The Lagos State Government has placed 14 countries on watch list as part of measures to prevent a possible spread of the new COVID-19 variant.
Commissioner for Health Prof. Akin Abayomi said the measure became necessary following the discovery of variants from banned countries within another country.
He said: “The affected countries are Canada, USA, France, Germany, Netherlands, Togo, Ghana, Cameroon, Angola, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda.
“Nigerians returning from lesser hajj would have to undergo a compulsory seven-day self-isolation.
“The state will not hesitate to prosecute anyone, irrespective of status, who fails to comply with the directive.”
Abayomi stressed some of the possible events that could trigger a third wave include general laxity, false sense of security and non-adherence to guidelines, religious holidays, COVID fatigue, entry of mutations and variants.
He added: “The state has however developed a five-pillar strategy for curbing a potential third wave in Lagos.
“These include ensuring that all travelers carry out COVID-19 tests while we also introduce PCR test to determine variants and mandatory seven-day quarantine.
We will also utilise EKOTELEMED to monitor confirmed cases and provide telemedicine services.
“We will be sensitising Lagosians on the importance of non-pharmaceutical interventions such as handwashing, social distancing, thresholds for public gathering, as well as discourage super spreader events.
“Our oxygen supply approach will be two-phased – outsource oxygen plants to private partners and PPP for 700 cylinder/ day oxygen plant, while we also increase the number of vaccine doses administered by leveraging the private sector.”
The commissioner, who spoke on the successes recorded so far, said some isolation centres are currently empty.
“Landmark, Agidingbi, Gbagada, FCC, Lagoon and Onikan isolation centres have been shut while Amour II and Gbagada Isolation Centres are being re-activated.
“Of the 554 bed capacity, 550 beds are currently available. There is also a decrease in the number of patients who require oxygen therapy at IDH, Yaba. Following the reduction in number of positive cases, the use of oxygen has reduced from an average of 300 bottles per day in January 2021 to 60 bottles per day in April 2021,” he added.
Prof. Abayomi said of the 58,611 cases confirmed, 54,049 recovered, 4,346 were admitted; 3,906 were discharged and 354 deaths were recorded. One confirmed case is current in isolation with three suspected cases.
The Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 on Monday warned Nigerians against travelling to or receiving travellers from the United States of America, United Kingdom, India, Russia and France.
The warning came on the backdrop of increased COVID-19 cases in those countries.
It also warned #EndSARS protesters against contracting and spreading the virus while gathering to protest against the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Nigeria Police Force.
The calls were made at the PTF’s media briefing in Abuja on Monday.
The National Coordinator of the PTF, Dr Sani Aliyu, while answering a question on the protests, said, “On the impact of what has been going on and incidence of (having) new COVID-19 infections in the country, we are monitoring the situation in terms of testing closely.
“We will continue to urge all – the young, the old, and the vulnerable – to please be careful. Any mass gathering of any sort is an event amplifying the situation for COVID-19. And COVID-19 is still very much around with us, we don’t want to get infected and carry the infection to our loved ones, especially those at home that might be vulnerable.”
The task force’s chairman and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, also corroborated Aliyu’s position.
The SGF, who urged the #EndSARS protesters to harken to the invitation to dialogue, emphasising that non-compliance with the non-pharmaceutical protocols were risky adventures that must be avoided.
“We urge everyone who has been exposed unduly to large gathering to get tested and/or report any signs of the symptoms of COVID-19,” he said.
Mustapha also noted that the global cases of COVID-19 rose by a record 400,000 cases on October 16 with 43 per cent of all the cases occurring in Europe, especially in the UK and France.
“The top five countries in new cases reported in the last 24 hours are India (55,511); USA (44,941); France (29,837); UK (16,982) and Russia (15,099).
“It is important to take precaution when planning to travel or receive travellers from these countries,” he said.
He however said Nigeria was on the path to winning the war against the virus.
