The Nation Newspaper

Category: Monday

  • Danjuma: Letter or no letter!

    Theophilus Danjuma is by all reckoning, a well-respected Nigerian. He played very critical roles in the evolution of modern Nigeria state. As a former Chief of Army Staff and defence minister, he is deep rooted in the dynamics of our national security operations.

    Danjuma is reticent but frank. When he spoke on the conduct of the military in the continuing killings by Fulani herdsmen, he was bound to get the ears of the public both within and outside our shores.

    The former defence minister was in an offensive against the military accusing them of bias and harbouring an agenda in ethnic cleansing. Hear him “our armed forces are not neutral. They collude with the armed bandits to kill people, kill Nigerians. The armed forces guide their movements. They cover them. If you are depending on the armed forces to stop the killings, you will all die one by one”. He called on all those facing such attacks to defend themselves.

    These are very serious and weighty allegations. Their enormity must have so rattled the military high command that they did not waste time in responding. The Defence Headquarters said it was taking the allegations serious with a promise to investigate and bring to book any personnel found culpable.

    But the ministry of defence in a statement blamed the Taraba State government for allegedly not writing it on the alleged infractions by security personnel. They claimed not to have received any letter from the state government complaining of the alleged wrong doings. Rather, they got reports from Nigerians on misconduct of soldiers in clashes between farmers’ and herdsmen and those involved have been put through ‘disciplinary procedures’. For the ministry, government could not work with general comments or allegations if no specific report was made available to military authorities.

    Taraba State government however, came up with a number of documented instances the federal government and the military were informed about security breach and soldiers’ misconduct but were utterly ignored. The reading of this contention is that even if complaints on the activities of the military are in public domain, the authorities would still not act until they are documented and mailed to them. That would seem rather strange.

    If the military only acts on documented reports, one wonders the role of intelligence in security operations. And if quick responses to security emergencies have to await a formal letter that may well arrive after the harm has been done, of what use is that letter? So the entire argument about letters as the basis for action in situations lives and property are in grave danger cannot sway anyone. That is however, beside the issue.

    Before Danjuma spoke, the nation had been awash with allegations on the partial conduct of the military in some crisis situations. Farmers have serially alleged in Benue, Plateau and Taraba states that even when reports of impending attacks are given to the military posts around them, those attacks eventually take place without the same military coming to their aid. Before the killings at Nimbo, Enugu State, there were copious reports of the impending attack. The governor even held meetings with security chiefs who reassured they were ‘on top of the situation’. They were still on top of their imaginary situation when the herdsmen despoiled the community killing, maiming and destroying every house in sight. No aid came and no arrests were made.

    Operation Cat Race designed to arrest the wanton killings in the north central arrived with a baggage of strident criticisms. Both Benue and Taraba openly alleged that herdsmen who ran away after the killings in some of their communities for fear of reprisals made a triumphant return with their cows when the military exercise began and have since resumed attacks on vulnerable communities. They cite continuing killings in the face of the operation as evidence of failure of the exercise. So it not just right for the military to give the impression they are unaware of public perception of their roles in these clashes. Why Operation Cat Race would return with herdsmen and their cattle instead of maintaining the status quo until peace is guaranteed is at the centre of the allegations on collusion and cover up by Danjuma. And in issues of this nature, public perception is far more important than whatever impressions the military nurses about its conduct.

    Beyond this, it would appear the military is just scratching the surface of the very weighty and fundamental issues raised by Danjuma. Their reaction gives the impression the complaint is about isolated infractions by individual military actors. That is why they talked of disciplinary measures having been applied. That also accounts for the recrimination over letters or no letters.

    Danjuma is not concerned with acts of omission or commission by individual soldiers. He is very clear and unambiguous in his allegations. And all those that have spoken on behalf of the government failed to address the substantive issues to them. And it appears they are not even in a position to address them as they revolve around policy.

    He accused the armed forces of not being neutral; colluding and providing cover for the bandits to kill people and cover them up. This conjures the impression of a policy direction within the military. In effect, he is accusing the military of having firm instructions to back Fulani herdsmen in their attacks on farmers. He is not concerned with individual actions or inactions. The challenge is to locate the source of such policy direction if it really exists.

    The location and characterization of those in position to dish out such policies will aid understanding of the gravity of Danjuma’s case. Ironically, it is not an allegation that can either be wished away or resolved in a very casual manner. It is deep-rooted and will require a thorough inquisition and far-reaching measures to reassure the various constituents that the Nigerian military is truly Nigerian in name and actions.

    It is an uncanny coincidence that the allegations came a day after President Buhari issued stern warning against those he said were politicizing security issues. The president who spoke against the backdrop of suspicions over events leading to the abduction and return of the Dapchi school girls had warned of dire consequences for culprits. The Dapchi altercation pales into insignificance in the face of the accusations by Danjuma.  What Buhari would make of this, remains to be seen. It is not certain what the president meant by politicizing security matters. Irrespective of this, it is feared serious interrogation of unclear security measures may attract adverse consequences. We may as well prepare for the intolerance that characterized the misadventure of the military in the political process. Such threats have no place in a democracy as extant laws are sufficient to take care of any infraction. The president’s threat would seem an act of desperation given the welter of criticisms that have of recent trailed the actions of his government.

    The answer does not lie in threats but openness and deep introspection. The government must pause a while to see if it can read the mood of the nation. Much of the credibility issues the military are contending with hinge on the failure of appointments to reflect the heterogeneous nature of the country. It is no longer news that security hierarchy is populated almost entirely by people from a section of the country. How that will imbue public confidence in that institution is any persons’ guesswork. But their consequences are now manifesting.

    How does current public inquisition on security affairs differ from the acerbic and vitriolic attacks the last regime was subjected to? Yet, it did not issue threats. No less a person than the former governor of Adamawa State, Muritala Nyako had in his outlandish and inflammatory letter to northern governors accused that regime of contriving Boko Haram to depopulate the north. Northern elders equally alleged then most of the crises in the north were invented by those outside the zone who wanted to control it economically and politically. Now, we know better.

  • ‘A lot of man’

    Recently I had a conversation with a few political junkies over an event in which Asiwaju Bola Tinubu was going to be the toast. A fellow appraised the crowd size and quality and remarked, “that crowd is a lot.” In reply, I quipped, “Asiwaju is a lot of man.”

    We witnessed that March 29 as we have done in the past decade at the colloquium held to mark his birthday. This time it was his 66th. The event is seen as a sort of political tourism in Nigeria as well as fest of ideas, a pause to test the pulse of the nation.

