Well I think in this case there are actually at least three of them: the Integrity of the decisions that are being made, the Ethics that are being brought to bear, and the Accountability. Now Ethics of course, it’s always about finding the balance, because we all know that … minds are increasingly focused on the economic impact of COVID-19, and that’s why you see this growing push for places of work to reopen. And in fact, if you will recall that yesterday the National Economic Council, which is chaired by the Vice President, set up a committee … chaired I think by the Delta State Governor and the Governors also of Lagos, Kano, Bauchi, Anambra, Plateau and the Federal Capital Territory’s Minister,

As I always say, IDEAS is about Integrity, Democracy, Ethics and Accountability. And what we’ve seen from our State Governments and the Governors who head the executive there, has been the range. I mean there’s the range from those who started off and said: “We have to take it seriously”. Obviously you have Lagos State – where we are – the response of the State Government, the Governor, the Commissioner for Health, they have all been commended,

I think that we have to look at the context in which this is occurring Aghogho, and the fact is that … we’ve seen that apart from the actual physical and clinical impact of the COVID-19 virus, the economic impact has been even worse. In fact in Nigeria’s case – I was going to call it a ‘double whammy’, but actually, if we look at the fact that first of all, the first whammy is the simple shut down of the economy. Economic activities ground to a halt during Lockdown, and even though the whole country was not locked down, by the time you take Lagos, Ogun and the Federal Capital Territory

Now next week, the 4th of May to be precise, Lagos, Ogun and the Federal Capital Territory would begin a modification of the Federal Government-imposed Lockdown. Now one sector whose voice has been somewhat muted in Nigeria’s battle against the Corona Virus Disease has been that of organised labour. As the country joins the rest of the world in marking International Workers’ Day today, let us consider whether there are any IDEAS – talking about issues bordering on Integrity, Democracy, Ethics and Accountability – of particular concern to workers and organisations set up to fight for their interests in the COVID-19 crisis.

I may just let you know Rotimi, that this week I was actually at the Electoral Institute of the Independent National Electoral Commission.   And I mention it because the topic that we discussed was one that has come up in relation to some of our previous programmes, and that was Vote Buying.  And, you know; what it is, why it’s happening, what is being done to prevent it. And it was an interesting exchange that I had at the Electoral Institute with some of the participants, and those who are particularly concerned with Electoral Reform.  But I think that what, the purpose of it is for us to see about, to be able to test the integrity of the election that’s coming.

Incumbency again has been, you use the power of the security agencies to go in massive force and so on.  So that, while we still see some of that, certainly in terms of the amount of ‘security’, that is put out, especially when we are having these individual gubernatorial elections.   But actually, we have not really seen it in terms of doing things that will make you very popular with the electorate, not just directly handing out bags of rice or tins of tomato paste or whatever.