Ese Oruru: a post-script

     If you want to know the end, look at the beginning. African proverb.

A little over four years ago, I wrote the material below in this paper. It was intended to speak against a national hysteria being fired by our poisonous national patents of ethnic and religious stereotypes and prejudices. I have since followed this matter even when it threatened to disappear under our penchant for finding new causes to fight over. Last week, there was a major development around the story. First, though, please read my comments on the matter.

“Any responsible parent of a girl of fourteen that disappears and is then reported to be with an unknown person hundreds of miles away from home will be beside themselves with worry. If they also hear that she has changed her religion and is planning to marry the person responsible for her disappearance, their concerns will deepen. They will do everything to trace the girl and utilize every available source of redress and relief to retrieve her and get justice. If they meet their daughter, and then encounter difficulties in retrieving her from any quarter, they will raise their voices to the high heavens in protest. Everyone who hears the side of the parent’s story will line up in their support.

This is what all Nigerians have done in support of the demand of the parents, relations and the community of 14 year old Ese Oruru for her return to her home in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State from a village in Kano State where she has been for the last few months. This universal support behind the return of Ese to her home is the only peg on which you could hang some sort of consensus. Ese’s reported ill-advised elopement with a young man from Kano is presented as abduction, forceful detention, and conversion to Islam in many versions. Sloppy handling and laxities in the operations of institutions with responsibilities to protect the weak and vulnerable are interpreted in other quarters as high level collusion to violate the fundamental and other rights of a Nigerian minor. A saga that has been active for months, with many stops and gos substantially outside public glare suddenly assumed the status of a national scandal with all the trappings and muck of our politics. A child everyone should look at with responsible sympathy suddenly became the source of the rediscovery of all that is wrong with our politics and other values as a nation.

Ese was, a few months ago, one among millions of Nigerian children from whom you will buy pure water or snacks without a second look. Today, she is at the center of an almighty row about faith, cultures and damaging politics. Long after this dust is settled, this child will deal with the effects of our quarrels over her. Whether she is a victim of childish impetuousness or adult abuse and cynical manipulation is not likely to matter. Collectively, we would have further injured a child that ought to have been in school learning to be a responsible adult, with the support of her parents and community.

There are quite possibly many angles to this sad story that would have been permanently drowned by indignation and outrage from just about everyone who has scores to settle, or a cause to advance. A range of persons and interests from the Emir of Kano to all Muslims and many Northerners are likely to feel hard done by because their status and faith are being portrayed in very bad light. They will attempt to distance their faith from abduction, forceful conversion or marriage without consent of parents, to no avail. Palace officials, police and community leaders will roll out all manner of evidence that they played their parts. No one will care, after the devastating conclusions of social media warriors has reached many ears, galvanizing opinions in support of a child who desperately needs to be freed from abduction and forced conversion and impending marriage.

Ese’s sojourn has attracted to the poor child an entire army of sympathizers, many of whom she does not need, and they do not deserve mention. Minister of Women Affairs says Ese is a wake up call to improve the protection of women and child rights. Hashtags in support of Ese’s return have been gaining support in social media. Traditional and stereotype insults against people, regions and religions are being unearthed, with reminders of child marriages by prominent northerners, the Chibok girls, sponsored pregnancies, commercial baby factories and entire communities living off remittances from prostituting daughters in Europe filling all social media spaces.

In this bedlam which says more about how we treat each other as adults than how we relate to our young, there are a few islands of sanity. The governor of Bayelsa State went out of his way to engage Governor of Kano State and the Emir of Kano, and publicly commended both for the roles they played in reuniting Ese with her parents. The Kano Emirate Council released a measured statement distancing the Emir and the Emirate Council from accusations that they colluded in keeping Ese in Kano State, away from her parents.