    But for many, it is a place to be seen. The political who’s who attends. Governors stroll in, and so too their aides. Ministers waltz in. We could not miss the rollcall. For governors, see the list: Aregbesola, Akeredolu, Tambuwal, Abubakar, Ajimobi, Okorocha, Amosun et al. The ministers could not be missed even in their backrow: Rotimi Amaechi, Kayode Fayemi, mouthy Lai Mohammed and bellwether Babatunde Raji Fashola, also former governor of example in Lagos and a moving spirit behind the colloquium. Of course, the host governor Akinwunmi Ambode. The traditional rulers from Ife to Lagos were royally conspicuous. Also political wheel horses like Segun Osoba. For the second time, president Buhari was unmistakable in the birthday, although it was his third appearance if we count his 2015 attendance.

    The vice president stole the show as he ribbed the Jonathan-era corruption. His most potent attack being the N1 trillion heist that could have constructed most of the major roads in the country as well as the Second Niger bridge.

    It is Nigeria’s momentous individual birthday fest, for the powerful to smooch and preen. It was for a lot of man, the Jagaban.

  • Not like Jacob

    They returned to town like holy gangsters. They rolled in a wave of vans, laughed like cynics, brandished guns like an army of occupation, were hoodless in bravado and heedless of time in their reconquest. They did not fire a gun, but the town’s ears still echoed with their shots not long ago. Those shots that crippled the town, cowed any resistance and spirited away the nubile girls were enough memory. The people remembered them as warning shots when the outlaws returned.

    The Boko Haram goons at least deposited a huge number of the girls. But they acted as though they came to do the town folk a favour. They even took time to evangelise, preaching with the unblinking eyes of perverts. They were God’s impresarios. The Dapchi people waved in gratitude and some witnesses say the locals saw them more as heroes than our own soldiers.

    They fell in love with their conquerors. This is not strange. Rape victims have been known to adore their abusers. Like in the novel Season of Crimson Blossoms by Abubakar Adam Ibrahim where a woman falls for a robber in the north. Nigeria is an example. The British conquered us. Today, we worship the ground they walk on. We buy their clothes, their cars, their architecture, worship their gods, mimic their accent, flaunt their language, crave how they sing, where they sleep, how they govern. So, why should we expect a different attitude from the Dapchi people when their tormentors came calling again and returned their daughters they abused.

    Before the federal government takes credit, we should remember Mama Boko Haram who early gave us a hint of negotiations. Some conspiracy analysts begin with that. How come she quickly spoke with them and how quickly the girls have returned. The defence minister promised two weeks, and within a week they were in their parents’ bosoms. They also say, the soldiers were allowed out of town so the girl heist would work like a clock.

    They say it was all planned by the Buhari government to ridicule the Chibok girls fiasco and lift PMB as a rescue-in-chief. In an election season, what a blast! But is that enough argument? I am not buying. Those who peddle such conspiracy theories are giving this administration too much credit.

    It takes a quality of subtlety, sleight of hand and despatch to pull off such a plan. This administration does not have such qualities. This is the sort of thing we expect of a government with a James Bond temperament. This is a stiff-necked administration. They don’t ply sly. They go straight. They lie with sieves in their mouth; the truth leaks as they speak.

    If they organised the heist, it would mean they asked the soldiers to leave town, left the girls at school, cleared theBuhari  way for the goons to take the girls away. It would also mean they are that mean to their girls. This administration may stumble, may say the wrong things about herdsmen, and allow a clannish, perfidious sense of entitlement to fester. But I don’t see them working with the Boko Haram Group. It is a tendentious fantasy.

    Some past soldiers earn such cynical credits. The gap-toothed general, of course. He could have been accused, even if he could not do it. The tag, Maradona, reflected a circuitous sense of scheming. The Buhari crowd does not do circles.

    They did not do circles in the case of the Maina Scandal when the truth blew open like an offence of a GSS2 schoolboy. Neither the defence of the ever-bumbling attorney general could save the matter. Only a team that lacks cunning declares  IPO a terrorist group but not the herdsmen and their supporting groups.

    It is saying nothing about ethnic entrepreneur Kanu’s whereabouts whereas his colleagues are choking behind bars. The government can abide contradiction without blushing. It rolls behind bars the zealots of the Shiite Group in the north and locks up EL Zak Zaki even though we claim we are in a democracy. The idea of the rule of law is touted almost daily and with meretricious grandeur by spokesman Lai Mohammed.

    It is this sort of administration that will lie that it paid nothing to Boko Haram when international sources that know even said how much was paid. And only such an administration will show nervousness about it by arresting a journalist to disclose a source of information. They did it as though afraid that their close-knit circle had been infiltrated by newshounds.

    They also locked up former national security adviser and kept him behind bars. Everybody knew that it was against the law to keep a person in captivity when a judge has ruled against it.

    So, the Buhari administration does not really commit its sins like a James Bond. They quickly get caught. They are not capable of this sort of sleight of hand. They carry their hypocrisies on their sleeves.

    We have seen such things in the past. Recently, Obama plotted Osama’s execution. Obama is an intellectual. He also paraded his cabinet with subtle persons. He goes through serpentine routes. When the Bay of Pigs failed, many could not doubt that a man like John F. Kennedy, who confessed his love for the James Bond novels, was behind the attack on Castro.

    Richard Nixon did not like the Chilean leader Allende and worked his exit. His chief envoy Henry Kissinger said in character: “we cannot fold our arms and watch a country go communist because of the irresponsibility of its citizens.”

    Reagan was a swooping hawk. He invaded Grenada and took responsibility for it, and he expected the world not to believe him when he said he wanted to preserve American lives. His successor George Bush kidnapped Panama strongman Manuel Noriega. What do you expect from a former CIA chief?

    Disguise is a great feature of such moves. As a Jacob you must play Esau without getting caught. I am sorry, they don’t have such a Jacob. Meanwhile, let us wait for the release of the other girls, including the Christian faithful Leah Sharibu.

     

    Wild, wild Nigeria

    Theophilus Damjuma speaks with a sort of regal air, his eyes popping always as though about to issue a command. He carries the awe of a general that has, however, been diminished over the years because of what many know about his forays into filthy lucre. A business man and general do not mix nobly. Yet when he speaks, he whiplashes the wavelengths like the command on the walkie talkie. He did that last week when he delivered a vote of no confidence on an army of which he was once a chief. The army he led to foment a famous killing around Ibadan and despatch a government in the centre. He even after retirement became the exponent of army coups after they happened. He became a sort of general emeritus, a model in rebellion and paradoxically in discipline. In social circles, some saw him as a soldier and gentleman.

