich-quick syndrome had overwhelmed the thought of the 21st century champs who only want to pop champagne without bearing pain. And the fastest route to that? The “fetish” cyber fraud – Yahoo plus.

Yahoo plus, the deadlier level of Yahoo Yahoo, a Nigerian parlance which denotes cyber fraud, is a pestilence among the “woke” Nigerian youth. It warrants using dubious and fetish means to scam unsuspecting individuals, companies and organizations. Even governments at all levels are not spared of this duplicitous rod. In March 2021, Nigeria ranked 16th in the FBI International Cybercrime report; coming after United Kingdom, Canada and India, that ranked 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively. In similar vein, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) disclosed that as at September 2021, 80 per cent of its 978 convictions were connected to cybercrime and cybercrime related offences, an attestation to the alarming rate of cybercrime in Nigeria. With this alarming rate of cyber fraud, it is pertinent to mention that high percent of these frauds are perpetrated with the aid of supernatural effects – voodoo – and the tools used in abetting this are other careless and greedy youths – ladies in specificity. Their heads are used in breaking the fetish coconut. After all, they also want to “chill with the big boys”, hence, their fetish and fraudulent friends/boyfriends make them see “how the thing goes” in the hard way. Many reports of females who were used for rituals last year went round the internet, and sent doubt down one’s spine on whether to pity them or act blind towards their agony.

Although many of them wanted to spend and chill with these fraudulent guys, some were only careless, given the trust they had in their friends who would later cause them misfortune. This is 2022, a year to be extra careful in visiting friends or keeping company with friends with suspicious sources of income. Trust friends less in 2022 – regardless of how good or friendly they are. It’s a crazy era where parents, especially mothers, now form “Mothers of Yahoo boys association” and seek every fetish help for their children’s indulgence, as asserted by the then acting chairman of EFCC, Ibrahim Magu on October 31, 2019. Your friend’s mother could be the devil that would whisper to him to use you for ritual: it’s 2020 and you should be cautious with friends you visit, lest you become a tool for ritual. May God forbid. May you forbid too.

In 2022, be extra careful with the calibre of friends whose company you keep, especially friends with raggedy lifestyle who could belong to cult groups. Many of them have perpetrated crimes against rival cultist groups and when retaliation dawns on them, they get attacked alongside anyone found with them. In 2022, be extra careful too while moving about, especially in unsecured areas. Nigeria is now the third most unsecured nation in the world, only after Afghanistan and Iraq according to the current Global Terrorism Index (GTI). Some of the victims who were kidnapped or sent to their graves in 2021 met their kismet for not being careful with their movements. As Nigeria had failed to protect us, protecting ourselves is an option we must resort to.

The 2023 general election is around the corner: buck the trend of unnecessary political arguments, fights and backwashes. No politician or political party is worth your dear life. Be extra careful in 2022 and do not put your life on the line for any politicians who do not know about your existence or your fights for their political success. Finally, in year 2022, be more careful with cyber security. Phishing and Vishing could fish one’s pond of data through unsuspecting websites and calls. With a click on the wrong links, one’s data may have been exposed to cyber thiefs. A strange call wrongly answered, may expose one to serial hackers. For the next 12 months and beyond, be extra careful with your actions and words. For you and I, may 2022 be prosperous.

NIGERIA: Magodo And Our Wacky Federalism

BY RAY EKPU

The basic facts of the recent siege of Magodo GRA phase II in Lagos by policemen imported from Abuja and thugs recruited from Lagos are in the public space already. However, for the benefit of those who have been distracted either by their personal problems or the larger problems of a limping country the story is worthy of being retold. Between 1984 and 1985 the Military Government in Lagos State acquired land in Shangisha village without paying compensation to the land owners or giving them alternative land. The aggrieved land owners went to court and won the case all the way to the Supreme Court which gave its verdict in 2012. It asked the Lagos State Government to allocate 549 plots of land to the judgement creditors as a “matter of first priority.” Plots of land have over the years, been allocated to some of them in Badagry and Ibeju-Lekki. About 300 of them have taken the plots while others refused, insisting it must be Magodo GRA phase II or nothing. It is obvious that if the various governments in Lagos were interested in complying with the Supreme Court order this matter would have been resolved before now. As 2021 was gliding to a close a contingent of armed policemen accompanied by thugs besieged the Magodo GRA phase II estate marking buildings in different colours with the inscription “ID 795/88 possession taken today 21/12/21 by court order.” The police gang from Abuja tried to enter the estate with bulldozers but the residents locked the two entry gates even though some of the policemen were already camping in the estate, armed to the teeth.

