The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

  • A wariness of being be-clouded: cloud, twitter, facebook, texting and other inducements of the digital age

    A wariness of being be-clouded: cloud, twitter, facebook, texting and other inducements of the digital age

    Becloud: verb (used with objects) – 1.to darken or obscure with clouds.
    2. to confuse or muddle: to becloud the issues.
    Dictionary.com (Online)

    I think it was about two years ago that my mind began to focus on the appearance of the words “the cloud” and “cloud computing” on the screen of my laptop computer. I use the term focus deliberately for as soon as I began to pay attention to these words, I realised that for quite some time, my mind had been slowly registering their appearance on my laptop screen and pondering what they meant. At any rate, eventually my slight, semi-conscious curiosity became a very active need to know and that was when I began to focus on those words, “the cloud” and “cloud computing”.

    I should perhaps add at this point that the first thing that came to my mind with this focus was a vague intimation that I felt between these words and one of my favourite plays from Greek antiquity, The Clouds of Aristophanes. The play is a powerful and rambunctiously funny satire on the school of classical Athenian philosophy known as the Sophists. As we all know, it is from this school of philosophers that the word “sophistry” has come down to us. Famously or notoriously, sophistry beclouds issues by a show of brilliance that initially promises to be illuminating but actually turns out to be muddled and confounding.

    Astonishingly, when I searched for the meaning of “the cloud” and “cloud computing” on the internet and even asked people who knew what the words meant, my vague intimations of Aristophanes’ play were confirmed. “The cloud”, it turns out, refers to a range of services on the worldwide web that seem to be provided by real internet servers or providers when in fact they are served up by virtual or simulated software applications (apps) running on one or more real machines. Since these virtual servers of “the cloud” do not physically exist, they can be moved around and scaled up and down endlessly in the manner in which a cloud – an insubstantial cloud that appears to the naked eye like a weighty mass – can be blown about in the wind. Another thing that I found out about “cloud computing” is that it involves a large number of computers and users that are connected in a seemingly real time communication when in actual fact they may be located at opposite ends of the planet.

    To date, I have not tried “the cloud”, even though it intrigues me a lot. And it is this very fact that links it with all those other services and inducements of the internet and the digital age that I also have not tried or tried rather half-heartedly. These include but are not limited to twitter, facebook and text messaging. Obviously, my hesitation, my reservation about text messaging needs an explanation and, dear reader, I am happy to give one. I come from an age in which the only form of “texting” that we knew was the telegram. To send a message by the telegram you of course had to go to a post office. You filled out a form with your message on it and took great care to be economical with the number of words in your message because each word cost quite a bit. I forget now how long it took for your message to be delivered to whom you wanted it sent, but it certainly was not the same day, talk less of the same instant. From this brief account it can be seen that the telegram is to text messaging on a cell phone as travelling in the horse drawn carriages of the past is to traveling in the futuristic “bullet trains” of China.

    Does my reservation about text messaging on the cell phone have anything to do with my having once been a user of the telegram? Yes and no. Let me take the no first: I have no nostalgia, none whatsoever, for the telegram. This is because even back then, long before the arrival of computers, smart phones and text messaging, using the telegram was a cumbersome and rather joyless affair! You not only stood in line for a long time at the post office but when you got to the service counter you often found out that you had to go and prune down the number of words in your message because you did not have enough money on you to pay for the number of words in your message. And that sent you right back to the end of the long line in which you had stood for perhaps more than thirty minutes!

    Now for the yes part. Coming from the age of the slow and laborious rituals connected with sending telegrams predisposes one to being economical, being prudent with one’s time and one’s dispositions. Here I must make a confession: the longest, the absolute longest, that I can go on a text messaging spree is, at the very most, ten messages each way. Imagine this admittedly spartan regimen to the unlimited temporal freedom of the enthusiasts, the champions of marathon text messaging sessions that can spend a whole day sending messages back and forth, most of them quite inane! I do not make this comment self-righteously, sitting in judgment over the aficionados of cell phone text messaging. But if it seems that I am being judgmental, being haughtily dismissive of what other people find joyful and fulfilling, do accept my apologies. To each person his or her own inclinations and disinclinations. Only, please, please do not force your own inclinations on me as a denizen of the new brave and buoyant 21st century age of a digitality that promises so many inducements!