On the other hand, the legion of shrill joiners piling on sensation and crude opportunism reminds us all that we are stuck in some deep gutters as far as inter-community relations go. The Nation newspaper screamed an editorial that should lose it a substantial amount of respect. It said: “The story which was, at press time still developing, has all the evil trappings of molestations, child abuse, sexual deviance, abduction, religious coercion, constitutional violation, a network of shadowy big mean manipulating the law…” This comment will force all people with a hint of civilized humanity to grit their teeth and read the trademark drivel rolled out routinely by Femi Fani-Kayode because it appears that he shares the same space with this newspaper on this matter. Forgive me for giving this man who clearly needs help a few minutes of your time, but this is part of Fani-Kayode’s contribution on this matter: “The truth is that this is not a love story about two inseparable young people: it is rather a sad and tragic tale about pedophilia, child abduction, kidnapping, human trafficking, slavery, rape, impunity, wickedness, religious bigotry and ritual sex. Worse still it is an unfolding drama at the end of which Emir Sanusi Lamido (sic) may well have a case to answer. The truth is that the little girl would have been raped over and over again and she may well have Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDs), Vesico vaginal Fistula (VVF) or some other strange sexual disease by now”.

There must be people who enjoy this type of delusion in print, because newspapers give it space. But Ese does not need it. What she needs is a quiet and productive reunification with her family, and a lot of time to sort out deeply personal issues. What we need as a nation is to move on and find other grounds for a quarrel. Everyone involved in this sensitive issue should examine their roles, or have them examined by those who police accountability. Where amends or restitutions need to be made, they must be made. Ese will develop into an adult and decide what she wants to do with her life. The best way we can help her reach that stage without further damage is to create appropriate distance between her life and our many preferences and prejudices.”

Since this piece was published, Ese was seperated from Yinusa Dahiru (alias Yello) February 2016 and taken home with a five months-old pregnancy. She delivered a girl three months later. Yinusa was arrested and detained in prison custody, and has been on trial until last week when he was sentenced to 26 years in prison. He had pleaded not guilty to all charges. A newspaper that had vigorous championed Ese’s case quoted her father as saying that an attempt was made to steal the baby at the Police officer’s Mess in Yenegoa where mother and child were staying. The same paper interviewed the father in 2018 during which he said all the promises for scholarship and support made by the Bayelsa and Delta State governments for Ese’s education were not fulfilled. She is now in SS3, living away from, but being supported only by her father.

In all likelihood, Yinusa will appeal. But the court of sectional opinion is already split right down the middle. Champions of Ese’s case who paid for her lawyers hail his conviction as rightful vindication. His sympathisers say he has been abandoned and betrayed by his own people who, in addition cannot raise their voices at the reported cases of Hausa children routinely stolen and taken to the East, culturally re-processed and converted. 

Yinusa and Ese have played their roles as pawns, and they will continue to remind us that in most of our fights, there are no winners. This, however, does not stop us fighting in filth.

Other Matters

The sun does not forget a village because it is small. African proverb

At this stage the most damaging effect of the pandemic (or its collateral damage) appears  to be that it diverts attention from other vital issues that should be addressed either as routine processes dealing with social and economic problems, or unusual developments that challenge nations and societies. There are no clear lines here: the pandemic, in most cases, reinforces weaknesses and problems, making them more difficult to solve.

As our nation grapples with general and peculiar problems in the manner it fights this pandemic, it is vital that we do not  take our eyes entirely off the ball. Many problems have to be confronted at the same time, time being the operative word here. In my view, these are some of the broad issues that the nation needs to pay close attention to, and deal with.

1.     Governance

Quality of governance  as a whole must be improved, not just because of the appearance of pronounced complacency exhibited by elected persons following their elections and victories in courts, but also because new challenges such as managing the pandemic and limited economic resources require higher levels of competence and integrity. Legislators must play vital roles in keeping the executive on their toes, and being active in working with it to improve policy and legislation that will reflect the difficult times we live in. Governors must  show greater levels of empathy with the population and reduce distances between them and the public.

President Buhari’s appointment of Professor Ibrahim Gambari as Chief of Staff hints at a willingness to match quality with comfort. This is the historic moment when the President should signal a resolve to leave a positive legacy for his leadership. He has three years to salvage an image and a record that could  be much better, but the truth is that he will not do this with many of the people he has entrusted with vital responsibilities. Many of the Ministers and other Chief Executives who have been with him for most of his Presidency have run out of steam, ideas or the zeal to go beyond the routine. He must inject a sense of urgency and emergency in his government, and bring in new hands that believe that the nation faces a set of challenges that must be overcome, and this can be achieved even in the face of a pandemic and dwindling fortunes. He cannot just see out three years of his second term in familiar gears and in styles and standards that he is comfortable with. The nation cannot survive waiting for three years for another President to fix what President Buhari has an opportunity and a duty to fix.