This provocative incident easily throws up a number of issues. One, if the residents of the estate most of whom are people of influence and affluence decided to defend themselves and protect their families against the invaders there would have been bloodshed caused in a civil matter by the use of force. The invaders never reported to the Lagos State Police Command and never showed the Supreme Court judgement on the decision to anybody. They merely produced a press release on the matter. Is that how things are supposed to be done in any civilised community? I doubt. The Governor of Lagos State is designated by the Constitution as the Chief Security Officer of the State and his state was about being set on fire by some external forces. Even though the State Government is a party to the dispute, that action was very disrespectful to the office of the governor which has supported the police massively, financially, and materially in Lagos State. That means that the governor is only de jure chief security officer of the state. The de facto chief security officer of the State is the Inspector General of Police, someone not elected but appointed by the President and the Governors.

The altercation between the Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu and the Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP) that led the police invading team is very illustrative of the extreme dysfunctionality of our law and order architecture. Here it is:
Sanwo-Olu: “Please call your superiors in Abuja, tell them that I want you to disengage right now.”

CSP: “You can call them yourself sir. I am too low or small to call them.” The CSP as a way of burking the issue had to issue duchessy orders to a Governor who is the Chief Security Officer of the land on which he stands. To him what the Governor asked him to do was the equivalent of squaring the circle. For him the best approach was to behave like Horatius at the bridge, a clear master of artful evasion. That short conversation has thrown into bold relief, once more, the dysfunctionality and the aberrant nature of our governance system.

Two, in the present security imbroglio that Nigeria faces today whereby Zamfara, Kaduna, Niger, Imo and other parts of Nigeria are terrorised daily by an assortment of criminals, thousands killed, houses burnt, is the Magodo invasion on the top burner of our nation’s priority. It is fair to say that it is appropriate for the police to seek to get an enforcement for a Supreme Court decision taken some years ago. However, it is by no means such a top priority issue when juxtaposed with wide ranging insecurities nationwide as to warrant the deployment of a large army of policemen all the way from Abuja to Lagos. Many Nigerians are asking what may have been the special interest of the Inspector General of Police and the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr Abubakar Malami in this matter. Only they can tell Nigerians since by all counts this matter, though important, could by its poor handling, have easily brought bloodshed to a hitherto peaceful community but for the maturity, reasonableness and law abiding nature of the Magodo GRA phase II residents. Is sending a large contingent of fully armed policemen to Magodo more important than confronting the debilitating uprooting of Nigerians from their towns and villages in the north by terrorists, bandits, kidnappers and arsonists? By my hierarchy of security priorities it is not.

Three, Magodo is a peaceful community because the people who live there have made it so. They contribute money to establish a security outfit that polices the estate and even though there is a police station there, the policemen are virtually idle because the crime level is minimal. The residents contribute money to use in tarring the roads and managing the waste. They manage their transport and parking system and noise pollution, thus making the estate a kinder and gentler community of civilised people. They carry on their backs a burden that ought, ordinarily, to be borne by the government and the police.

Four, the Buhari government and its police high command have been crowing about community policing. Community policing is basically an alternative dispute resolution mechanism, using policemen and community leaders who speak the language and are versed in the culture of the community. The basic difference with what is touted as community policing in Nigeria is that operational authority resides in the community. In Nigeria the operational authority resides in Abuja, not the community. That is why the CSP had that disrespectful altercation with the Lagos State Governor. The CSP kept sir-ring the Governor but the disrespect was manifestly obvious because he knew that the Governor does not have the last word on security in a State in which he is called the Chief Security Officer. If the Inspector General of Police is an apostle of community policing did he try to resolve the dispute by talking to the Governor instead of simply sending a large army of armed policemen to intimidate the Governor. Talking to the Governor to find a way of resolving the matter would have been community policing at work.