    When he said the soldiers are no longer neutral and everyone should take care of themselves, he delivered perhaps the most devastating blow on the government on this issue. I had wondered why it had taken this long for the man to speak. He spoke with fire and disdain, and he made it clear that we have lost confidence in the ability of the army to defend us. They are trading with our security and peace. The implication of what he is saying is that we should all arm ourselves if the army is looking the other way. He is advocating a balance of terror. If I am armed, you will think twice about coming to my home or neighbourhood. It may be your death march. Clinton armed the Muslims against the Serbs to end the Bosnian war. The Itsekiri-Ijaw bloodbath did not end until the Itsekiri built up their formidable arsenal. The Cold War did not boil over because of mutually assured destruction. No party was going to survive a war. So, the armouries were big but mute.

    Danjuma was warning that the scenario of everyone to himself would foment a wild, wild Nigeria. Better to avoid that. Wild, wild west in the U.S. afforded everyone a gun and a battle. It was a Nietzschean world where the superman won. If that happens here, we might as well say goodbye to Nigeria. Danjuma’s warning should be heeded before the curtain falls.

     

     

  • Dapchi: before we celebrate

    It is heart-refreshing 104 of the abducted Dapchi School girls have been freed by suspected Boko Haram captors. Whatever efforts that led to their freedom after a harrowing 33-day captivity is worth the while.

    The government said it was made possible through back-channel efforts with the help of some friends of the country without any ransom paid. But they were not forthcoming on the fate of six girls yet to be returned by the insurgents even as five of them were reported dead as they were ferried away. One girl identified as Leah Sharibu, a Christian, is still with the terrorists for refusing to denounce her religious faith.

    It is sad five of the innocent girls died due to stampede as the terrorists made away with them. Our hearts go to the parents of the poor girls. But the star of the abduction saga is Leah Sharibu, the Christian girl who in the face of death refused to denounce her religion. One can conjecture her feelings as she watched her school mates leave the detention camp. It was a real display of uncommon faith in her religion even in the face of death. May the almighty God protect her life in the hands of that criminal gang whatever their motive.

    Buhari regime is taking credit for facilitating the release. For them, it was the fruit of the president’s directive to security agencies to deploy everything possible to secure a quick release of the girls. One official was even beating his chest for the prompt release against what he described as the tardiness with which the previous regime handled the Chibok abduction. That could as well be. The government can take all the credit for the release of the girls. It is also at liberty to seek political capital of the processes culminating to their freedom.

    Before it celebrates; it must rise to the challenges which the abduction and subsequent freeing of the girls have elevated to public domain. The way these cloudy issues are resolved, will determine whether in all fairness, the government’s image has been enhanced or dented by the Dapchi saga. Its outcome is bound to colour perception and redirect attitude on the continuing war against the Boko Haram insurgency.

    First was the controversy over the withdrawal of troops from Dapchi shortly before the abduction. Initial reports had denied there was any such withdrawal. But the army was later to admit it withdrew troops to beef up its fighting strength at the Niger- Nigerian boarder where they had come under serious attack. The issue is still hanging.

    There was also the initial report by the Yobe State government that the abducted girls had been rescued by the army. That statement was recanted the following day by the same government citing inaccurate information fed it by an unnamed military source. That knot is yet to be untied. There was also the curious doubt by Governor Geidam on the veracity of the abduction even when parents of the girls and those on ground had incontrovertible evidence of what transpired.

    Why the governor who had announced the rescuing of the abducted girls by the military turned round to doubt the possibility of the abduction is still confounding. It raises posers regarding the source of his initial information and that which led him to doubt if there was any abduction at all. There are issues to tidy up here for the discerning public to be in a proper stead to ascribe any measure of credit to the government for its role in the tangle. Geidam requires serious interrogation on what led him to the irreconcilable positions he took when the abduction took place. It is either he is an absentee governor or he knew more than he made the public to believe for some reasons. Whichever the case, he failed to give a good account of his position as number one citizen of a state under serious security emergency.

    Again, just two days before the girls’ release, Amnesty International came out with a damning report alleging military authorities and the police received multiple calls up to four hours before the Boko Haram raid but did practically nothing to avert the abduction. It gave a graphic account of the movement of the terror group, the places they stopped and the time lag that would have enabled the attack to be checkmated but all to no avail.

    But the military denied the allegations; questioning their motive accusing them of spreading falsehood to whip up sentiments, demoralize friendly nations and others collaborating with the security echelon in the fight. It challenged Amnesty International to make public the officials called and the phone numbers used to contact them. When you pair Amnesty International’s allegations with the withdrawal of troop prior to the attack, they inevitably point to a predictable direction.

    As the altercation was still trending in public space, there emerged the sudden news of the girls’ release. That appeared to have pushed the controversy to the back seat. But it struck as a weird coincidence especially given the very casual manner the girls’ release was done. Accounts from government and independent sources had it that the insurgents drove into Dapchi town in a convoy of vehicles and dropped off the girls. Villagers said they had copious interaction with the insurgents, took pictures with them with their handsets in very relaxed mood. The zoomed off after spending not less than an hour with villagers.

    Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed corroborated this when he disclosed that one condition the terrorists gave was they would drop off the girls where they picked them. That was the only condition to the negotiation and we either take it or leave it. For this, security had to be stood down to allow the release take place without endangering the lives of the girls. That appears a good answer to why the military could not confront them.

    Sadly, the circumstance of the release has thrown up more riddles than it can possibly answer. There are serious issues with the claim that there was no other condition to the negotiation except the patronizing demand by the insurgents to drop off the girls where they picked them. That seems a curious condition. They had to fuel their chain of trucks at their expense, wade through their fortress only to drop off the girls. Such act of charity is uncommon in negotiations involving such a complex, very sensitive and dangerous warfare. It casts the terrorists as negotiating from a point of weakness when they were in very strong position to dictate the terms. It requires further explanation.

    Aside ransom, it will remain largely curious that the insurgents brazenly drove out of their camp in a convoy of trucks into Dapchi with the full knowledge of the military and back without our security forces having inkling of their hiding places. Is it possible for the terrorizing contingent to operate within our shores or outside of it with such impunity without the knowledge of their hiding places by our internal security or the Multi-national Joint Task force?

    Before now, we had been told that Boko Haram no longer occupies any territory in this country. From whence did they take off and anchor at the completion of their mission? And why have their armada of trucks and military arsenal continued to escape the prying eyes of the security forces?

