Some have termed COVID-19 the Chinese Virus to remind the world it came from China. Chinese people in Europe, America and even in Asia are now facing virus-related racism and xenophobia - Sinophobia.
Some have labelled the Chinese as bioterrorists.
The anger against Mainland China in places like Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines is tied to China’s domineering economy and infrastructural expansion in the region.
With the outbreak of COVID-19, century long disputes and historic grievances find expression in the conspiracy theory that China invented the virus to dominate its neighbours and by extension uproot the economic hegemony of the west.
It is in the dispute of the South China Sea and the detention of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang province that the critics of China find the rallying point to suspect Chinese exploitation.
In recent years, a significant amount of anti-China rhetoric has come from the United States of America (USA), particularly under the Trump administration. This has worsened the discrimination against the Chinese in a period the world is distressed from COVID-19 pandemic.
Sinophobia in the US has officially existed since the the 19th century. The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, banning Chinese labourers from the US following the Gold Rush is a statement that reflects in the ongoing US-China trade war.
Can China challenge the hegemonic power of the US?
Is the West fair to China in the way it relays the messages of Coronavirus?
Some in China feel the discrimination is ‘Kicking China while it's down'.
To look at the conspiracy theories that have put China in the eye of the storm is Dr Obadiah Mailafia.
He was a chief economist in the Strategic Planning and Budgeting Department of the African Development Bank (ADB).
He worked with the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), where he was a deputy governor responsible for monetary and economic policy. He earned a Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) from Oxford University in 1985.
Mailafia is a development economist. He was the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in the 2019 election.
From the 2021 report of Grand View Research, Inc.,the global coconut bye-product market size is expected to reach 95.64 billion dollars by 2025. If farmers, investors and government deepen coconut production and value chain, Nigeria stands
to make about 20 billion Naira yearly through exports.
In 2019, Indonesia was the largest exporter of coconuts in the world, followed by Thailand and Vietnam. The three countries held about 23 per cent share of total exports, while Cote d’Ivoire, Malaysia, the Netherlands,
Mexico, Guyana and India, all together, made up 17 per cent of the total exports.
Despite the huge potential, total local production could only meet about 20 per cent of the national demand, making Nigeria a huge importer of coconut. In December 2021, the Director-General of the
By championing the idea of Judicial Commissions of Enquiry to look into the atrocities of SARS, government plans to imprison the people. Government intend to trap the people, then unleash the chain, and lock the door, and throw away the key.
Do not fall for it.
The reform of the police is a function of the structural redefinition of the state. It cannot be resolved by a Commission of Enquiry or the National Assembly - SARS. The Assembly has been consumed by greed. It cannot do good.
The character of the police is a derivative of the values that guide the state. The actions of the police that birth the rising protest is an interpretation of the character of the state. The killer SARS is a representation of Buhari’s character.
#ENDSARS: A SENATE PRESIDENT IN DIRE NEED OF EDUCATION
From the reaction of the leadership of the Senate, the ongoing agitation for a new Nigeria loses its essence following the acceptance and implementation of the “demands” of End-SARS-Movement.
I arrived at this interpretation after reflecting on the Thursday 15 October 2020 call by the President of the Senate, Mohammed Lawal for protesters to stop the movement to redemption having gained the confidence of government to disband the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).
Speaking in the senate, he argues:
“The government has responded, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad has been disbanded. All the five demands of the protesters have been accepted... I believe that when protesters’ demands are met, their goals should have been achieved. Therefore,
Members of the political leadership class in Nigeria are not selfish for pursuing their own good but because of their hatred of the common good. They are dead to the people because they live only for themselves.
This is the reason Nigerians must watch carefully the ongoing process to reform the police. Such a leadership cannot effect reforms in the general interest. They will engage in fireworks to show they are responsive.
They will come up with committees for reform, running from pillar to post to impress their angry people. Once tension is doused the situation gets worse. VIGILANCE!
To improve the character of this leadership requires courage and the conviction that a new order is possible.
Britain handed over the command of the Nigerian army to indigenous soldiers in 1965. The outgoing General Officer Commanding (GOC), Major General Welby Everald had preferred Brigadier Babafemi Ogundipe to succeed him,
but his recommendation was rejected leading to General Aguiyi Ironsi, the most senior officer taking charge of the army.
When another opportunity came for Ogundipe after the bloody July 1966 coup, he was overlooked again because it was felt he will not be able to control
soldiers from the north who were not ready to take orders from a Head of State of southern extraction.
The executioners of the July coup are Murtala Mohammed, Theophilus Danjuma, Martin Adamu, Shittu Alao, Musa Usman and Joe Garba and others. After a successful coup they wanted