Five, while the Magodo show of shame was going on Buhari gave Channels television an interview in which he said magisterially that “State Police is not an option.” Then he took off on a tangential detour: “Find out the relationship between local governments and the governors. Are the third tiers of government getting what they are supposed to get constitutionally? Are they getting it? Let the people in the local governments tell you the truth, the fight between local governments and the governors.” What he said about local governments and their governors was some kind of irrelevant meandering on the outskirts of the subject of state police. The last time that the President spoke about the workability of State Police he made money the issue, by stating that he was offering states bail-out funds and they would therefore not be liquid enough to fund state police. To him at the time money, or lack of it, was the issue not its necessity or desirability. The truth, however, is that President Buhari is living in denial. There are more than 20 State Police formations in the states of the Federation today. They are established by law enacted by the State Houses of Assembly and they are called by various names.

In Kano there is a fully kitted State Police called Hisbah Corps; in Cross River State it is called Green Sheriff; in Taraba they are called Taraba Marshalls; in Rivers State they go by Rivers Neighbourhood Safety Corps; in Sokoto there is Yan Banga and in Buhari’s state Katsina it is called Yan Sakai; in Zamfara it is called Yan Kansai Local Vigilantes. Some of them may have limited mandates but they all perform police duties: intelligence gathering and arrest of offenders. All of these outfits can be generically called State Police. In the same manner there exist today two regional police outfits namely Amotekun in the six states of the South West and Ebubeagu in the five states of the South East. The South South is working on its own. So frankly we have three police forces today (a) Federal Police force called Nigeria Police Force (b) Regional Police Forces and (c) State Police forces called by different names in the states that they are domiciled. These various police forces may be limited in their operational capacity but the fact that they exist means that there was, and still is, need for them. It is obvious that Buhari as a former military leader is not open to any act that appears to be a bifurcation of his authoritarian powers.

But he will not be able to solve the country’s security problems if he continues to resist the operational involvement of Governors. Every crime is local. Governors are on the ground in their communities and if operational command does not reside with the Governors in the states we are just tilting at windmills. We are simply fooling ourselves. In security terms, Nigeria has gone far beyond what one centrally controlled police force based in Abuja and removed from local crime scenes in the states and local communities can handle. Even in matters of crime the heterogeneity of the country is obvious, because crimes have a nexus with the economic, cultural and idiosyncratic tendencies of our regions and states. I know of no federation of Nigeria’s size and complexity that has a single, centrally controlled police force. None. Those who surround Buhari may choose to deceive him with fruitless legal pyrotechnics so as to deny the country statutorily established and fully functional State Police that can lead to a de-escalation of insecurity. At the end of the day we will all be the losers if insecurity persists unabated because of the unreasonably stiff stance of the ruling elite.

-------------------THE GUARDIAN

NIGERIA: The Way Out Of The Ruling Party’s Conundrum

THIS DAY EDITORIAL

As the All Progressives Congress prepares to hold its primary, Tony Amadi writes that Saliu Mustapha is going strong for the position of National Chairman

In some 60 days or thereabout, Nigeria’s ruling party, the All Progressive Congress, (APC) should have found a way out of its well-articulated conundrum and free itself of the growing malaise of incompetent leadership at the heart of its party affairs. The problem used to be dumped at the doors of Osho Baba, but it has been long since Adams Oshomhole was shunted out of the party hierarchy and thrown into the wilderness where there was a lot of gnashing of teeth and apparent regrets. People should have realized that the only problem with Adams was his half-baked Hitlerian tactics which party men couldn’t understand because of its laden crudity.

Members of the ruling party prefer Mr. President’s excellent deployment of body language dynamics and its effective articulation that is best understood by the senate leadership who know when to run into their shelters when the President coughs or sneezes. Their handling of his letter over the electoral bill non assent was a typical example of how to react to presidential body language. The senior lawmakers had gathered enough signatories to upset the Aso Rock superman when they realized that they were headed to political oblivion if they dared disrupt presidential wellbeing.

