TOP 040522 EDITORIAL SNIPPETS

"The World Malaria Report 2021 reaffirmed the sorry reality of Nigeria and other SSA states: 80 per cent of all malaria deaths in the region were of children under age five. This is an unacceptably high toll that should be reversed at all costs.The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), and the 36 state governors should take note of these figures: Nigeria, with 31.9 per cent of the total, led three other African countries to account for over half of the total global deaths. It was followed by Congo DR’s 13.2 per cent; Tanzania’s 4.1 per cent, and Mozambique’s 3.8 per cent. One study described malaria as Nigeria’s No.1 public health problem, accounting for 30 per cent of all under-five deaths, 25 per cent of deaths in infants and 11 per cent of maternal mortality.

The country has failed to utilise or maximise global interventions to reduce the disease burden. Both the 1998 Roll Back Malaria project aimed at malaria burden reduction by at least 50 per cent through precise interventions, and the 2005 Abuja Declaration to overturn malaria burden, were poorly executed. Till date, Nigeria falters and wobbles on lofty malaria eradication initiatives designed to reverse the trend. Like many other national programmes, there is no consistency in implementation as succeeding administrations and ministers often abandon ongoing activities halfway to promote empty new slogans.

TOP 150422 EDITORIAL SNIPPETS

“ … every session of the National Assembly has always taken it upon itself to tinker with the Constitution, yet the major pillars of the nation’s grundnorm – centralised federalism – remain unchanged. At the federal level, the Legislature and Judiciary enjoy relative independence, except in instances where their leaderships voluntarily surrender their independence to the Executive for whatever gain. But at the state level, their independence is hampered by the fact that they depend on the state purse, which is controlled by the Executive, to operate.

Governors have also deprived the grassroots electorate of their right to elect their own local government leadership by ensuring that their parties always win. Local government elections have become the means by which governors plant their surrogates to enable them control local government funds. One of the problems this spawns is the prevalence of the “ungoverned spaces” syndrome and attendant security breaches all over the country.

TOP 080422 EDITORIAL SNIPPETS

Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba

Though we oppose open Police industrial action, we fear that the sack of the proposed strike’s ringleaders will worsen situations within the Force and the system as a whole. It will only lead the rest of the personnel to bottle up their feelings and impose the peace of the graveyard.

What an irony that the same police personnel sent to quell the first anniversary of the #EndSARS protest on October 20, 2021 are now left to protest for themselves over their poor conditions of service! It is now obvious that the measures the Presidency and Police authorities took to “appease” the #EndSARS protesters in terms of police welfare made no meaningful impact.

TOP 160322 EDITORIAL SNIPPETS

The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.)

‘All are alarmed that weak governance accentuates the problems and casts doubt on the leadership’s ability to weather the storm.

‘Among the daunting headwinds is, ironically, the spike in crude oil and gas prices that ordinarily should have been a boost for a major exporter. But as the country irrationally relies wholly on imports for refined petroleum products, higher prices mean higher costs of imports, and higher subsidy costs, which planned stoppage the government shifted by another 18 months.

‘Corruption, fiscal recklessness by the government and external pressures have, combined with its own incompetence, defeated the monetary authority’s efforts to effectively manage the exchange rate.

TOP 040322 EDITORIAL SNIPPETS

A group of Ukrainian refugees arrives at Przemysl station in Poland. Photograph: Europa Press/Getty Images

   

Ukrainians do not want to flee. They do not want to pack their lives into a suitcase. They do not want to crowd aboard packed trains that carry them away from their homes, or trudge for days with their children. They do not want to leave behind husbands and sons and parents. They do not want to begin again in a foreign country where they have nothing, far from those they love.