Mustapha said, “The PTF continues to monitor developments in-country and around the world so as to improve on its activities and its decisions.”
He said 4,876 patients recovered and were discharged which represents a 388 per cent increase when compared with 967 people discharged in the previous week.
The SGF added that cumulatively, a total of 56,611 patients had been discharged after treatment, representing 92 per cent of all cases in Nigeria.
“Last week was week 34 of our National Response and week 42 of the year. Indications are that Nigeria appears to be winning the war against COVID-19. Some of the current figures support this position.”
According to him, in the 34th week of the pandemic in Nigeria, a total of 1,174 new cases were recorded in the country, representing a 32 per cent increase from the 921 recorded in the previous week.
Mustapha said, “This statistical review becomes very relevant when we remember that over the same period, quite a number of large gathering events, particularly the protests across the country have been taking place.
“It becomes more pertinent because of the fact that measures such as mask wearing, social distancing and use of sanitisers were never observed.”
A 34-year-old Nigerian, Austin Chenge, is in the race for the governorship position in the state of Michigan in the United States of America (USA), come year 2022.
A statement by Abdul-Rahman Balogun, Head of Media and Public Relations unit, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), indicated that Chenge, a native of Benue State in Nigeria, will challenge USA Representative Lamar Smith for the ticket under the Republican Party.
It said Chenge announced his intention to run for governor of Michigan in March 2020, making him the first Republican to do so.
According to the statement, the young Nigerian is an embodiment of the American dream who has repeatedly stunned critics by achieving what most people would consider impossible.
“Chenge is a Law graduate from the University of Birmingham, England. Since the year 2018, he has been serving with the US military as a specialist. He is a decorated with the Achievement Medal as a Distinguished Honour Graduate with a Culmulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 99.8% and for exceptional performance while on active duty.”
The statement said that Chenge is popular locally for designing the popular tricycle, known as “Wazobia tricycle”, in 2016, designed to improve the lives of peasant farmers all over Africa.
Sola Yomi-Ajayi, the CEO of the United Bank for Africa(UBA)’s operations in the United States, has been appointed to the Export-Import Bank of the United States (US EXIM) Committee on Sub-Saharan Africa for 2020/2021.
Established by the US Congress, the Sub-Saharan Africa Advisory Committee provides guidance and advice regarding US EXIM policies and programmes designed to support the expansion of financing for US manufactured goods and services in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The committee is composed of prominent members of the US business community and Ms. Yomi-Ajayi is the sole representative of an African institution. UBA USA is the only Sub-Saharan African deposit-taking institution regulated in the United States and provides a unique portfolio of banking solutions to corporates, governments, multilaterals, and development organisations transacting with Africa. UBA USA can assist in trade finance, treasury, foreign exchange, transaction management and lending, drawing on UBA’s seventy-year heritage and unique pan-African network.
UBA’s Group Chairman, Tony O. Elumelu, stated that the appointment is recognition of the role UBA has played over decades in promoting and supporting large and small businesses in all its 20 countries of operations in Africa.
“The appointment of Sola, as a member of the US EXIM Advisory Committee for Sub-Saharan Africa is welcome news. UBA’s global network of offices in New York, London and Paris, permits us to be the preferred financial intermediary between Africa and the rest of the world. Our mission at UBA is fully aligned with the objectives of the US EXIM’.
The EXIM President and Chairman, Kimberly A. Reed, who congratulated Yomi-Ajayi and the other appointees said, “With six of the 10 fastest-growing economies in the world and more than one billion consumers, Africa is poised to play a pivotal role in the global economy. Supporting US exports to sub-Saharan Africa is one of our top priorities at EXIM, and my deepest congratulations goes to the new members of the EXIM Sub-Saharan Africa Advisory Committee”.