The Senate President’s spin doctors had to produce an appropriate senate response before the hastily assembled closed session of senators to discuss the outcome of the response to the body blow of the President’s denial of assent to the electoral bill was decided. The seventy something signatories was jettisoned with alacrity and those who were beating their chest that they will override presidential veto were hiding their heads in shame because like Mrs. Margret Thatcher, this President is not for turning. Not even presidential spokesmen can be affected if they misrepresent the President, simply because the fear of the president by most lawmakers has reached tremendous heights because the president’s men can do no wrong.

All the current President’s men can do as they like because under the present headship of Senator and double doctor Ahmed Lawan, the National Assembly can be side stepped on any matter of national importance because they act as the executive’s rubber stamp. I remember with nostalgia, the times of Senator Chuba Okadigbo, Anyim Pius Anyim, Adolphus Wabara, Ken Nnamani and Abubakar Saraki who can damn tough talking presidents and get away with it. President Olusegun Obasanjo was vetoed by the National Assembly and had a rough ride with the National Assembly whenever he dared the lawmakers and Saraki, despite all the attempts to jail him over Code of Conduct issues, he stood his ground and mounted legal challenges when need be to prove that separation of powers was not a tea party.

The APC is now in the middle of holding its primary since it came to power in 2015 and this is causing consternation in the party as implosion starred them in the face. One of their biggest blunders was to appoint a whole state governor to act as party chairman in the aftermath of Adam Oshomhole’s forced departure as party chairman, leaving his Yobe state in the hands of deputies and permanent secretaries while he sauntered around the presidential mansion in Abuja, denying his people good governance in the process.

Now that the die is cast and the party must produce a new governing council to repair the damage of the past and possibly counter the advanced strides of the main opposition PDP, there is no more room for profligacy and the APC must get a proper National Working Committee, a sound National Executive Committee and a body of trusted elders in a Board of Trustees, BOT, and ultimately get ready to retain governance at the national level and produce an acceptable president, something that look like an impossible dream, judging from their poor handling of executive authority since 2015.
So far, the front runners in the National Chairmanship race of the ruling party are products of the old guard that you can dismiss their integrity levels with a wave of the hand. It is doubtful if the President can endorse any of the trio of Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, Senator Umaru al Makura and Abubakar Yari, all former governors of Borno, Nasarawa and Zamfara state respectively to the national chairmanship seat. If Mr. President has forgotten any of his promises prior to the 2015 elections, it is certainly the pledge to rid the country of corruption. One thing you can say of President Muhammadu Buhari is that he loathes corrupt leaders and would rather not seat around people whose corruption perception index is too low for his comfort.

There is also a cabinet member and a former PDP governor of Benue State, George Akume whose idea is to mend the broken pieces of the APC jigsaw if he comes into the managerial cadre as national chairman. Akume is according to his billboards all over Abuja, the man to mend the broken fences of the APC. It will interest voters at the convention that someone highly placed in the party knows that the fences of the party are virtually broken but fortunately or unfortunately for Akume, his former mentor and close friend Iyorchia Ayu has become the national chairman of the PDP and has gone on record to say that he would bring his friend back to the PDP rather than allow him to languish in the fringes of the ruling party leadership hierarchy.

Senator Sheriff says that he is the man the job needs to salvage its fortunes in the country’s party politics and Senator Almakura believes he is the man to sustain and secure the party from the vagaries of insecurity and instill democratic norms. My belief is that none of these successful politicians can add value to the well-being of the party particularly now, that the future dangles helplessly because of the general perception that it has not lived up to its promises to raise the standard of life of Nigerians that led to its election victory eight years ago.

But there are younger men who can make the grade and whose claim to national prominence is acceptable and can make a great difference when “the come, comes to become” with apologies to Kingsley Ozumba Mbadiwe, former political juggernaut and Minister of Aviation in Tafawa Balewa’s cabinet of the fifties and sixties. A few of these youths are already in the race, notably Malam Mustapha Salihu, the Turaki of Ilorin who at 50 was turbaned last October with unusual fanfare by the Emir of Ilorin Dr. Ibrahim Sulu Gambari.