    The unfortunate outing casts serious slur on the war against Boko Haram. More than ever before, it has reinforced accusations that the terror group is a protuberance of political and economic agenda masquerading under religious garb. At the point we are, the war has already atrophied. With the touted friendly and patronizing disposition of the insurgents, an end to it should be a fait accompli. There is no reason for the war again if the Dapchi comedy denotes its current form.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Smell of corruption

    Now that a Senate insider has given a curious public an idea of how things are run in the country’s upper legislature, what next? Senator Shehu Sani had told the world that every senator got N13.5m monthly to run things. This fantastic figure is in addition to their salaries, he said.

    Public reaction to the information was predictably negative because it didn’t make sense that senators got so much to cover so-called running costs. But Senate spokesman, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, had defended the indefensible figure, saying, “Almost all holders of elective and appointive offices have running costs allocated to their offices and that cannot be said to be part of their salaries.” Abdullahi’s defence didn’t help matters.

    Talking of reaction, Sani was quoted as saying during a radio programme on March 18: “I know that I will lose friends and colleagues within the very establishment that I serve… I know things are not going to be easy because when I made the disclosure, there was explosion, even right in my own house.”  So, things may not be easy for Sani at work and at home because of the revelation.

    Why would Sani lose friends and colleagues in the Senate because he spoke the truth about a matter of public interest that had bothered the public for a long time, and which still bothers the public? Why would this particular truth hurt? The answer is simple. Those who have been exposed won’t like it because the exposure showed them in a bad light.

    It is interesting that Sani said: “The National Assembly is made up of distinguished personalities – doctors, lawyers, engineers, academics and all who have made it in life. But because of this culture of secrecy and silence, people who found themselves in the National Assembly are criminalised and stigmatised. The dome of the National Assembly is being seen to house people of questionable character and integrity. So, what I did was to rescue the honour and credibility of the parliament by removing the veil of secrecy to bring it once and for all to an end.”

    Sani got it right by exposing things. But he got it wrong by thinking that it would help to show the senators in a good light.  Revealing what the senators get, which had been kept secret for so long, showed the Senate’s dirty underbelly.  Sani said: “Everybody collects this money, but the rule is that when you collect, you keep quiet.” Is this morally correct? Is this morally commendable?

    It is a striking coincidence that the former Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriation, Abdulmumin Jibrin, who was controversially suspended for singing about alleged rot and stench in the House of Representatives, has been allowed to resume his legislative role at a time when Senator Sani has just shockingly revealed what senators get for running costs.

    In an interview published on October 9, 2016, Jibrin had declared: “The corruption in the House of Representatives is massive. I have not exposed more than 10 percent of the corruption going on in the House of Representatives. It is that bad.”

    Jibrin had added: “I have said a whistleblower is not necessarily a saint. But people often support him (a whistleblower) because what he reveals is usually beneficial to all. This issue is beyond Jibrin.  I had written a petition against the Speaker and three other principal officers in the House. I am talking about people who committed budget fraud of N40bn, another budget fraud worth about N20bn and there is another budget fraud with a cumulative sum of N284bn. I am talking about a person who diverted Federal Government projects to his farm; short-changed members in the N10bn Sustainable Development Goal projects of 2015; used subterranean means to create a new House rule that is the subject of litigation; and a man who collects rent from multiple sources. I have also exposed the fact that members are collecting votes for running costs. I am not saying money should not be voted for lawmakers’ running costs. The point is that this money is (sometimes) diverted to private pockets.”

    Talking of running costs, each member of the House of Representatives gets between N8m and N12m for running costs monthly, findings published on March 18 by SUNDAY PUNCH revealed.  The revealing report said: “A member representing one of the federal constituencies in Ondo State, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: “Our (monthly) running cost is not stable. It fluctuates. There were some months that we collected N8m. We are supposed to be collecting N12m every month but most of the time we make do with whatever they give us. There are things we don’t even know in the entire arrangement because the shortfall will not be included in our subsequent allocations. The whole thing is shrouded in secrecy. Only the presiding officers know the correct situation.”

    What does it take to run the offices of federal legislators? How much is surplus to requirements? How do the legislators produce evidence that the money for running costs was spent for running costs?

    Sani said: “I will continue to collect as others are collecting too, until there is a law or there is an adjustment to say we should collect half of what we now collect. I will continue to collect because I am not collecting it for myself. I am collecting it for my people…The good thing is that the Senate has been courteous to me because as soon as I said it, the spokesperson of the Senate confirmed it. That is maturity. And for now, there has been no sanction. I don’t know whether tomorrow or next there will be. I tried to make my colleagues to understand, though many don’t want to…”

    None of the legislators in the National Assembly may be ready for change, given what they enjoy because things are the way they are. But change is necessary. How can change happen?   Sani bragged:  ”To even open up is a monumental step… For me, I believe I have done my own best… The next step is for pressure to come from Nigerians.”

    The beauty of democracy is that it gives Nigerians the power to do something about what they want to do something about. The question is: Will they do something about this smell of corruption?

  • Ngige’s one-man show

    It is curious that six months after the appointment of a new board for the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, is in no hurry to inaugurate the board. President Muhammadu Buhari appointed Chief Frank Kokori as Chairman of NSITF.

    About four months after Ngige’s odd delay, Kokori, a trade unionist and former secretary-general of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), protested during the 14th edition of the Gani Fawehinmi Annual Lecture/Symposium held in Lagos on January 15.

    Kokori said: “Today, my rights are being abridged by a minister. You have this Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) where Nigerian workers and employers contribute money to, their pensions, their gratuities, their compensations are all there. Anytime they put a board in place, the board will almost eat the whole money. Now they sacked the board, a woman was the chairman; they say they are looking for her…The government, in its wisdom, when Nigerian labour and organised private sector, NECA, went to meet the president and said, please this is our board, reconstitute this board for us…we have two members, NECA has two members, Central Bank has one member, just like that, and three executive directors, we want to protect our money.”

    Kokori continued:  “In September 2017, the Minister of Labour, Chris Ngige, phoned me and congratulated me that the president has made me the chairman of the NSITF. I should come to Abuja for us to negotiate the inauguration. Since September…I go to Abuja every day. Ngige now runs the board. A board that was set up, where I am the chairman, I now go and beg Ngige every day. Let us swear in…he will say tomorrow he is going to bury his grandmother. The next day, he is going to a naming ceremony. Ngige has no time to swear in the board. He was busy employing hundreds and hundreds of his own community people until recently they had to stop him…Up till today, four months after I was appointed by the president Ngige runs the NSITF singlehandedly and as a minister, and he does what he likes. This is what we call impunity.”