    In all seriousness, though I affect a light, playful tone in these ruminations, these are very serious matters. In this new age of a virtual digital paradise in a real world that has not successfully tackled some of the oldest and most enduring problems of survival for us as individuals, nations and the species, we are all, in our diverse and often conflicting ways, consumers of an endless range of services that confound the distinction between our wants and our needs and between products and services that can sustain us and those that are meant only to entertain us or even distract us from the hard, difficult choices we have to make. Let me elaborate a little on this observation.

    I spend an inordinately large part of my daily life on the internet. For the most part, these are hours well spent, hours in which I am working on things I must do in order either to enhance my professional competencies or get a better and fuller sense of the world we live in. There is also the odd hour or two in which I am hunting down or chasing after humorous or entertaining posts and blogs on the internet. In all, it means that I have to be extremely mindful, first, that I am not distracted from important things by the surfeit of mirages on the internet and second, that the recreational inducements of the internet do not overwhelm my real or potential capacity to intervene, to make a difference for the better in the conditions of my life and the lives of others close to me. This, I confess, is the source of my hesitation, my reservation concerning things like twitter, facebook, LinkedIn and, yes, the newfound intriguing inducement of “the cloud”. The deluge is upon us and growing. Unless of course you among the hundreds of millions of the poor and the marginalised of the world who have no access to the internet.

    If you are not among these multitudes and if you are not an incurious person, you cannot go surfing on the internet without discovering new things that catch your fancy, that send powerful impulses of wonder, delight and discovery. It can be both exhilarating and very tiring and confounding.

    How do you react wisely and productively to this cornucopia of elixir and poison, uplift and confusion? What are the signposts for separating the wheat from the chaff, the wine froth from the dregs? Drawing a lesson from the time in my childhood when I taught myself how to swim at Alalubosa Lake in Ibadan and discovered that when you were tiring and the shore was still a long distance away, you could regain your strength and your composure by treading water on the same spot, I take a pause, a long pause, before taking the bait of each new product, each new inducement thrown up by the profligate supermarkets of digitality on the internet and elsewhere. Let me state a few of these “treading water” pauses of mine with regard to one particularly ubiquitous product or service of digitality, phone calls.

    Phone calls. I am very wary, perhaps even very resentful of just how massively and crazily phone calls have become intrusive into our daily lives. Without a doubt, this comes from the instant connectedness that the cell phone has established between friends, families, acquaintances and even total strangers in our world. Moreover, some of us remember the time not too long ago when you had to be rich and well connected to own landline phones. At any rate, who among us can now leave home without his or her cell phone? Well, consciously and deliberately, most times I do! And I cannot believe that there are not a few others like me who also feel completely unperturbed to leave their phones at home when they step out into the outside world. If you sometimes feel inclined to do so but feel unsure that it is a wise thing to do, try it a few times and you will discover that your daily life has not become impoverished on account of that simple act. Yes, I miss many calls but I return the missed calls when I can. Yes, I am haunted by the thought that one day a call might come that might have to do with a life and death emergency, but that is a contingency that is there all the time anyway, cell phone or no cell phone.

    I readily admit the fact that many of my friends were initially quite upset by the constancy of the missed calls they got from me. However, in time they have become used to the discrete distance I have established between my cell phone and my daily life. What are friends but those who are willing to take you for who you are as long as they know that your idiosyncrasies do not negate your love, your respect for them? There are long stretches of daily life that I try to keep free of any and all intrusion; and there is a corresponding pool of inner concentration that I try to preserve from the incessant, endless barrage of phone calls. And on a far more mundane level, I never take phone calls when I am walking in the streets, never!

    To conclude, perhaps rather inconclusively. Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, they all interest me but so far, I have stayed away from them. This has not stemmed the flow of invitations to wade in, to join them, to tune in on the waves of their allegedly very ebullient social networking. Concerning “the cloud”, something tells me that sooner or later, I will try it, I will get in on the act. But if and when I do so, I hope that I shall not be be-clouded.

    Biodun Jeyifo

    bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu

  • Apo killings: how not to fight terrorism

    The latest killings near Apo Quarters in the Federal Capital Territory have further illustrated how our tragedies often leave us with many unanswered questions and even deeper tragedies.