The Turaki of Ilorin is probably what the doctor ordered to mend the bartered All Progressive Congress fences currently needing some political cleansing, repositioning, if not white-washing on the eve of the departure of President Muhammadu Buhari and give the party a fair chance of giving the opposition PDP currently basking in the euphoria of their successful convention and the Ayu Chairmanship a good run for their money as the 2023 acid test faces the two major political parties. I first met the youthful politician when Charles Aniagolu of the Arise News put us on a panel to discuss the fortunes of the PDP and APC where he gave a good account of himself before the 2015 elections. We became quite close since then and I have followed up his fortunes in the political scene from then.

I am convinced that he can turn his party around, rejuvenate it and excel in the direction of its fortunes in an election year that is so close at hand. His political credential is notable from the Progressive Action Congress where he served out his political sophomore days as National Publicity Secretary, to his key role as Deputy Chairman of Buhari’s Congress for Progressive Change, CPC at a young age. By the time the All Progressive Congress amalgamated from a group of parties that became the ruling party, Mustapha Salihu, the Turaki Ilorin had become a major political force himself and notably one of the Buhari disciples from ANPP, CPC and now APC.

Students of the ‘Buhari Body Language Institute’ are the only ones that could attempt to answer the question if Malam Mustapha Salihu, theTuraki Ilorin is already anointed as the next Chairman of the APC, but we all know that the President would distance himself from such assumptions. From my corner though, as a student of Nigerian politics, I will not be afraid to place my bet on this dynamic young man who is a ruthlessly charming, charismatic and fascinatingly humble politician to give APC a shot in the arm as their next chairman after their convention early this year and rescue the party from its present conundrum.

Nigeria Needs Referendum, Not Election

BY MALCOLM OMIRHOBO

ABUJA (PUNCH) -- The constitution of a country is a contract that legally binds a people and their government. Like every other contract, a constitution is valid only if it is consensual among the people of a country and essentially devoid of misrepresentation, mistake, duress, undue influence and illegality.

Looking at the Nigerian 1999 Constitution, can we soberly and honestly say that it has the consensus of the Nigerian people? Can we honestly say that it is not vitiated by misrepresentation, mistake, duress, undue influence and illegality? The answers to these questions are in the negative

It is regrettable and unfortunate that many Nigerians do not know that the 1999 Nigerian Constitution is a military decree, fraudulently and deceitfully foisted on us by a bunch of self-centred military men and their cohorts, with clauses protecting them and their loots of our commonwealth before handing over power to civilians.

22 years later, successive unscrupulous civilian governments have shamelessly and for selfish gains refused to question the validity of the 1999 Constitution. They have continued to benefit from it while running Nigeria on a defective and faulty foundation.


Nigeria as presently constituted is built on a pack of lies that is bound to collapse at any time if we fail to make amends.

What Nigeria needs right now is a referendum, not an election. It is imperative that we, the people of Nigeria, renegotiate the unity of Nigeria and not have it imposed on us as it is now. The issues of the centralisation of powers and resource control must be addressed before we think of any future elections in Nigeria.

Conducting an election in 2023 without putting aside the military decree called the 1999 Constitution amounts to Nigerians living in a fool’s paradise, which ultimately will lead to the eventual collapse of Nigeria.

I am, therefore, advising our politicians to stop the conjecture on who will be the next president and what part of Nigeria he will come from. We must shelve the 2023 election and conduct a referendum on the structure and framework of a new Nigeria. With a people’s constitution in place, it will not matter who the next president of Nigeria is or where he comes from.

I will suggest that we return to the four regions: East, West, North and Midwest, as we had in the First Republic; pulling down all the state boundaries created by the military. Better still, the current 36 states plus Abuja can, with the consensus of the people, be merged into fewer viable, formidable and competitive states.

I am doubtful if any component part of Nigeria genuinely wants to secede because we need one another to prosper as a great country once the necessary assurances are given. I believe that the Igbo can be great in technology, even greater than Japan and China put together, in this same Nigeria if given autonomy. During the Nigeria/Biafra war, they refined their oil, produced armoured tanks, bombs and fabricated spare parts for their vehicles and machines, managed their telecommunications and operated the busiest airport in Africa and without electricity. Apart from technology, the East is a tourist destination and home of hospitality. It is blessed with oil and coal deposits, which can be tapped for its benefit. In the First Republic, the defunct Eastern region competed with its Western counterpart, establishing the University of Nigeria, providing quality education, building good roads and infrastructures, and running its government with internally generated funds without help from the Federal Government.