    A month later, Ngige inaugurated a nine-member Administrative Panel of Inquiry (API) into the finances of NSITF, saying that the move was in line with the Buhari administration’s war against corruption. Was it a response to Kokori’s protest?

    Ngige said: “The last Board and Administration of the NSITF left negative trails inimical to any advancement and progress for both the human and infrastructural components of the NSITF. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had discovered various acts of fraudulent diversions from the Federal Government and Private Sector Contributions amounting to N62.3 billion as at 2015, allegedly perpetrated by the past board and management staff of the NSITF.”

    It is noteworthy that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arraigned a former NSITF managing director, Umar Munir Abubakar, and four others for alleged diversion of N18bn of the said money. The EFCC has also questioned and detained a former NSITF chairman, Dr. Ngozi Ojeleme, for alleged diversion of over $48m from the agency’s account.

    After Ngige inaugurated the API, a report said an attempt was made to bribe the minister. It quoted a source as saying: “In the attempt to stop the administrative probe, some of those implicated sent an emissary to the minister to forget the past and gloss over the fraud which borders on diversion of PAYEE, pension funds and other remittances. They offered a $4million bribe cash to be paid in two tranches to halt the inquiry and spare the suspects. They were really desperate to cover up. The minister rejected the bait and told the front of the suspects that he would never be part of any under-the-table deal to cover up the looting of workers’ entitlements. The desperation made the minister suspicious that there was more to the fraud in the system than meets the eye. We believe the administrative inquiry will assist the government to uncover the rot in NSITF. “Ngige reportedly confirmed the bribe offer. Who tried to bribe him?  Why did he not get those involved arrested?

    It looked like a story to justify the delay in inaugurating the Kokori-led board. The quoted source said: “Actually, the ongoing probe of NSITF delayed the inauguration of the new board of the agency headed by Comrade Frank Kokori. In fact, going by the latest revelations, some labour leaders have been fingered in the scam. These leaders were discovered to have influenced the nomination of one or two members of the board in order to cover up their tracks. Some members of the new board need security checks in the light of the revelations from the investigation by the EFCC. There is no way the new board will be inaugurated in the present circumstances in NSITF. We need to clean up the system for the new board to have a better take-off.”

    What this means is that Ngige’s one-man show will continue. Observers have noted that without a proper board, there are serious issues that cannot be properly addressed. For instance, alleged wrong employment of persons that are 50 years old and above and alleged payment of monthly salaries to some people who had retired and were drawing pension  but were given fresh employment and were currently earning salaries.  It is said that a significant number of the affected people are from Ngige’s ethnic group, so he would not allow action to be taken. Another allegation against Ngige:  “He also directed us to send the letters of the employed staff which we refused to release at our end to his office. Let’s see what he wants to do with the letters.”

    In addition, there is the issue of the report of proper placement, which is reportedly gathering dust on Ngige’s table.  There is also the story of alleged secret employment into the already bloated workforce of the Fund, which is said to be ongoing.  A worried NSITF employee said: “My worry is that some of us with Retirement Savings Account with Trustfund are in the soup. Management is in arrears of funding our PFA.”

    The question is:  For how long will Ngige continue to waste time by not inaugurating a proper board for NSITF?

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Yusuf and his brothers

    It was a sign with an enigma. Against the backdrop of an empty street, on a white, slightly billowing sheet, its words conveyed a mysterious injunction: EVERY BENUE YOUTH IS A YUSUF. The young men who held the sign imparted a look of protesting sobriety. The president was visiting to mourn their state’s dead. The young men were picketing. The nation’s number one citizen was ensconced in meeting with Governor Ortom and other heavyweights. The youths walked like outcasts outside.

    A funeral air had draped Makurdi again over 73 deaths on whose behalf mourning ceremonies have mounted on mourning rituals. Enter governors. Enter elders. Enter opportunists and rhetoric. Enter Obasanjo. Exit common sense. The sadness has become more political than tears. More funeral than funereal.

    But who is Yusuf? In the Christian ambience of Benue State, you are bound to see more Josephs than Yusufs. But, in spite of the look of quiet defiance, it was a call to brotherhood. We have had two significant Yusufs in our recent history. One had it as surname, and the other as first name. The former’s name is bound to violence. Mohammed Yusuf was the founder and trigger of Boko Haram. The other Yusuf was unknown until he became a victim of violence. An apolitical violence, a violence of leisure and commuting, on a bike that tossed him to the headlines. The nation learned that he is Yusuf Buhari, the son of the Muhammadu Buhari of Aso Villa. Thankfully, the violent Yusuf is dead, although his ghost hoisted flags, wields guns, kidnaps young girls and hides bombs in nubile bosoms.

    We want to exorcise the Yusuf of violence and embrace the Yusuf of healing, of a rebound from the territory of death and mourning.

    Suddenly, we had two men with antipodal backgrounds bearing the same name. Shakespeare would have chuckled with his “what is in a name” quip. The Benue youths could be saying that their young are also like the president’s son. The president’s son fell and rose up. He whipped up sympathy, was whisked to a hospital and when that did not suffice, he flew to Europe. A sycophant not only ran a newspaper advert to show a heart of flesh for the president, a minister received the healed son of his Excellency at the Airport. A burlesque show of official duty worthy of a comedy of errors.

    But the protesters are saying that their youths never enjoyed such compassion. They are saying, when did anyone pick up any Benue youth who was maimed, or on life support, and exhibited the same quality of care or concern? None of them went to the hospital abroad. No minister visited them with anything close to the concern that Yusuf enjoyed. Fewer consolations than visits to IDP camps.

    In a sense, they were also thanking Mr. President for coming. He had been flayed for not coming when tempers rose and tears flowed like brooks. But he has come at last, and they had an opportunity to say “thank you but remember us. We are like your son.” They must have had in mind his remarks to the elders for the president to live with their neighbours. The neighbours are like Yusuf. It is a call not only for compassion about herdsmen on the prowl, but a more national call for accommodation. About appointments, about jobs, about healthcare, about a sense of national belonging. They are also addressing him as a father, a plea of sons to a patriarch. About taking lawmakers with reckless N13.5 million monthly allowances.

    Significantly, though, it is a call across faiths. Yusuf is a Muslim. His Christian counterpart is Joseph. The Koran and Bible have a similar story of the same person. It is not the province of this essay to say who stole whose story. The plagiarist, who will stand accused of holy fraud, is a subject that has engaged historians, theologians, priests and scholars.