    In 2005 six youths riding in a car at night were killed in Apo by traffic duty policemen, triggering an outcry across the country. One predominant question then was, what offence did the six Igbo youths commit? When Nigerians tired of asking a question that no one could provide a reasonable answer, they hoped that a probe of the incident would put them out of their worries. Eight years after, no investigation of any kind has established the crime of the deceased youths, nor have their killers been seen to have faced the music they deserved. Messy incidents like that routinely leave us as a people feeling had, violated and diminished.

    On September 20, more youths were gunned down in the same area of Abuja, also by security personnel. The only difference is that the nation’s capital of today is not quite what it was when the Apo Six were felled. As I put this piece together, reports said 10 people were killed by a team of soldiers and state security agents on a raid of an unfinished house in the area. Several other people in that building reportedly sustained injuries and were hospitalised. The security men were said to be on a mission to flush out terrorists.

    Well, the mission got a bit sticky, for shortly after it was accomplished, a House committee on public safety and national security took on the minister of the territory, Bala Mohammed, and the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika, plying them with questions. Reports said Senator Mohammed was “quizzed” while the general was only in a “closed-doors” meeting with members of the committee.

    We can take a hint. Both men were questioned regarding the killings, suggesting that the House of Representatives was as concerned about the circumstances surrounding the Apo deaths as are most Nigerians. In fact, even the Senate has been asked to investigate the killings.

    And, really, it is worth investigating. What are the identities of the dead? Were they terrorists? Were they menial workers, and if they were, what sort of menial work did they do? Were they water vendors, shoe-shine boys or refuse collectors or what? Or were they tricycle operators and commercial motorcyclists, as the chief of a tricycle and motorcycle association claimed? It is imperative to resolve these issues because lives and reputations are involved even as Nigeria grapples with its worst challenge yet. It is wise to determine what dangers occupants of that house posed to other people in the neighbourhoods, knowing, as one report said, that the building was only about 100 metres from the home of a former Speaker of the House of Representatives.

    General Ihejirika said arms and ammunition were found in the house and that the security personnel were attacked first on approach to the building. He was also quoted saying a thorough investigation was carried out based on the information they had before the raid. The next thing is to tender the evidence before relevant authorities in order to clear the military and the state security outfit, and disabuse the minds of concerned Nigerians. It is important to show that the fight against terrorism is based on clear-headed strategies and also within the realm of acceptable standards.

    Senator Mohammed also made some contributions to the anti-terrorism campaign, but they are essentially pedestrian, lamely reactionary, if not outright unhelpful. Reports said the minister and his staff have identified no fewer than 100,000 illegal buildings and another 435 unfinished houses and have marked them for demolition. He said any building which is not completed two years after approval will be pulled down, or if it “cannot” be pulled down, will be converted to a police post. The reason for this action, Mohammed said, is to deny miscreants hiding places.

    This is a curious way to fight terrorism. The FCT, as everyone knows, is a territory under construction or deconstruction, but it is pertinent to ask the man who reigns over it why, in spite of the frequent demolitions, there are still as many as 100,000 illegal buildings standing. Did the illegal structures precede Senator Mohammed’s ministry, or did they spring up in spite of his roaring bulldozers? Are the structures popping up faster than his demolition team can cope with? As for the fate of the 435 unfinished houses, what manner of law or regulation determines the time frame within which a landowner can finish building his house? Can anyone measure the waste, to say nothing of the anguish, if after acquiring a piece of land and initiating its development, fate makes it difficult to finish up quickly enough? Think of the police post angle: why can some buildings be pulled down and some “cannot”?

    In any event, it is difficult for one to be persuaded that the issue of terrorism is really about uncompleted buildings. What about the owners of the buildings or the lack of proper surveillance?

    Senator Mohammed was also said to be intent on running integrity tests on uncompleted buildings. It is difficult to establish a reasonable link between weak structures and terrorism threat.

    So just how relevant are Mohammed’s post-Apo killings contributions to the much-needed anti-terrorism battle? Pretty little.

  • Varieties of kidnapping

    Varieties of kidnapping

    It was the ultimate demonstration of utter contempt for the Nigerian state. I refer to the public appearance on September 18 of the notorious kidnapper, Kelvin Ibrukwe, surrounded by some of his equally masked and heavily armed supporters. The veritable felon had the temerity and dexterity to seek to justify his criminal but profitable kidnapping enterprise by the ineptness and lack of vision of a Nigerian state that has not been able to utilise the humongous resources of the country to uplift the standard of living of the vast majority of our people.