The West can be a very highly commercialised, agricultural-cum-tourist destination in the world, given its advantage of the Lagos seaport, coastal land and boundary with other West African countries. The West has done it before and can still do it again. With proceeds from cocoa, the West built good roads that have stood the test of time; provided free education; built the Cocoa House in the 60s, which is still solidly and beautifully adorning the biggest city in West Africa, Ibadan; established the University of Ibadan, which is the first university in Nigeria; set up teaching hospitals and research centres; and built the first television and radio stations in Africa. It may interest many of us to know that defunct Western Nigeria got her TV station before most European countries like France.

The people of the Niger Delta can go back to their palm oil and rubber plantations. The oil deposit in their land will be an added advantage to their development.

The North can be a very rich region with agriculture, tourism and proceeds from gold deposits and other solid minerals. I am sure we can remember the groundnut pyramid and how defunct Northern Nigeria established the Ahmadu Bello University, built roads, hospitals and ran its government without help from the centre.

The Federal Government will have to revert to only taking care of defence, immigration, customs, diplomacy and currency while allowing the states to take off their shoulders those many items on the exclusive list that are currently overburdening it. With this outlook, there will be devolution of powers and consequently, power will return to the grassroots as the local and state governments will become powerful once again.

We have nothing to lose if we renegotiate the unity of Nigeria and a lot to lose if we don’t. We must lay to rest this lazy style of governance, wherein states collect monthly allocations from Abuja without contributing anything to the system. With a renegotiated Nigeria, every state will have to fend for itself with proceeds of what they generate and will not have to look up to Abuja for funds to run their states.

I would like to end this write up by stating categorically that there is no poor state in Nigeria. All states in Nigeria are endowed with both human and natural resources, so there should be no fear of my call for a referendum.

In 1st, US Surgeons Transplant Pig Heart Into Human Patient

In this photo provided by the University of Maryland School of Medicine, members of the surgical team show the pig heart for transplant into patient David Bennett in Baltimore on Friday, Jan. 7, 2022. On Monday, Jan. 10, 2022 the hospital said that he's doing well three days after the highly experimental surgery. (Mark Teske/University of Maryland School of Medicine via AP)

BY CLARK K. JOHNSON, ASSOCIATED PRESS

In a medical first, doctors transplanted a pig heart into a patient in a last-ditch effort to save his life and a Maryland hospital said Monday that he’s doing well three days after the highly experimental surgery.

While it’s too soon to know if the operation really will work, it marks a step in the decades-long quest to one day use animal organs for life-saving transplants. Doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Center say the transplant showed that a heart from a genetically modified animal can function in the human body without immediate rejection.

The patient, David Bennett, a 57-year-old Maryland handyman, knew there was no guarantee the experiment would work but he was dying, ineligible for a human heart transplant and had no other option, his son told The Associated Press.

“It was either die or do this transplant. I want to live. I know it’s a shot in the dark, but it’s my last choice,” Bennett said a day before the surgery, according to a statement provided by the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

On Monday, Bennett was breathing on his own while still connected to a heart-lung machine to help his new heart. The next few weeks will be critical as Bennett recovers from the surgery and doctors carefully monitor how his heart is faring.

There’s a huge shortage of human organs donated for transplant, driving scientists to try to figure out how to use animal organs instead. Last year, there were just over 3,800 heart transplants in the U.S., a record number, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing, which oversees the nation’s transplant system.

“If this works, there will be an endless supply of these organs for patients who are suffering,” said Dr. Muhammad Mohiuddin, scientific director of the Maryland university’s animal-to-human transplant program.

But prior attempts at such transplants — or xenotransplantation — have failed, largely because patients’ bodies rapidly rejected the animal organ. Notably, in 1984, Baby Fae, a dying infant, lived 21 days with a baboon heart.