Others appointed into the committee are Daniel Runde, who chairs the committee, C. Derek Campbell, Chief Executive Officer, Energy and Natural Resource Security, Inc; Scott Eisner, Senior Vice President, African Affairs, U.S. Chamber of Commerce; Rebecca Enonchong, Founder and Chief Executive Officer AppsTech; Lori Helmers, Executive Director/Americas Export Finance Head, JPMorgan Chase Bank; Florizelle Liser, President and Chief Executive Officer, Corporate Council on Africa; Mima Nedelcovych, Chairman, AfricaGlobal Schaffer; EE Okpa, Principal, The OKPA Co; Marise Duff Stewart, Director Customer and Industry Relations, Progress Rail, a Caterpillar Company and Paul Sullivan, President – International Business, Acrow Bridge.
EXIM is an independent federal agency that promotes and supports American jobs by providing competitive and necessary export credit to support sales of U.S. goods and services to international buyers.
By John Chuks Azu, Destiny Obiakoeze and Ediri Oyibo
More doctors are likely to leave Nigeria as Coronavirus (COVID-19) gets worse in the United States of America (USA). This would be in addition to an estimated 9million Nigerians who left the country between 2014 and 2018.
As the COVID-19 pandemic takes its toll across the globe, health officials in the US had warned that the country’s coronavirus death toll could rise above 100,000 people. As a result of this development, instead of shutting its door against migrants as it did previously, America is luring foreign medical professionals seeking to work in their country.
Following reports in March that US was inviting medical professionals from other parts of the world, including Nigeria, to help in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic, which has claimed thousands of lives in that country, the president of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Dr Francis Faduyile, said people had the right to work anywhere they chose. He, however, called on the government to strengthen the country’s health system to encourage more medical practitioners to stay behind.
This is even as inquiries at the US Embassy showed that only doctors and nurses who are already processing exchange and visitor programmes in the US are encouraged to seek the visa approval now. But potentially, this could impact negatively on the Nigerian health sector, as in the last five years, many doctors, among millions of other Nigerians, have left the country for greener pastures.
Already, the US health system relies heavily on immigrants, who make up 17 per cent of all health care workers and more than one in four doctors, according to a report.
Dr Joe Uba, a medical doctor with the Abia State Government, said he was looking forward to relocating from the country like many of his colleagues.
He identified Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom (UK) as the preferred destinations for his colleagues.
However, with the growing interest of the US on foreign medical professionals, priorities will begin to change for Nigerian doctors, who are yearning to leave for greener pastures.
“I think every doctor would like to leave if given the opportunity. It is the cost of moving that is the problem. You could spend not less than N2.5 million to process it. But they pay very well, especially in Saudi Arabia,” Dr Uba said.
Also, Joseph Simon (not real name), an Abuja-based lawyer, has just returned from the UK, where he registered for an LL.M programme. He hopes to stay back there after studies.
“My short visit to London was to understand the procedure to relocate. I can only return to Nigeria if things improve. The best way is through the master’s programme,” he said, citing UK’s new policy which allows postgraduates to stay up to two years after graduation in search of jobs.
Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows that 1,361,580 individuals left the country in 2014. In 2015, 2,640,508 also left.
In 2016, the figure of emigrants dropped to 1,181,211, but rose marginally to 1,344,318 in 2017 and increased to 2,322,585 in 2018. (Kindly use landscape mode to get a better view of all infographics if you are using a mobile device).
While the number of departures recorded for the country between 2014 and 2018 may not be permanent, the figure is higher than the numbers between 2005 and 2010, which remained between 900,000 and 100,000 migrants.
Data analysis of Nigerians leaving for greener pastures showed that people leaving the country are not restricted to skilled individuals. Even the unskilled are leaving the country in droves from both regular and irregular means.
Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos, Nigeria, uses thermal imaging to screen passengers for coronavirus on on January 27, 2019. It’s not clear whether such screening methods will be able to stop the spread of coronavirus in the United States, but experts say it may slow down the virus a bit. Photo: AFP via Getty Images
For instance, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) reported that about 2,894 persons were rescued from irregular migrations between 2014 and 2018. Of this figure, 330 cases were reported in 2014; 285 in 2015; 320 in 2016; 1104 in 2017; and 855 in 2018.