    Thus, Kelvin was lustfully hailed by members of his Kokori, Delta State community, as he defiantly gave the government an ultimatum of 60 days to provide necessary facilities and amenities for his people or face dire consequences. It would appear that Kelvin is a hero of sorts among his people. Many of them apparently do not see him as being more criminal than many in government who lead prodigal lives amidst an ocean of mass poverty.

    Kelvin’s trade of kidnapping prominent citizens for huge sums of ransom money may thus be seen, in this context, as a class struggle of sorts. The only snag that exposes Kelvin’s clever hypocrisy is that there is no evidence that he used the money realized from his obviously lucrative trade in any way to ameliorate the plight of his much beloved people.

    Obviously stung by Kelvin’s audacity in giving the Nigerian state an ultimatum to live up to its responsibility, the security authorities swung into action and, in a matter of days the kidnapper’s world collapsed like a pack of cards. A joint operation between the State Security Services (SSS) and the Joint Task Force (JTF) smoked him out of his hideout and his reign of murderous impunity has come to an end.

    But given the parlous state of Nigeria’s economy, the massive poverty in the land, the mass unemployment among our youth, the criminal opulence of our elite, the ever increasing inequality among social classes in the country, will a hundred more Kelvins not spring up to replace one who is arrested and taken out of circulation?

    Yes, the Kelvins of this world have no place in a decent society. The very notion of kidnapping fellow human beings is odious and nauseating. They subject their victims to unthinkable psychological trauma. They put whole families into pain, stress, strain, anxiety and grief. It does not matter to them that their victim is a renowned lawyer and social activist like Mike Ozokhame or a venerable cleric like Archbishop IgnatiousKattey. They kill with impunity while carrying out their operations. But the truth of the matter is that arresting one Kelvin is not enough to contain kidnapping and other violent crimes perpetrated by our youth across the land. The Nigerian ruling class must get serious about rigorously addressing the socio-economic roots of this social peril or risk even more dangerous acts of criminal insurgency.

    It is all too easy for us to see the Kelvins of this world and his likes as the sole kidnappers in our society. It is so tempting for us to condemn and revile them. But there are other, perhaps even more dangerous kidnappers in our midst. These kidnappers wear exquisitely tailored suits. They drive the most exotic cars, befriend the most beautiful women, cruise around the skies in their private jets and are the most generous payers of their tithes and offerings in their respective places of worship.

    Let us take those bank chief executives whose nefarious activities led to the collapse of their banks for instance. They virtually captured the institutions they had the privileged of managing including depositors funds. Their loot was on a far more monumental scale than could ever be realized by the likes of Kelvin. Their pens wrecked more havoc than the automatic rifles of the lower degree of kidnappers. These bankers today still retain their ill- gotten wealth and live in continued opulence while many of their depositors and shareholders have been brought to ruin or sent prematurely to their graves. Can any group of kidnappers be more dangerous than these?

    Another set of veritable kidnappers are those who have completely messed up the country’s pension fund scheme. We read regularly of the embezzlement of hundreds of millions of pension funds that should serve as succour for those who had served their country in their prime. The activities of these pension fund kidnappers result in the pitiable sight of aged pensioners’ queuing up endlessly and futilely for their pensions that have disappeared into private bank accounts. Some of them are known to have died in the process. The Kelvins of this world kill their hundreds; the pension fund kidnappers kill their thousands.

    A notorious example is a certain Deputy Director in the civil service who was deployed to head the Pension Reform Task Force Team and restore sanity to the country’s corrupt pension system. In the course of discharging this task, he reportedly helped himself generously to the pension funds under his control. Invited by the National Assembly to shed light on about N195 billion reportedly misappropriated under his watch, he resorted to various tactics including media propaganda and manipulation of the judicial process to avoid public searchlight on his activities. Even though he was known to move around Abuja in a convoy heavily guarded by policemen, the Inspector General of Police could not produce this high profile kidnapper on the demand of the National Assembly. It was so easy to arrest Kelvin. But this more dangerous VIP kidnapper remains elusive. All hail Nigeria.

    Perhaps the most interesting variety of kidnapping is on the political terrain. Here we have the most mystifying incident of kidnapping whereby the Y2015 has taken a giant leap backward and kidnapped the process of governance in most parts of Nigeria today. While governance lies in miserable confinement, politicians are obsessively preoccupied with 2015. Senators want to become governors. Governors want to become Senators. Everybody wants to become President. The incumbent is determined to remain in office come that magic year, 2015. Meanwhile hunger stalks the land, poverty dehumanises millions, disease reaps human lives and public infrastructure remains decrepit.

