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The Prime Minister of Uganda Robinah Nabbanja was on Wednesday morning shocked when she reached office and found it locked with literally no one present. To make matters worse, her official twitter account remains suspended by the time of writing.

Nabbanja who arrived a little before 8:00am but found the premises closed and her office inaccessible.

A visibly angry Nabbanja started making frantic phone calls to unknown people as her aide and police guards stood in the aisle of the building, looking stranded.

It took at least one hour for her to get any form of rescue after the Under Secretary James Collins Ddombo managed to get through to some of the staff and informed them of the emergency.

While  no one could independently verify where the staff were at the time, we can authoritatively confirm that government workers schedule starts at 8:00 am and closes at 5:00pm.

Meanwhile, Nabbanjas troubles are far from over. Her legitimate twitter has since been suspended.

Her office had intimated that the account @RobinahNabbanja was the legitimate account and was undergoing verification.

The OPM had cautioned people to ignore other accounts.

Image credit:chimp reports

The activities began in Benin on Sunday September 27, 2020 with the Webinar, which brought together 24 participants made up of members of the CNGOB executive board, stakeholders, departmental focal points, and youth movements, represented by MS4C and ILEWA. This webinar focused on the international, regional and local legal environment around safe abortion.

The celebration itself for the International Day for Safe Abortion took place on Monday, September 28, 2020. The communication focused on a summary of the PPAS project with emphasis on the achievements, the Laws 2003-04, & Law No. 08 of 08/12 / 2015 on the children's code.

As part of this ceremony, Vice-President Dr Emmanuel Ewagnignon reaffirmed the commitment of the CNGOB to improve women's access to comprehensive abortion care in Benin, by reassuring the actors that it is in a continuous drive to broaden and strengthen the partnership, and to overcome barriers to the provision of sexual and reproductive health & rights. He ended his intervention on a note of hope by urging all partners to be ready for 2021! 

On September 29, 2020, in the historic capital of Benin in Abomey, members of Thematic Working Groups (TWGs) from six out of twelve departments, reaffirmed their commitment to support advocacy for safe abortion in Benin. This begins with raising awareness among health workers not only to reduce the stigmatisation towards women requesting sexual and reproductive health services, but also to negotiate meetings with local elected officials in their localities to present to them the drawbacks and risks associated with illegal abortions. 

Nigeria will be 60, its diamond anniversary, in a matter of months precisely October 1, 2020.  There is a reason that sixty is regarded as the age of diamond, the most precious and the hardest naturally-formed mineral yet known. These are two distinguishing qualities of diamond that do not come easy.  Diamond is ordinarily carbon. Research reveals that it acquires these exceptional properties subjected to extreme conditions: temperature of more than 1,200 degrees C (2200 degrees F) and pressure of about 330,000 kg (725,000lb) per square inch. These happen at more than 90 miles under the ground and over a period of a billion years.

There can be no stronger evidence that nothing good comes easy. If such temperature and pressure over aeons brought the best (and not the worst) out of carbon, it is not unreasonable to expect that tough conditions are the challenges that can bring out greatness in men and nations. Before I stretch the comparison too far, there is a determinant difference between inanimate carbon and thinking man. Whereas carbon has no choice in the process that transforms it, men and nations have the freedom (freewill), to by their thought action, further, or hinder, the process that will take them to the height of greatness. Were Nigeria a citizen of Nigeria, it will, at 60 years of age, have survived several years beyond the average Nigerian life expectancy of 50-something years, as calculated by global institutions.

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That is an achievement of physical, spiritual, and emotional endurance worth celebrating. People celebrate their 60th birthday, some their 50th. It is for successfully navigating the vicissitudes of life, more so in a global environment full of threats from different directions. A country is continually under internally and externally induced stresses of political, economic, social, and other kinds. But many things being equal including that it does not take its continued existence for granted a federation of nations such as Nigeria can live much longer and attain greatness by drawing multiple and diverse strengths from its plurality.