The nation needs to pay very close attention to tendencies that are weakening the bonds of nationhood, some pre-dating the pandemic, some reinforcing them and others which feed-off opportunism of  politicians, mostly with an eye on 2023.Barriers and barricades going up against particular groups and inflammatory rhetorics that generate fear and hostility are rampant in the land. Those who see value in preserving this union, or halting a painful decaying process should reach out to others who can discuss a future with all cards on the table. It is very unlikely that the Buhari administration will see this as a priority project, but other Nigerians do not need a license from him to discuss the future of the nation.The President himself  needs a  strong and informed Political Adviser.

2.     National security, public safety

Just about every index on organized violent criminal activities appears to be on the rise. The President's home State, Katsina, is particularly hard hit by rampaging bandits and kidnappers who appear to have the run of much of the State. Banditry and clashes between communities are creating huge spaces for violent crimes and squeezing increasing numbers of mainly rural poor out of their homes and livelihoods. Governors say there is little they can do when communities cry out. A few get chances to give the President additional information on how the fight against bandits, kidnappers and ethnic gangs is being lost. Food shortages are now a real possibility as vast tracks of  farmlands lay uncultivated and cattle cannot graze with the onset of the planting season.

The military is more stretched than it has ever been, while it is  under increasing pressure to resist factions of Boko Haram which see opportunities to take more territories and populations. Improvements in its media war suggest that our side is winning, but it is not certain that it is hurting  the enemy in a manner that will stop it from recovering and fighting back. It is a distinct possibility  that Nigeria has problems purchasing equipment when and where it is available, so greater energy should be deployed towards addressing hindrances to improving the technical capacities of the military. Morale and welfare also need major boost. We should also re-invent collaboration with our  neighbours and re-enlist them more actively in this war which, it is now obvious, we cannot win on our own.

Clearly, much needs to be done to improve the nation’s policing capacities, and this  requires the highest levels of collaboration and a commitment to interests that can only be served by the realization that everyone will benefit from major changes in policing capacities and strategies with the most minimal of delay. It is important that the federal government sets in motion machinery for examining options on expanding the size and capabilities of the police, and this should include processes on establishment of sub-national police. There is near-consensus on this, but President Buhari can help by initiating a genuine and inclusive process that should advise on all policing issues as a matter of national urgency.

3.     Managing a ‘COVID’ economy

The nation needs its  best intellectual and managerial assets to help steer the economy through the many challenges and threats it will have to deal with, directly or as consequences of the pandemic. Managing public finances will need courage and a clear understanding of  choices that realistically deal with today’s circumstances. Reports regarding the major outlines of the review of the 2020 federal budget suggest that the administration and the legislature do not plan to yield ground to a new reality that demands that the budgeting process must change radically, and  basic assumptions that used to be poorly-grounded have no place in plans to face a tough future. Major interests in the organized private sector need more access to policy-making as we contemplate an economy that will show pronounced damage over the next months. Jobs and businesses will be severely threatened, and we need to brace ourselves for rising numbers of unemployed, shrunk production capacities, shortfalls in revenue and their social consequences.

Leaders need to accept cuts in their remunerations and expenditure re-prioritized, as much to assuage perversive impressions that the rich have an easier time dealing with the pandemic, as a major gesture that will make resources available to support the poor live through the many privations of the pandemic. There is a need to avoid a situation where large-scale corruption now makes a new home within funding of palliatives and provision of facilities for testing, isolation and treatment of infected Nigerians.

4.     Managing poverty

The federal government needs a critical evaluation of its poverty management policies to see the degree to which they address contemporary challenges. The flagship Social Investment Programme in particular is becoming a major liability to the administration owing to its insistence that it will not change the manner it serves Nigerians. When hard-pressed Nigerian hear of billions spent on various elements of the Programme, and are assured with the only information that these funds reach and help real Nigerians, their levels of skepticism and even hostility rise. It could be poor salesmanship, but managers of this Programme are not doing a good job convincing Nigerians that they performing vital national service in insisting that billions are indeed being spent in following schoolchildren home to feed them since schools are closed. It is vital that the nation addresses poverty levels with substantial resources, imaginative strategies and transparent integrity, particularly now that we know that the poor will take massive hits. This is the moment when northern governors and the Muslim community should find the will and the strength to put a permanent end to child destitution in the name of almajirci.