These were persons who were involved in sexual exploitation outside Nigeria, external prostitution, forced labour outside Nigeria, armed conflict, illegal immigration and smuggling.
According to the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), about 4,364,668 Nigerians were issued with new passports between 2014 and 2018. But besides being a national identification and travel data, this indicates travel source states or regular departure points of most Nigerians.
A breakdown of passports issued between 2014 and 2018 showed that the South-West has the highest number, at 650,958 new passports issued. Lagos has the highest number (1,264,528), followed by Oyo (233,004), Ogun (166,920), Osun (109,016), Ondo (91,161) and Ekiti (50,857).
The South-South came second, with Edo topping at 172,435 new passports. About 158,304 received their passports from Delta, while 157,177 received in Rivers, followed by Akwa Ibom (41,042), Bayelsa (38,100) and Cross River (26,806).
The North-West came third with 484,766. Kano received 169,941 within the period while Kaduna got 110,856; Katsina, 68,132; Jigawa, 40,793; Sokoto, 36,932; Kebbi, 29,735 and Zamfara, 28,377.
In the South-East, Enugu and Imo received the fourth highest number of new passports issued, at 440,228. While Imo had 126,049, Enugu was second with 99,416. Others are Anambra (97,579), Abia (95,236) and Ebonyi (22,008).
In the North-Central, 320,024 new passports were issued. Out of this number, Plateau had 109,016 while Niger had 77,354. Others are Kwara (71,565), Kogi (28,766), Benue (17,890) and Nasarawa (15,433).
Also, 511,059 new passports were issued in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
In the same period, the North-East had 137,332 new passports. Borno recorded the highest number with 29,977, followed by Gombe (26,965). Others are Adamawa (26,157), Bauchi (25,026) and Taraba (15,852).
Major destinations for Nigerians
Reports show that countries such as USA, UK, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Cameroun, Italy, Cote d’Ivoire, Benin Republic, Australia, UAE and Canada are top destinations for skilled Nigerians, while some European and Asian countries are top destinations for Nigerians without much skills.
The Canadian government estimates that Nigeria ranks third in the countries that have received the highest number of Canadian Express Entry in 2018 under the ITA scheme, which is usually offered to software engineers and developers, behind China and India in second and first respectively. While 6,025 Nigerians received the offer, 6,248 Chinese and 41,675 India received it the same year respectively.
Canada welcomed 341,000 immigrants in 2019 under its skilled labour programme; about 10,000 of them are Nigerians. It is a steady increase as only 2,000 Nigerians were received in 2015; 4,000 in 2016; 6,000 in 2017; 8,000 in 2018 and 10,000 in 2019.
With the US visa ban on Nigeria in place, more Nigerians are expected to head north in the coming years. However, with the recent US demand for foreign medical professionals, Nigerian doctors and nurses may likely use the window of opportunity. Canada is projected to welcome 700,000 immigrants as permanent residents before the end of this year, which makes it an attractive destination for Nigerians of all categories.
The National Diaspora Commission estimates that between 5 million and 15 million Nigerians now live abroad. And some of the best brains go to these countries.
Presidency earlier raises alarm over refusal of Reps to be screened at Airports
Although there are concerns of loss of skilled workers in critical sectors of Nigeria’s economy, the NBS figures showed that as Nigerians left the country in droves within the last five years, remittances from the Diaspora has risen steadily to $25.08bn in 2019, up from $3bn in 2013.
Leaving for greener pastures
The serious economic hardship in the country has been pointed out as the major reason for the departures. Specifically, migrations are spiked by the high unemployment rate, which the NBS put at 23.13 per cent in quarter three of 2018, with a steady increase from 12.5 per cent in 2014.