This country suffered and survived many man inflicted stresses and pressures in the last 50 years. It experienced coups dtat, a civil war, intermittent communal, religious, and ethnic clashes. Nigeria has lived through the wastefulness and later, austerity of the Shagari years, the rapacity of the military regimes, and the political chicanery of the Babangida years of which Joe Igbokwe wrote, correctly, that his tenure represents an error of history, the Abachas oppressive and kleptomaniac regime, and the failed Third term plot of a certain opinionate president. Our country continues to endure a generally parasitic elite composed of a crooked business class, an unconscionable, self-seeking political class, egoistic religious leaders, and arrogant and selfish traditional rulers.  

It is quite an achievement that this country remains intact.  But to merely survive is never good enough; that is the self limiting thinking of a mediocre. For, sixty years of self-rule, Nigerians, and Nigeria, are not yet the best that they can be. But indeed we can. It is up to us.  If time, temperature and pressure make diamond, the character and achievements of Nigeria at 60 should by now have much to be proud of. Regrettably, this country of so much is, to be charitable, merely a diamond in the making. So, even though there is cause to rejoice that we remain one at all, if we consider what and where this country should be by its diamond anniversary only months away there are not enough reasons to mark this event the way a diamond anniversary is usually celebrated. To think otherwise is to live in denial of the facts.  Nonetheless, I dare not give up on, or lose hope for my country; I have no other.  Besides, two great minds give me reasons to hope. Dr. Martin King Jr. advises that we must accept finite disappointment but never lose infinite hope, and Dostoevsky warns that to live without hope is to cease to live. I dont want to die yet. So, I dream of and hope for a great Nigeria that is ready, willing, and able to fulfill its destiny among the Black race. It is do-able, it is possible, it will happen in due season. How soon or delayed is up to us. But first some reflection. As Maya Angelou says, if you dont know where youve come from, you dont know where you are going.  How did we come to this pretty pass?  Where did we get it wrong?  In the words of a Nigerian saying, where did the rain begin to beat us?

The first and overall point to make is that Nigerias problems originate from, are created, by Nigerians. Briefly stated, Nigeria has a human quality problem. The second point and it derives directly from the first is that, as Achebe (1983) puts it, the trouble with Nigeria is the failure of its leadership (composed of Nigerians). I submit that, even more fundamental than leadership failure, the problem of Nigeria is Nigerians! Countries are built on the character of their people, wrote one religious writer. Character deficiency is the heart of the problem with Nigeria. The third point is that, whereas most Nigerians are unhappy with the sorry state of their country, it is by now, repeatedly proven that salvation may never come from the top, from small dominant class that perpetrates, perpetuates, and bountifully benefits from the status quo. It is popular, but lazy, thinking to expect that Nigerias power elite will do something about the many things wrong with our country. If it can, it apparently will not at the cost of its own convenience. Otherwise, it would have under its military wing when, as a stratocracy, drastic, positive and enduring steps could be taken to set the country on the right path. But such expectation is akin to asking a man to destroy the source of his present comfort and future benefits. That great an expectation will require him to re-define and re-invent himself values, thinking and purpose. An extreme demand indeed! In any case, no one gives what he does not have. There is another reason that the drastic measures to clean up and elevate this country may never come from the present leaders. The recruitment process into leadership ensures that the crooked attracts only its type.

Which explains the capacity for corruption of even younger members of the ruling elite. Considering the amount that are reportedly stolen, as well as the unabashed display of wealth, the younger ones are more brazen than their mentors.  No wonder little has changed, year in year out, under administrations. The French would say plus ca change, plus cest la meme chose meaning that the more things change, the more they remain the same. Surely, there is need for a new way to address the problems that keep us and our country down. Instead of a top-down approach that may never effect the change we desire for our country, I suggest a people centered, self-engendered, bottom-up change of attitude and commitment.