The difference this time: The Maryland surgeons used a heart from a pig that had undergone gene-editing to remove a sugar in its cells that’s responsible for that hyper-fast organ rejection. Several biotech companies are developing pig organs for human transplant; the one used for Friday’s operation came from Revivicor, a subsidiary of United Therapeutics.

“I think you can characterize it as a watershed event,” Dr. David Klassen, UNOS’ chief medical officer, said of the Maryland transplant.

Still, Klassen cautioned that it’s only a first tentative step into exploring whether this time around, xenotransplantation might finally work.

The Food and Drug Administration, which oversees such experiments, allowed the surgery under what’s called a “compassionate use” emergency authorization, available when a patient with a life-threatening condition has no other options.

It will be crucial to share the data gathered from this transplant before extending it to more patients, said Karen Maschke, a research scholar at the Hastings Center, who is helping develop ethics and policy recommendations for the first clinical trials under a grant from the National Institutes of Health.

“Rushing into animal-to-human transplants without this information would not be advisable,” Maschke said.

Over the years, scientists have turned from primates to pigs, tinkering with their genes.

Just last September, researchers in New York performed an experiment suggesting these kinds of pigs might offer promise for animal-to-human transplants. Doctors temporarily attached a pig’s kidney to a deceased human body and watched it begin to work.

The Maryland transplant takes their experiment to the next level, said Dr. Robert Montgomery, who led that work at NYU Langone Health.

“This is a truly remarkable breakthrough,” he said in a statement. “As a heart transplant recipient, myself with a genetic heart disorder, I am thrilled by this news and the hope it gives to my family and other patients who will eventually be saved by this breakthrough.”

The surgery last Friday took seven hours at the Baltimore hospital. Dr. Bartley Griffith, who performed the surgery, said the patient’s condition — heart failure and an irregular heartbeat — made him ineligible for a human heart transplant or a heart pump.

Griffith had transplanted pig hearts into about 50 baboons over five years, before offering the option to Bennett.

“We’re learning a lot every day with this gentleman,” Griffith said. “And so far, we’re happy with our decision to move forward. And he is as well: Big smile on his face today.”

Pig heart valves also have been used successfully for decades in humans, and Bennett’s son said his father had received one about a decade ago.

As for the heart transplant, “He realizes the magnitude of what was done and he really realizes the importance of it,” David Bennett Jr. said. “He could not live, or he could last a day, or he could last a couple of days. I mean, we’re in the unknown at this point.”

AP Medical Writer Lauran Neergaard contributed.

Dictators In Africa Using Social Media To Cling To Power

BY DW AKADEMIE

Ugandan rights lawyer Nicholas Opiyo. Image via Human Rights Watch

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni is suspected of using fake social media accounts to consolidate his power. He wouldn't be the only one in Africa. Is social media becoming a threat to democracy on the continent?

In early 2021, Facebook (Meta) deactivated more than 20 accounts linked to Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party. Shortly afterward, Twitter also followed suit, closing 11% of the nearly 3,500 accounts worldwide that allegedly spread pro-government propaganda.

Thus in total, almost 440 Ugandan social media accounts close to the Ugandan government have been blocked by social media networks in the East African country to date.

Both Twitter and Facebook accuse the Ugandan government of using social media as a tool politicians to manipulate public opinion, spread disinformation, and intimidate the opposition. Facebook also stated that as part of its strategy, the Ministry of Information had been using "fake and duplicate accounts" for propaganda purposes.

A new favorite tool used by autocratic leaders

When Facebook took action, President Museveni's press secretary, Don Wanyama, whose Facebook and Instagram accounts were also suspended, accused Facebook of trying to influence the 2021 election in Uganda:

"Shame on the foreign powers who think they can impose a puppet government on Uganda by disabling the online accounts of NRM supporters," Wanyama wrote on Twitter at the time. Twitter said in a statement, however, that "(i)n most cases, the accounts were suspended for various violations of our platform manipulation and spam policies."

According to analysis by the Oxford Internet Institute, the spread of misinformation driven by political organizations on social media has been sharply on the rise in recent years. The report states that in 2017, disinformation campaigns were carried out in 28 countries. Three years later, that figure had risen to 81 countries.