5.     Reforms

Prioritising reforms around the electoral process, improving the public procurement, mitigating poverty and reducing corruption is vital at this stage. The legislature will do great service to its image if it will rise to the occasion and engage the executive arm to work with it on these and other reforms.

No one knows when or if we can ever emerge into a post-COVID era, but it will be disastrous for our future if we do not think and act as if we can, and will do so as stronger nation. If we will avoid that, the time to start is now.

Leading through crises

Nothing is so simple that it cannot be misunderstood.

Albert Einstein

        Crises test leaders in more  ways than  most are  prepared for. Those with responsibility to lead people under today’s circumstances could very well go down in history as the set that had the most difficult tasks in human history. They are having to lead populations long used to fairly predictable routines that are products of tried and tested systems and processes. It is their lot to lead through crises that have no familiar solutions, no predictable and manageable outcomes, no practical options with costs and consequences and no timeframes. It is no exaggeration to say that humanity has never known crises that has challenged it so comprehensively as this pandemic is doing. But humanity was as varied in its pre-COVID-19 state as it is in its responses to this global enemy. Some segments of humanity will pay a much higher price for their exposure to this pandemic than others. Many nations will put up a fight to the best of their abilities and with their best resources, and in the end, they will submit to an enemy whose most potent weapon is to shake the very foundations of the confidence garnered over centuries that mankind can cope with challenges, many of which it will invent itself. In the end, some clusters of humanity will come out relatively strong, and others would have gone under in a new order which make sense only in a bewildering array of conspiracy theories.

At this stage, most nations are grappling with options that will fight the pandemic and save economies and, by extensions, the glues that holds humanity together. Even the strongest economies will battle to squeeze huge resources from shrinking economies, to fight the pandemic. The longer the pandemic lasts and the larger its toll in lives, the more it also damages economies. All countries are fighting an enemy that fights them at many fronts: it causes fear and induces panic; it causes illnesses among large numbers of the population and deaths that raise levels of fear and panic; it attacks the economy, crippling it and suffocating major lifelines; and it stresses relations between people and their leaders. In Nigeria, our population size, poverty levels and spread, the foundations of our economy and political frameworks all combine to make our fight against the pandemic one of the most challenging.

It is natural to expect federal and state governments to explore all avenues to improve resources needed to limit the damage of the pandemic, but leaders need to exercise informed caution and some courage in the manner they make choices among a range of policies that will keep the economy alive and resist the damage of the pandemic. For an  economy  and governments such as ours  whose pillar and major source of revenue is crude oil, the current state of prices should be a major source of concern. Nonetheless, the hints that federal government has agreed to implement the White Paper on the Presidential Committee on Restructuring and Rationalization of Federal Government Parastatals, Agencies and Commissions generally referred to as the ‘Oronsaye Report’ is worrisome mainly because, far from helping to ease pressure on managing the economy, it will substantially worsen it. It is conceivable that President Buhari may have been the recipient of very poor advise in this regard. This is the only explanation that would make sense in light of the fact that even the administration of President Jonathan which set it up had dumped the Report, and for its whole five years in office, this administration had maintained a healthy distance between it and this  report.

The dummy that came  to be sold to the nation as the panacea to the ‘liability’ of big government by vested, largely private interests and ambitious Chief Executives of Agencies and Parastatals i.e, the ‘Oronsaye Report’ was actually a tear-away Committee whose sole term of reference was initially assigned to  the much bigger Committee headed by the highly-respected former Head of Service of the Federation, Malam Adamu Fika. It was  set up by the Jonathan  administration to advise on a comprehensive review of the reform processes of the federal public service.(In the interest of full disclosure, I should state that I was a member of the Adamu Fika Committee). The Committee headed by Wazirin  Fika was hounded by external, engineered hostility and internal subversion, ending up with a main report and a minority report. The ‘Oronsaye’ Committee was starved of integrity, drowned by narrow interests and deficient of knowledge and appreciation of the basic operations of a public service in a federal system that had been badly damaged by serial reforms which served every interest but the public’s, and suffers, to date, a crippling split personality syndrome that denies leaders the best services of a most strategic governance institution.