    Few insights can rival a series of novels titled, Joseph and His Brothers where Nobel Laureate Thomas Mann recasts the tale in entrancing passages that compare with the most ambitious of all novels, War and peace.

    The story has a young man accused of a coat of many colours. That may lie at the bottom of the story of the sign on the Makurdi street. A coat of many colours is a rainbow coalition, a metaphor for a nation of varied outlooks. The Afemai, the Fulani, the Idoma, Tiv, Kanuri, Yoruba, Itsekiri, Igbo, Ijaw, etc. They are the many colours in the coat of Yusuf. If every Benue youth is a Yusuf, it means every Benue youth is human, and should enjoy their creature comforts.

    Yusuf or Joseph was a victim of violence. Just like Buhari’s Yusuf and Benue youths. His brothers threw him for dead in a pit. Some Benue youths did not survive the onslaughts of the marauders, but others who did want a lifeline. The brothers thought he was gone for good and a father who did not understand what his brothers were doing mourned a son who still had his life intact.

    So, the president should go beyond his kinsmen around him and find the truth about sufferings in the land. He exhibited a “warm,” childlike naivety when he confessed that he did not know that the inspector general of police had flouted his order to remain in Benue State. He promptly issued him a query. I wonder how many of such acts of disobedience abound in the presidency and cabinet. Yusuf or Joseph’s father Yakubu or Jacob relied solely on facts from his sons. He trusted them too much. He might have saved him from the pit if he had other ways of knowing.

    But the youths are a metaphor for the vulnerable. The children who could not hide, the old who could not run, the women hunched over by rapists. They are also Yusufs. It is also for those whose houses are now ashes, whose livelihoods are history and their hopes lie like the wastes of their farms.

    But hopes flash on the horizon. If Yusuf Buhari rose from the perils of a bike accident and is up and about, then the Benue youth and other vulnerable Nigerians can cheer. After all, the Yusuf of the Koran and Joseph of the Bible rose from servitude to be served in the palace. Yusuf Buhari is in the palace today, so the Benue youth and all Nigerians aspire to such luxury. If not exactly in the palace, at least they should live in a country where all are treated equal in jobs, beliefs, tribes and associations.

    The sign was thus a good sign that calls to mind Hester Prynne in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter. A girl carries a permanent sign on her chest to draw attention to her sin, but in the end, it is pricks the society’s conscience and hypocrisy. The Benue youth’s sign holds similar power. It is either we see it as a rebuke or a call to harmony. The choice is ours, especially the president’s.

     

     

     

  • Whither Lalong’s peace roadmap?

    One key function by President Buhari during his visit to Plateau State in continuation of his tours to troubled states was the launching of a document titled ‘Plateau State Roadmap to Peace’. Ostensibly, the book detailed strategies and efforts by the state government to guarantee lasting peace within its domain.

    For the state information commissioner, Yakubu Dati, the book is a strategic document that will drive and showcase the blueprint to sustainable peace in the state and institutionalize milestones so far achieved in the peace process. In sum, the document is recipe for ending the cycle of violence in Plateau.

    Apparently buoyed by the envisaged success in peace-building as itemized in the book, Governor Simon Lalong played down the essence of Buhari’s visit and proceeded to have the president commission some of his projects.  Neither was any serious effort made to draw the attention of the president to the recurring killings that have defied solution nor was he made to visit the scenes of the conflagration that has left many killed and communities despoiled with villagers rendered refugees in their homeland.  Buhari was later to commend the governor for his development strides and efforts in restoring peace in the state.

    Ironically, as government officials were busy revelling on the questionable success they had achieved during Buhari’s visit, hell was let loose in the Bokkos Local Government Area as herdsmen again attacked communities leaving in their trail death, sorrow and awe. The governor was so put off by the sad development that he had to sack the chairman of that local government caretaker committee.

    As if to prove that the solution to the festering crises had little to do with the sacked council chairman, the herdsmen again attacked many communities in the Bassa Local Government Council killing scores. And as plans were afoot to give them mass burial, they attacked again leaving 26 people dead. So distressing was the situation that a local cleric who conducted the mass burial of the 26 killed in Dundu, Rev. Jerry Datim flayed Lalong for giving false report on the existing peace in the state when the reverse is the case. He accused the governor of making merry with Buhari during his visit when suspected Fulani herdsmen were busy killing their people in the villages.

    Plateau State council of traditional rulers toed the same line when they deprecated the boldness of the killers in striking even on the day the president was still on their soil. For them, it is a matter of regret that “when the president was still here, there were very serious killings in the Bokkos and Bassa Local governments particularly in the Irigwe chiefdom that is very close to where the president was”.

    As if that was not enough, the killings have continued with the death of two soldiers and two mobile policemen among several others in Dung Kasa, Rafiki and Dutse Kura communities of Bassa Local Council. Lalong has been compelled by the enormity of the killings to impose a dusk to dawn curfew in the local council. He accused some imaginary enemies of rupturing the peace in the affected local government councils.

    With the turn of events, those who criticize Lalong for down-playing the enormity of the security challenges in the state when Buhari visited are not crying wolf. It remains largely cloudy why the killings and plight of the displaced did not take the centre stage of discussions as Buhari visited. What we got instead was a conspiracy of silence on the security emergency and unbridled obsession to impress the president that the governor was performing. So, the president left with the erroneous impression that issues to the killings were being well handled.

    By focusing on projects instead of the security issues that compelled the president to the state, Lalong lost a good opportunity to identify with the plight of his people. Buhari has been criticized for embarking on such trips belatedly. He was also accused of partisan political motive. Lalong proved all that right. He is apparently focusing on his re-election bid and would not allow anything that could pitch him on collision course with the president. He places higher premium on the allure of playing the good boy at the expense of the lives of his people.

    In saner climes where the sovereignty of the electorate is respected, such posturing could come with adverse repercussions. But not here! So leaders could afford to displace the interests of their constituents with their own self-serving interests. But Lalong has not been forthcoming on solutions to the festering crises between Fulani herdsmen and farmers in Plateau State that has lost immeasurably both in human and material capital to the conflict.

    Lalong it was who remarked at the height of the Benue killings that he had warned Governor Samuel Ortom against the implementation of the anti-open gazing law. He was later to apologize for that insensitive statement at a time many had lost their lives to the senseless killings. Irrespective of that apology, the statement exposed his inner mind in no little way. The reading one had of that episode is that he postured as one who had a better handle to the crisis than his counterpart in Benue.