Other factors include insecurity and poor infrastructure to support decent living, over taxation, high poverty rate, population explosion, climate change and environmental degradation, corruption, low access to credit, absence of meritocracy in public appointments, poor public health system, poor remuneration for workers, and among others.
Similarly, the World Data Lab, in its latest update, found that of the 201,623,008 total population of Nigeria, 95,903,776 people, representing 48 per cent of the population live in extreme poverty, which is defined to mean that they earn less than $2 a day.
Chilaka Anthony, a travel agent and frequent traveller, identified the economic situation in the country as the major reason more Nigerians are leaving the country. He disclosed that the situation is so critical that parents who fund their children’s studies overseas in international universities encourage them to find a way to stay back in those countries.
“The economic situation in the country has deteriorated, to the extent that we don’t know what to say. Many that pretend to be travelling for studies are actually intending to leave the country for good,” he said.
Also, Hillary Anosike, who has a business centre at the Chinese Visa Centre, said a lot of Nigerians travelled to China to buy cheaper goods and return to sell because of the high manufacturing rate in that country. He believes that the goods from China, which are cheap and competitive, are helping to sustain livelihoods for Nigerians who run small shops.
Writing on how climate change has affected migration, Ochiaka Ugwu, a journalist, stated that many people who engaged in agriculture in Nigeria had been forced to leave due to desertification, receding rivers, streams and lakes.
“Look at the herders-farmers clashes. Because streams and grasses are drying and pastures are disappearing, they are moving to locations where lands are greener, and in the process, they clash with farmers,” he stated.
But as more Nigerians leave the country, other nationals find it attractive. Nigeria is becoming a major economic host country for some intraregional migrants within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) with low skills. This has been projected to increase, given the recent Federal Government’s new visa-on-arrival policy, which was recently suspended as a result of the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic.
Nigeria’s loss, others’ gain
At the launch of the Nigeria Health Workforce Country Profile, 2018 and handover of the Nigeria Health Workforce Registry by the Ministry of Health, in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other partners, Human Resources for Health, Ministry of Health, Shakuri Kadiri, said Nigeria had only one doctor to 2,753 patients. He put the number of medical doctors registered with the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria at 74,543; implying that there are 36.3 medical doctors per 100,000 population.
Of these registered medical practitioners in Nigeria, many have left the country due to the unconducive environment for practice. And the situation is expected to worsen with the recent US enticement.
A 2019 survey showed that about 2,000 Nigerian doctors leave annually. This has caused substandard medical care for Nigerian patients. The growing medical tourism by Nigerians, with a huge impact on foreign exchange, has been directly attributed to this.
The spokesman of the NIS, James Sunday, a Deputy Comptroller of Immigration, said travellers provided different reasons for their trips, but in some cases, as humans, what they gave as reasons may not actually be the reason for the travel.
He added that the responsibility of the NIS is just to capture individuals’ data and cross-check if there are criminal objections to their trips. He explained that once such criteria are met, they are allowed to go, as it would be against their fundamental rights to do otherwise.
“If you fall within the eligibility category for immigration, we allow you to travel,” he said.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) rates Nigeria as one of the largest origins of international migrants.
“Nigeria has continued to experience high internal and external migration due to its population, economic climate and porous borders,” IOM stated on its website.
On the way forward, a professor of Political Science in the University of Abuja, Yusuf Ali Zoaka, said the solution for the perennial issue of Nigerians leaving the country for greener pastures was to develop the country and put in place, “necessary facilities” that would keep Nigerians in their country. He said government should develop the country by creating the necessary facilities.
Also, the director, Centre for China Studies, Charles Onunaiju, said necessary incentives and creating the enabling environment for creativity, research and professionalism in Nigeria would encourage more professionals and other citizens to stay back and even attract the best brains outside the country.
“It is important for the government to entrench a system where merit, rather than where a person comes from, determines their position,” Onunaiju said.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, said government had started working to obtain accurate data on the existing health workforce in the country to facilitate human resource for health planning, and thereby deliver efficient, effective and high quality health services to citizens.