    Thus, the largest political party in Africa has become fractured as various factions strive to kidnap the behemoth ahead of 2015. In the Nigeria Governors Forum, we have witnessed a minority of 16 governors trying to kidnap the organization and lord it over a majority of 19. It is all in the name of 2015.

    In Rivers State, we had the absurdity of five legislators trying to kidnap the Assembly and impeach the Speaker in a House of 32 members. That is a state where the police have obviously been effectively kidnapped by partisan politics. The latest antic of the police in that state was to forcibly disperse 13,000 new teachers who had converged at the stadium to receive their letters of appointment.

    The lame excuse was that they planned to demonstrate against the President as if that is a crime. Unfortunately, the luckiest President in the world appears to have been viciously kidnapped and irredeemably distracted by his second term ambition. Is Nigeria not thus a kidnapper’s paradise? God help us.

  • Here and there

    Here and there

    Super Eagles Assistant Coach Daniel Da Bull Amokachi must forgive me for this slip. In fact, I almost missed out the name of John Mikel Obi as one of the Nigerians who have rocked the English game with their sublime skills.

    Perhaps, my slip may have arisen from the pains Amokachi caused those of us who support Liverpool. It may sound funny because that should be the reason why I shouldn’t remember to list him. On this score my unreserved apologies to Amokachi. I plead that he doesn’t walk alone. Don’t ask me what I mean. Amokachi knows exactly what I’m saying having played in the Merseyside derby for Everton.

    There is also Efan Ekoku, the first man to score four goals in a game in the Barclays English Premier league era while playing for Norwich. He was in the Eagles side to the 1994 World Cup held in the United States (US). I won’t forget the exploits of the Ameobi brothers and Sone Aluko, one of the few Nigeria-born players who dumped England for Nigeria.

    The list of Nigerians playing soccer in England is legendary. It just struck me that Danny Shittu once played for Bolton in the Premier League. With these exclusions, it should convince those who think that I have issues with Amokachi that nothing like that exists. I could have hidden under the cloak of listing a few because of space constraints. Not so for me because Amokachi ranks high on any Nigerian internationals’ list. Amokachi is, indeed, a legend of the Nigerian game. I rest my case.

    Easily the pick of the pack of performance by Nigerians in Europe is Mikel Obi, who scored his first Barclays English Premier League goal after 185 matches. What struck me first wasn’t the goal but the fact that Mikel will soon join the list of players who have played 200 Premier League matches. I hope he celebrates it with a goal.

    Again, this writer was excited that Mikel proved he could score goals. 24 hours after Mikel struck, the only African that can cause Nigerians pain by depriving Mikel of the 2012/2013 African Footballer of the Year award, Yaya Toure, scored one of the four goals that ruined Manchester United’s title defence. Yaya plays for Manchester City and is the incumbent African Footballer of the Year.

    For those who felt strongly that the Special One, Jose Mourinho, ruined Mikel’s career at Chelsea by converting him to defensive roles, they must do a rethink. The burden of scoring goals for any player rests with his predatory instincts which can only be actualised when such a player is adventurous.

    John Terry plays in the heart of Chelsea’s defence, yet he surges forward to score goals for the team. Ghana’s Michael Essien plays in Mikel’s position sometimes and scores goals. Ramires also plays in Mikel’s position at Chelsea and scores goals. The onus of scoring goals lies with Mikel and I hope that this is the catalyst he needs to join the legion of midfielders, such as Lionel Messi, who score goals with aplomb.

    One had been skeptical about Mourinho’s sincerity to give Mikel the desired games. But listening to him on television last Saturday, one had hope. Mourinho told the world that he introduced Mikel and Ramires for the game against Fulham for freshness and to add width to Chelsea’s forward surge towards the goalpost. He also explained why he preferred Oscar to Mata. It is no coincidence that Mikel and Oscar scored the two goals that separated Chelsea from Fulham at dusk on Saturday evening. Indeed, it was the hallmark of a good tactician, such as the Special One.

    While Mikel had a ball with his game, Victor Moses’ second outing for Liverpool caused pains. Hitherto lowly placed Southampton nicked a lone goal victory over the Reds, with the own goal scored by Liverpool’s reliable midfielder Steven Gerrard.