A White Paper Drafting Committee on the ‘Oronsaye’ Committee was set up under the chairmanship of one of the most influential Ministers under the Jonathan administration, Mohammed Bello Adoke, SAN, and included two respected former Heads of Service, Ms Amal Pepple and Alhaji Isa Sali. This Committee rejected most of the major recommendations of the ‘Oronsaye’ Committee, and it was not difficult to see why. It was the proverbial butcher doing the surgeon’s job. Starting from the false assumption that mechanically collapsing, merging and scrapping organs of government was going to save money and improve efficiency, the Committee set about with a single-minded devotion to vandalize the federal service and create entities that would merely have compounded the very problems they sought to solve. The scant attention paid to the legal and constitutional implications of many recommendations, mandates and relevance of MDAs, as well as the fact that many of the employees affected will move from  salaried staff to desperation or expensive   pensioners was breathtaking. Vital issues such as institutional efficiency, political considerations which informed establishment of certain bodies, increasing complexities of the economy and society and the necessity of avoiding prolonged disruptions were subsumed under the haste to impress the constituency that had decided that the public service was the major hinderance to the growth and development of the Nigerian nation.

President Buhari would soon be celebrating five years as Nigerian President. It is conceivable  that he too had been advised that  size, not professionalism and integrity were the problems of the public service, but he  has not made reform a major issue in his administration. What then, it must be asked, would the Buhari administration gain by revisiting or implementing a report that has been so thoroughly discredited even by the administration which set it up? Without a doubt, this administration and the nation have  been dealt a really bad hand by this pandemic and its consequences. There were already major concerns around the management and performance of the economy. The crash in crude prices and the certain recession which the global economy is heading for will worsen the prospects for a quick and sustainable recovery. For the government, payment of salaries and meeting overheads will be challenging, and a number of states have already announced plans to impose pay cuts on civil servants. Funding capital projects will be virtually impossible, even with the radical review of the 2020 budget. Sourcing for fresh funds to shield the nation from the worst effects of the pandemic will tax the best managers  and deepen the nation’s obligations to sources of credit. 

Still, the ‘Oransaye’ report is not a path. It is a short-cut to a booby trap that will deepen poverty, desperation and instability around vital institutions(including the legislature)  and groups who should be on the same side with the administration. What the nation needs are arrangements that capture the essence of the huge problems we face. New thinking, fresh ideas and bold initiatives. We need a war mentality, a sense of emergency that should mobilize a nation to unite and face the same enemy with all the resources at our disposal. We need arrangements that suggest and operate as if we are at war, because we are; arrangements that allow the VP and trusted functionaries like the SGF and key Ministers to focus on governance under trying circumstances, while professionals and others who are equipped with the expertise and experience to manage a crisis of this nature assume key  responsibilities. We need President Buhari out there keeping the two vital fronts safe: continuing the task of governing a nation in crisis, and limiting the damage of COVID-19.We are a tough people, but we need to re-discover a common cause and generate an overwhelming support from all segments. We are in very deep trouble, and simplistic solutions are not what we need.

Now that we’ve lost our heads

If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, you probably don’t understand the problem.

Jean Kerr

        There will be a few people who will argue that we have not entirely lost the battle to limit the damage which an unrestrained COVID-19 will eventually leave behind, whenever it does leave, that is. You will find them in small clusters behind high walls and fortified offices in Abuja and a few State capitals. There are also a few who think we are in it all the way, and there is nothing that can be done anymore to turn or stop the tide. You will find them  all over the country, but do not engage them in arguments over facts and figures and scientific evidence. There are yet a lot more that are confused and angry. Confused, because they are in situations that are difficult to comprehend. Angry because  there are people who should help explain and give comfort and reassurances, but they are not doing that. This particular category is an amalgam that stretches all the way from those who believe their fates are entirely outside their control (and there is, therefore, little value in doing anything to create further inconvenience), to those who know they are in serious danger whatever they do.

To be sure, we are not entirely alone in this profound state of confusion. Most of the world, however has settled more or less around two perspectives. One is that the vast majority of citizens can survive this pandemic, but this will involve a lot of sacrifice and unprecedented changes in the way we lived in the past, and even as recently as only a few months ago. Second one is that there is shared responsibility between those with the burden  to lead towards relief and solutions, and citizens who must comply with lawful orders and guidelines, and both must play their roles without cutting corners. We have a few advantages as well. We watched much of the world attacked by  this virus, watched the mistakes they made and the appropriate steps they took, and noticed results of both, long before it got to us. We have disadvantages as well: massive, largely ignorant  population  living under extreme poverty with little faith in leaders, a weak state led by people  with thoroughly questionable levels of commitment to welfare of  the poor, and an economy virtually on its knees.