    Perhaps, that better handle is encapsulated in the roadmap to peace which he got the president to launch with much fanfare. Though one is not privy to the critical details of that document, events have since shown in very quick succession that that paper work holds no solution to the killings. Not with the brazen mayhem and despoliation of communities in the Bokkos and Bassa local government councils. Not with the turn of events that now compelled the same governor to impose a curfew in Bassa just as Buhari left the state. Not with the killing of soldiers, mobile policemen and hapless villagers by the rampaging herdsmen. Whither the much touted roadmap to peace?

    When Lalong recalled his advice to Ortom on the anti-open grazing law, the impression created was that the killings in Benue were because of that law. The Inspector-General of Police Idris Ibrahim cued into the same warped reasoning when he asked governors to prioritize the establishment of cattle ranches before enacting anti-grazing laws to avert conflict between farmers and herdsmen. For him, it is only when ranches are established that herders can be arrested and punished for rearing in the open.

    Toeing the same disjointed format, the Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan-Ali had fingered alleged blockage of grazing routes and the anti-open grazing law for some of the immediate causes of the killings in some states. With this biased mind-set, it is little surprising why the killings have defied solution. It is also not surprising Idris failed to relocate to Benue when directed by the president. How can when he already made up his mind that the killings will only abate when states establish ranches. How can Dan-Ali be expected to do the needful when he shares the same sentiments? These are the issues to contend with and they are at the heart of the inability of the federal government to rein in the killing herdsmen.

    Since Plateau is yet to come up with an anti-open grazing law, where do we now locate the blame for the continued orgy of violence and senseless killings in that state? If that law was the issue, Plateau would not have been thrown into the current mess. What of the killings last week in Ebonyi State that has no grazing routes and the mowing down of 26 people in Kogi State?  Why is it getting increasingly difficult for our security architecture to disarm the gun toting herdsmen, some of whom are said to be foreigners?

    Yet, the same police boss wants all vigilante groups that have been complementing government’s efforts on security matters to be disarmed. Disarming the vigilante in the face of the armada of violent technology, sophistication and near invincibility of the herdsmen would amount to further exposing the vulnerable communities to grave danger. It is bound to be counterproductive.

    The key challenge is for security agencies to disarm the herdsmen of their sophisticated weaponry. If that is achieved, the brazenness of their attacks and casualty level that usually trail them would have been largely curtailed. But this objective will remain largely illusory as long as Idris and Dan-Ali continue to rationalize the killings. Is it surprising that the police boss flouted express order from the president to relocate to Benue at the heat of the crises even as the killings are still escalating by the day? That another mass burial has just been concluded in that state, speaks volumes.

  • Soldier envy

    Ike Ekweremadu is not a colourful man. He is not like a Bukola “Eleyinmi” Saraki, who once buried his extremities in his voluminous agbada in homage to the Village Headmaster hero. Neither is the number-two man in the Senate blessed in the art of rhetoric. But you don’t always need such attributes to stir attention if you can string words together that unleash fireballs.

    So, the deputy Senate President, with his bland looks and undistinguished diction, hinted that the temperament of our politics may provide temptations to the martial impulses of the men of the barracks. Our wish, though, is that the barrack habitués forbid Oscar Wilde’s notion: “The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it…I can resist everything but temptation.”

    Ike was at the receiving end of quite a few flacks. But so was the late Gani Fawehinmi, who saw the vainglory of the political elite with nostalgia for the men of the gun against whom he had railed and duelled more than any politician alive.

    But what first struck me was that Ike was not looking inward enough. It is not that we were courting the soldier but that we were already the soldiers. Before we lay claim to being democrats, we were soldiers and we never made the turn to popular will. We have acted more as the cousins of the barracks than we probably know. Even Ike should have looked at his position. He did not get there without a coup. He and Oloye’s scion mimed the soldier. They plotted under inky darkness, hatched and announced in a dawn of impunity. Party decorum was ousted. Legislative regulations out the door. Those who live in legislative houses should not toss stones.

    Even if the soldier handed us a limping document as a constitution, we saw ourselves in the mirror. Ugly, subversive, circumlocutory, corrupt and cowering to the worst of our culture. Rather than improve it, we looked at it as a pig at a sty. We embraced even if a vocal minority has continued to hack away at its fidelity to the era of the gun.

    So, we are suffering from soldier envy. The Obj era was that on many occasions. First, we brought quite of few of such men into the body politic. Obj, Buhari, Danjuma, Mark, IBB et al. They held the reins of state. The horse of politics neighed in obedience. We heralded from behind. Obj became the baba of politics and relished it as though he were a general of democracy, abiding that contradiction as he spoke and dished out policy.

    If the soldiers hanged Ken Saro Wiwa, Obj responded with the Barbarity of Odi. If IBB created and collapsed political structures, we also had ours. We had to trump  Plateau State House of Assembly and impeach a governor with a fraction of the members. The state of emergencies in a number of states told us our politicians were not only in love with rascals, the centre was happy to rack them to pieces. Obj’s great tool was the war on corruption. He had what historians call Richard Nixon’s enemies’ list. He had the governors who did not flinch at his Neanderthal habits. Not only governors but also lawmakers. He had a ravenous appetite for ejecting leaders of the National Assembly. Politics was like death march for his foes.

    The guillotine list was spectacular. Chuba Okadigbo’s case still rings from his grave. He also removed the PDP chairman who is now agriculture minister Audu Ogbeh.

    He brought the language of warfare to politics and designated the 2007 polls a matter of “do or die.” Lagos polls of that year survived the bandit huddles and the then governor of example Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) became helmsman while the Owu chief gawped.

    In this era, we have seen quite a few dalliances with the ways of the soldier. Sambo Dasuki, who lived by impunity under Jonathan, is still behind bars against court order. El Zak Zaki is probably asphyxiating in detention even when the law says he should be out. They are no different from the fates of Decrees Two and Four victims who languished behind bars at the mercies of the same Muhammadu Buhari and IBB.

    It is not just these very stark examples. We are seeing the examples in the way politicians act in office. State houses of assembly have become zombies of the governors. Local government chairmen act like little monarchs while a few governors carry themselves as though they have attained what Chinese leader Xi just secured for himself: lifetime in power. They forget, as the Greek poet wrote, “as streams are, power is.” Former United States President Bill Clinton was asked about one of his great marvels about power. He said, “time passes.”

    A governor recently showed me a quote he works by and keeps him humble, and that was the line from a person who accompanied the Roman emperor in the midst of hurrahs and adoration. The person whispered in the emperor’s ear: “You are just a man.” Tyrants like Caligula and Nero flushed such wisdoms aside. Many of our governors forget that until they are out of circulation and no one stops to stoop at their clay feet anymore. They walk the streets in the solitude of solicitude.