He stated this at the launch of the Nigeria Health Workforce Country Profile 2018 and handover of the Nigeria Health Workforce Registry by his ministry.
This report was supported by Code for Africa, via its Academy Hacks/Hackers Community Initiative
The United States Government has announced a 7 million dollars (about N2.6 billion) emergency health and humanitarian aid to Nigeria amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
This is part of a 274 million dollars (N103 billion) assistance package to no fewer than 63 countries affected by the disease, according to a statement by the Department of States on Friday.
Nigeria’s share, the statement said, will go into funding of “risk communication, water and sanitation activities, infection prevention, and coordination’’.
“This assistance joins more than 5.2 billion dollars (N1.9 trillion) in U.S. health assistance and more than 8.1 billion dollars (N3trillion) in total assistance for Nigeria over the past 20 years,’’ it said.
As of Friday morning, Nigeria had 65 confirmed cases and one death from COVID-19, whose global infection and fatality figures stood at no fewer than half a million and 26,000 respectively.
The U.S. announcement came a day after President Muhammadu Buhari approved the release of a total of N15 billion to fight the spread of coronavirus in the country.
This includes a N10 billion grant to Lagos State, which has the highest number of 44 cases in the country, and N5 billion to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) as special intervention fund.
Wealthy Nigerians and organisations, including banks, have also announced donations running into billions of Naira in support of the fight against the virus.
Among them is the United Bank for Africa (UBA), which announced a donation of N5 billion.
Some oil industry players, led by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), on Friday announced a combined donation of $30 million (N11 billion.
Nigerian businessmen such as Femi Otedola, Abdulsamad Rabiu, Herbert Wigwe, Segun Agbaje and Aliko Dangote, have also reportedly pledged N1 billion each to the efforts.
According to the Department of State, the $274 million aid package includes $64 million (N24 billion) to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR.
This would be used to address challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic in refugee and Internally Displaced Peoples (IDP) camps around the world, NAN reports.
The Federal Government has issued a travel ban on 13 countries as a new precautionary measure adopted to curtail the spread of Coronavirus(COVID-19).
This was announced by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation Boss Mustapha at a media briefing on Wednesday.
According to Boss Mustapha, the affected countries are the United State of America, the United Kingdom, China, Japan, Iran, Switzerland, Norway, Netherland, France, South Korea, Germany, Italy, and Spain.
TNG reports that the Federal Government had Tuesday night issued similar directives to government officials.
Diana Ross, The Supremes and The Temptations had a 1968 hit song titled ‘The Impossible Dream’ In it, they sang: “To dream the impossible dream To fight the unbeatable foe To bear with unbearable sorrow To run where the brave dare not go… No matter how hopeless, no matter how far To fight for the right Without question or pauseTo be willing to march Into hell for a heavenly cause”
This is the situation Iran finds itself following last Friday’s murder of its envoy, General Qassem Soleimani at the Baghdad Airport by the United States of America (USA). The Iranian delegation led by Soleimani and the Iraqi team led by Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the Deputy Commander of Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) which was seeing them off, were wiped out.
Following this cowardly and criminal assassination, American President Donald Trump rather than strike a conciliatory tone, taunted the Iranians and threatened that if they responded in any manner that endangers Americans or American assets, he would wipe out 52 Iranian sites including cultural ones. Iran has 22 UNESCO World Heritage sites, the eleventh largest in the world and a vandal threatens to destroy them! Iran has responded with ballistic missile attacks on American bases.
Iran no option but to fight. The American administration, imbued with the mentality of the Biblical Goliath, believed that Iran is a meal it can chew and wash down with red wine. It seemed incapable of learning, even from its own history in Vietnam where a ragtag army militarily defeated it, or Afghanistan where its combined might with those of its allies are incapable of defeating the former Islamic students (Talibans)
The Iranians may be unable to match the USA, but they are not a people that will give up. In case of a full scale war, even if the Americans take Tehran, they may find out that like their takeover of Kabul, that would just be the beginning of its unwinnable war. It might find that years after its illusory victory, it would be begging for an end to the war as it is doing now in Afghanistan after losing 2,401 American soldiers, and nine years after seizing the country.
