If citizens of the world didn’t know that they lived in a global village, the COVID-19, otherwise known as the Coronavirus, has demonstrated this starkly. Virtually all parts of the world have paused on account of the ravaging pestilence, with very earth-shaking implications for the global economy. Even world leaders with war-like inclinations have come to realize, to their shame, that the virus is killing more people than bullets and armoury can at the war front. In this global shutdown, Nigeria has also wriggled herself into its consequences. As barrels of crude oil become ten-a-penny in the global market, its…

In most parts of the world, it feels like the world has come to, or is coming to, an end. Routines have been displaced. Familiar reality has been ruptured. Even habitual perceptions of the world around us are being disrupted. And people are gripped by immobilizing panic and anxiety. In stressful, uncertain moments like this, people look up to their national leaders for assurance, for psychological comfort, for emotional stability, for guidance, for good cheer. Most leaders have lived up to this expectation. They have addressed their compatriots in national broadcasts and become consolers in chief. Well, except Nigeria’s Muhammadu…