Since we became become part of the pandemic’s victims, we have deployed a cocktail  of courage, cynicism, incompetence  and  indifference in our  defence, a mixture that has left us at the mercy of a virus  which cannot be defeated by weakness. Finally, on Monday, 4th of May, we  capitulated. Strip the official guidelines, orders and directives of the federal and state governments of all their fine language, what you will find at the bottom of the decisions to ‘ease’ the lockdown and ‘free’ the economy to begin recovery is  an abdication, an admission of defeat and a concession to the virus to take what it wants.

From this point on, we are at its mercy. One relaxation will inevitably lead to another. New or conflicting rules will be flouted in pursuit of many competing options. Need versus want. Death by the virus or death by starvation. At this stage no mention is made of being both poor and dying from the virus. Or, a choice between lives or the economy (couched as ‘livelihood’ to make the case for the poor’s stampede to reclaim a vanishing life). A muted priority  is that the economy that works for a few needs to be salvaged even at the risk of many lives, never mind that these lives  will include those  of the wealthy in whose favour the economy works. When we experience an explosion from this retreat, the rich and the middle class may accept some sort of repeat restriction, but not the poor who had felt all along that they are being made to pay a price for the follies of the wealthy and the powerful.COVID-19 will worsen our class relations, and we should pray against a revolt of citizens against the state and an uprising against the wealthy.

Perhaps it is inevitable that a nation with all our characteristics is  bound to be where we are today. The chaos that marked the first day of ‘freedom’ said it all. A weak leadership that had no will to take and follow through with tough but vital decisions  buckled under. Governments that could not mobilize resources to help citizens stay at home retreated behind simpler options. Advisers on management of the economy, or others who advise on governance without advise from economists pushed forward ideas that a limited effort to re-float a sinking economy could be attempted by creating the semblance of normalcy even if salaries are not paid, workers are being laid off, supply chains are badly damaged, revenues are drying up and thousands are dying in pursuit of bread they chase with poisoned freedom. Now States will design their own templates to please citizens, since no State will be able to resist an onslaught against walls of protection they are building when all others are lowering theirs. Citizens will choose what regulation to comply with, and which to ignore, but no one is safer than another: we are never safe until all of us are safe.

The real tragedy may yet unfold when numbers sharply rise and the demands for appropriate response are not forthcoming. Testing for infection will be bought and sold like everything else in the country. Facilities in isolation centers, treatment and even disposal of bodies will be determined by your financial worth. When the poor turn to the state for help in dealing with massive numbers of dead and dying, there may not be anyone to turn to. Leaders who cannot provide protection for medical personnel to do their jobs at this stage, or build isolation centers, procure testing equipments and facilities to treat those infected and provide support for the population to live under lockdowns are unlikely to be in place to offer excuses. It will be worse when the poor realize that freedom from lockdowns does not necessarily put food in the mouths of families. The state will retreat further away. By the time this virus is done with us, no one will be certain of the state of the Nigerian state.

We should prepare for the fragmentation of the nation behind populist walls erected by leaders who cannot build bridges between them and the people and across the nation. Fear and old grievances and ambitions will combine to push the nation into hands of people who may want to see a different post-COVID-19 Nigeria. People will be profiled and deprived of their rights as communities choose who can be tolerated and who should be sent away. In a year or two, those who survive should be prepared to live with, or die from hunger, as the combination of a severely weakened economy, upheavals from citizens’ revolts and internal security challenges which will exploit the weaknesses of the state combine to make food production an extremely hazardous venture.

It is not my intention to sound an unnecessary alarm, and like most Nigerians, I pray constantly that we can avoid a worst-case scenario. There is still time to regain some of the ground we lost to the pandemic, but this will require the type of leadership we have not seen since the arrival  of this pandemic. If leaders do choose to lead us away from the precipice, they must unite and give this virus a real fight. They must mobilize resources and the highest levels of responsibility and integrity in supporting the public to substantially protect itself. We need leaders who will be honest with citizens, to tell us how much danger we really face. People need to know that they are literally on their own, to live and earn a living while safe, or risk illness or death because they do not care enough. The public needs to be literally frightened into complying with measures to live. After all, even the poor wants to live.