"The spread of fake news is a real problem," said Ugandan human rights activist Nicholas Opiyo in a DW interview. "This method is gaining ground in countries whose leaders are desperately struggling to maintain their image and reputation on social media."

According to Opiyo, this involves using bots and trolls, computer programs, and paid users who use fake accounts to flood social media with posts favorable to the government.
Bans across Africa

In Tanzania, Uganda's neighbor, Twitter took similar action, removing 268 accounts for spreading "malicious reports" directed at members and supporters of the Tanzanian human rights organization Fichua Tanzania and its founder.

Meanwhile, similar reports are also surfacing from west Africa: In Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari "criticized the activists of the #EndSARS movement in June and called for action to be taken against them. However, Twitter deleted this call, and in reponse, Buhari's government banned Nigerians from accessing the micro-blogging site," Franziska Ulm-Düsterhöft, Africa expert at Amnesty International in Germany, told DW.

The #EndSARS movement was initated by social media-savvy young Nigerians, who sought to put pressure on the government to abolish Nigeria's controversial Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) police unit. The campaign also called for better overall governance in West Africa's largest democracy.
Social media restrictions: 'overreaction' by elites

Back in Uganda, the government in the capital Kampala has also been trying to make it harder for Ugandans to get independent information online by imposing taxes on mobile data. The government also doesn't shy away from temporarily shutting down social media alrogether, as was witnessed during the run-up to the presidential election a year ago.

At the time, Ugandan Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa initially justified the move by saying that Facebook and Twitter had shut down government accounts, making the social media blackout sound like a retaliatory measure. However, after the January 16 election, Kutesa said the shut-down had been "a necessary step to stop the biting language and incitement to violence."

Angelo Izama, a political consultant and journalist from Uganda, describes the move rather as an "overreaction" rooted in deeply-held patriarchal beliefs. Izama says that "(t)he political leadership, especially here in sub-Saharan Africa, comes from a generation where society was structured so that the child would not contradict the father."

"If it did, it was punished. And that's the relationship between the state and the citizen," Izama told DW.

But he says that society is changing, he says, leaving such political elites in the dust. Young people in particular, he highlights, are now able with the help of the internet to react immediately to laws and bans, and make their opinions known about the performance of the government or of private institutions.

Surveillance via social media

In 2021, social media shutdowns also took place in Burkina Faso, South Sudan, Senegal, Congo, Zambia, Chad, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Sudan. Again, the reasons were mainly political, with protests, elections and political unrest resulting in information shutdowns across the continent, with no end in sight:

"It will take a while for those in power to understand that young people today expect them to sit down and talk to them," political consultant Angelo Izama said. "It will also take time for those in power to stop using surveillance and monitoring as a means to counter criticism."

Meanwhile, some governments are even going further and targeting their citizens directly by exploiting their internet affinity: "Spy software is being bought by governments and installed specifically on smartphones," Amnesty expert Ulm-Düsterhöft told DW. "We documented this last year for Togo and Rwanda, for example. First, apps are downloaded via email attachments, then the software instals itself and accesses microphones, cameras, and social media."

Ulm-Düsterhöft warns users not to download any unknown apps, take a close look at dubious social media accounts, and contact the app operators if in doubt.
Risks and opportunities

According to a report published by the South African Institute of International Affairs, shutting down the internet and arresting government critics voicing their views on social media channels are signs that several governments in sub-Saharan Africa are becoming increasingly autocratic.

In Uganda, author Kakwenza Rukirabashaija posted comments that were critical of the government on social media, which led to his detention, during which he allegedly was tortured by security agents.

Human rights activist Opiyo says that with reports like these, it is becoming clear that the earlier view of social media as "a liberating force for democracy" is disappearing: "(N)ow we see the dangers associated with it, and how social media can be used to undermine democratic processes. Social media is becoming another tool of oppression."

Opiyo believes that this is why social media regulations are becoming necessary. But he also calls for users to act responsibly and remember that not everything found on social media is true.

This article was translated from German by Chrispin Mwakideu

Edited by: Sertan Sanderson