    The tempestuous governor of Kaduna State hews down the house of a senator. He owes no one any apologies. It is his power and he uses it with a flourish. Our politicians forget that the first principle of power is restraint.

    As Russian playwright Chekhov wrote in his great play The Cherry Orchard, a “giant should not use his power like a giant.”

    Herdsmen are on a rampage. They hold guns and kill innocents. In Abraka, a farmer was gunned down while his wife fled. Some governors sponsor militias in self-defence. A party gives its chairman a year extension without the backing of the rules. They will make the law to canonise the crime.

    The greatest military quality of our democracy is power centralisation. So, all the resources flow from the centre. Our democracy is like the military chain of command. When Ironsi promulgated decree 34, he was accused of centralising power. But his critics in the military and civil society who took over since have felt in love with Ironsi’s iniquities. So, we have a democracy that envies the soldiers sway and majesty.

    We are like the character in Ford Maddox Ford novel, The Good Soldier. A cuckolded man watches with envy as a man makes love to his wife. We are in love with our conquerors, the army. In the same way we love the white man. First, he conquered us, then we are trying to outdo him in his own competencies: the way he dresses, eats, makes money, organises society, wars and even dies.

    Ike and his political elite should first purge themselves of the soldier’s way.  We don’t have to worry so much about their return. The ghost is already in the house. You made love to her last night.

  • A crisis like a curse

    Something interesting   happened in Benin, Edo State, on March 9. “Hundreds of native doctors converged on the Oba of Benin’s palace,” a report said. The Benin king, Oba Ewuare 11, was quoted as saying: “You native doctors whose business is to subject people to oath of secrecy and encouraging evil acts in the land, you have to repent, stop doing it. This is not a joking matter and if you do not repent, you’ll see the repercussions.”

    Oba Ewuare 11 said Governor Godwin Obaseki had pleaded with him to do something about the state’s negative image as the number one state for international human trafficking. The embarrassment had become unbearable, said the respected traditional ruler, adding that while the palace had nothing against the practice of native medicine, it would not accept a situation where native doctors used their positions to “perpetrate evil in the land through aiding and abetting human trafficking.”

    The report said: “He cursed human traffickers and native doctors who subject Benin sons and daughters to oaths of secrecy…He then directed the native doctors present to revoke the curses and oaths already placed on trafficked victims.”

    It may well be a major moment in a major battle. According to the report, “Those who took part in the swearing exercise were priests from various shrines in the state such as the Ohen Okhuae, Ohen Ovia, Ohen noriyekeogba, Ohen Ake, Ohen Niwuo, native doctors, Ohen Sango,  Odionwere, Iwueki and the  Enigies.”  Afterwards, Oba Ewuare 11 declared: “We want to use this medium to tell those who are under any oath of secrecy that they are now free. We revoke the oath today.”

    Governor Obaseki commended the king’s move, saying, “It is a royal endorsement of the state government’s fight against human trafficking, illegal migration and other crimes in the state.” He added:  “Some priests and native doctors will adjust their ways because there are instances where some of these priests and native doctors have breached their codes of practice and are involved in the illegal trade.”

    It is an open secret that victims of international human trafficking are usually under oath administered by priests and native doctors to ensure that they remain under the control of the traffickers who usually exploit them. It is also an open secret that  priests and native doctors provide services to human traffickers to protect them and boost their evil business.

    The UN Protocol on Trafficking defines trafficking in humans as “all acts related to recruitment, transport, sale or purchase of individuals through force, fraud or other coercive means, for the purpose of exploitation.”

    A  Roundtable on Migration and Human Trafficking organised by the Nigerian Senate in Benin City on February 26 gave further insight into the scale of the problem. Senate President Olusola Saraki, who said the Senate was ‘losing sleep’ over irregular migration and human trafficking in the country, painted a thought-provoking picture at the event:  “Human trafficking is third in the ignoble hierarchy of the commonly occurring crimes in Nigeria, according to UNESCO…Nigeria accounts for the world’s highest number of irregular migrants going through the Agadez Route. Our citizens represent the fifth largest number of migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea into Europe.”

    Saraki also said: “The number of Nigerian females arriving in Italy alone increased 600-fold in just three years. 10,000 Nigerians are estimated to have lost their lives on the perilous journey in five months of last year alone. We have seen the bleak images of coffins of 26 Nigerian girls, who were laid to rest in Italy last November. This is what brings us today to ancient Benin.”

    It is a measure of the crisis and a measure of the need for remedial action that the Senate’s forum was followed by the king’s intervention. An account said: “Many hundreds of young Nigerian girls are trafficked to Europe and Asia every year, where they are put to work in brothels and strip clubs, or sent out to prostitute themselves in the streets… These victims of trafficking often have to endure physical and psychological abuse and are under continuous threats of physical harm or deportation.”

    It is noteworthy that a Nigerian victim of international human trafficking narrated her harrowing experience during the Senate’s forum which featured victims’ testimonies.  A report said: “The victim was 19 when she was trafficked from Edo State to Russia and forced into prostitution for two years… Prostitution is illegal in Russia… “They told me I was going into prostitution for six months,” she said. “I was going there to make money to further my education. We had to sleep with different kinds of men. It was on the street. We were standing on the road.”

    The report continued: “The victim said she, alongside other trafficked Nigerian girls, usually left home by 3 p.m. to stand on the streets, soliciting for sex, till 3 a.m. the next day…They were forced to have sex even when on menstruation, she said…“We paid our madam for food, clothes, and also contributed money for the house rent. We bought the condoms ourselves.” The victim said she eventually decided to quit prostitution, and was able to escape to Nigeria without her international passport through the help of a Nigerian she identified as “Mr. Ken”. But before then she was able to pay her “madam” $15,000 out of the $50,000 she was expected to pay in order to buy back her freedom in Russia.”

    Usually, there is a priest or native doctor in the picture whose role is to administer an oath to make the victim keep to her “madam’s” terms in the foreign land. The victim would have been made to believe that breaking the oath would bring terrible consequences. Victims have said that they took oaths involving parts of their bodies, which were supposed to keep them tied to those who facilitated their journeys mainly to Europe where they became sex workers and had to buy back their freedom.

    The report further said: “She said she regretted her trip to Russia, adding that she wouldn’t have thought about it in the first place if she had had the opportunity to go to school in Nigeria. She appealed to Edo State government to encourage young girls to go to school or learn skills.”

    The paucity of opportunities is at the heart of the matter. It is obvious that domestic socioeconomic conditions need to be improved to win the war against international human trafficking.