The determined Iranians remind me of a classmate in high school. Even when he was beaten in fights, he never gave up nor tired. He was capable of sustaining a fight over long periods even while bleeding. It was better to make peace with him. So we nicknamed him “Unbeatable”
Nigerian writer, Muritala Sule narrated a similar experience in his autobiography “A LIFETIME of FRIENDSHIPS.” He wrote of a friend, Lati Eleweomo: “ He was a boy I had several encounters with and beat many times. But, beat him all you could, he kept coming like Joe Frazier. How could you claim to have beaten a boy who would continue the previous day’s fight with you whenever he sees you, that is, if you had managed to run away yesterday, in spite of the fact that you had the upper hand?
“Lati could sustain a fight for a month; he was always a tough customer. When he cried from pain, he only hooted, and tears never came out of his eyes.
“After a fight in the street during the day, he looked for you at home at night to continue the fight…Sometimes, all I did to have my peace was beg him or bribe him with whatever he demanded – money, some snacks, whatever.”
The conflict between the USA and Iranians began 66 years ago when the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and British intelligence, eyeing the vast oil reserves of Iran, on August 19, 1953, executed a coup toppling the democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. They then strengthened the monarchical rule of Sha Mohammad Reza Pahlavi imposing him as the sole authority in Iran. What followed was a bloody 25-year resistance against dictatorship.
Late 1978, the opposition called for street protests which were backed by exiled cleric, Imam Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The SAVAK, the Sha’s secret police, killed hundreds of demonstrators, but the people never gave up until the Sha fled on January 16, 1979 and an Islamic Revolution proclaimed.
Another major point of conflict was when the Americans brought the Sha to their country ostensibly for medical treatment. Iran demanded that the Americans extradite him to face trial for the thousands he had murdered. On November 4, 1979, Iranian college students seized the American Embassy and held 52 Americans hostage in exchange for the return of the Sha.
The Americans carried out a botched operation to rescue the hostages and ended losing eight service men. The hostages spent 444 days in captivity before the Iranians set them free on January 20, 1981. The hostage crisis is credited for the none re-election of President Jimmy Carter. His successor, Ronald Reagan ended up selling arms and missiles to strengthen the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and using the money realized, to fund terrorists in Nicaragua called the Contras.
The Trump administration came into office with an agenda to destroy Iran. It sabotaged the International Iran Nuclear Peace Deal, designated the Iranian Revolutionary Guards as terrorists and on at least two occasions, tried to manufacture ‘evidence’ that Iran is responsible for attacks on shipping in the Gulf.
The world has lots of credulous persons. In world history, no leader is known to lie more than Trump. ‘The Washington Post’ edition of October 14, 2019 reported that : “ As of October 9, his 993rd day in office, he (Trump) had made 13,435 false or misleading claims…That is an average of almost 22 claims a day…” So when such a man who is steeped in false news and untruth, tells the world he ordered the murder of a foreign general on a third party soil because that general was planning to attack American diplomats, you would ordinarily think nobody would take his claim as gospel truth; but I read people uncritically parroting it. I begin to think that it is not only sinners who deserve to be tried in heavenly courts with the possibility of being sentenced to Hell, fools also deserve to be in the dock.
There are countries preaching restrain without bringing anything to the table or extracting from America a promise that this type of international criminality will not be repeated. Is that how they would have reacted were their top general on a diplomatic mission been murdered in the streets? Would they have treated their general like an expendable bullet while the perpetrators boast around the world threatening more violence?
Listening to Trump’s ramble on Wednesday in the face of the Iranian missile fightback, I am convinced that resisting bullies is a fundamental human right.