    Liverpool was awful against Southampton, making the few upfront runs by Moses counting for nothing. Pundits were, however, looking forward to Moses’ combination with Louis Suarez and Sturridge beginning with Wednesday night’s show-stopper at Old Trafford between Manchester United and Liverpool, a fixture Wayne Rooney described as bigger than the Manchester derby. Rooney surely knows what he is saying, having also played the Merseyside derby between Liverpool and Everton severally. Moses will definitely have a fruitful season at Liverpool, given the way both players played on Wednesday.

    Moses has distinguished himself with Liverpool. A goal and three regular shirt appearances justify why he left Chelsea. It will also help Nigeria’s course at the Brazil 2014 World Cup.

    The story from France is exciting about goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama. Several cleansheet outings show that he is in form, which should be good news for holidaying Stephen Keshi. Enyeama’s sparkling form spells doom for the Ethiopians as the October 13 tie in Addis Ababa approaches.

    Interestingly, Brown Ideye has found his shooting range by scoring goals for his Ukrainian side Dynamo Kiev at a time when Fernerbahce FC of Turkey’s management are worried over the scoring form of Emmanuel Emenike.

    Keshi would sigh at the Turkey side’s agony because he knows how to utilise Emenike to score goals. What Ideye’s return to scoring form does for the Eagles is that it increases the team’s fire power upfront and equips the coach with enough options to nail the Ethiopians in Addis Ababa on October 13. Victory over the Ethiopians at home is what the Eagles need to make the return leg in Calabar on November 16 a formality.

    Our midfielders in Europe, except for Mikel, are having a torrid time with their clubs. They have performed below par, with some of them taking the stick from their coaches. One hopes that their poor forms with their clubs would be corrected with 15 days to the battle of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa.

    The biggest fillip in this discourse is that most our players are playing regularly for their clubs. And it is an added advantage as we prepare for the Ethiopians.

    Huge cheers for Keshi

    Stephen Keshi is a good sport. He reads. He listens and has opted for the diplomatic resolution of his seeming intricate matter with Belgian coach Tom Saintfiet. I must commend him.

    Recently, one wrote in this column the need for Keshi to swallow his pride and negotiate for an out-of-FIFA-court settlement over the alleged racist comments on the then Malawi coach Tom Sainfiet.

    On Wednesday night, the story broke in one of Malawi’s national newspapers that Keshiwa hoping that FAM would withdraw the case in the spirit of sportsmanship. FAM chief executive officer Suzgo Nyirenda confirmed that “he (Keshi) called me last weekend to ask if there is a way we can sort out the issue amicably, but I told him that it would need Tom’s consent.”

    “We only facilitated the complaint on behalf of Tom as an association. Otherwise; it is between the two of them,” said Nyirenda.

    Keshi wants an amicable resolution. The NFF must reach out to the FAM chief to see how they can reach Saintfiet through him. I know that Saintfiet won’t do any business with the NFF, given the way he was shoved aside for the Nigerian job.

    But with FAM, Saintfiet will listen, especially when he is told that the initiative came from Keshi. We must save Keshi from an imminent five-match ban, no matter the quality of defence we may have for the Big Boss. I don’t want us to let this chance slip because we never can tell what FIFA chiefs will decide.

    To avoid regrets, the NFF must move fast to mend fences with Saintfiet. That is what the Belgian needs to withdraw the case. He wants to make Keshi the fall guy to get back at the NFF and the Nigerian government. Who is the coach who doesn’t want to work in Nigeria? It is the easiest way to stardom. Clemens Westerhof, Johannes Bonfrere, Father Tiko; the list of foreign coaches who made name coaching Nigeria, is endless or is anyone disputing this? Oba Khato Okpere, Ise.

  • New respect, fears  and terrorism

    US  President Barak Obama’s  speech at the UN General  Assembly  this week  was indeed an homily on  the need for global understanding of   his nation’s dilemma  on being ‘exceptional’. According to Obama  the world does   not expect    the US  to be its policeman especially in the Middle East  but  blames it all the same when  it decided  to keep off  as it did on Syria and the promised  US  limited  attack  on Syria’s use of   chemical weapons on its people. Obama’s   speech had the rapt attention of the audience of the UNGA and it had  a  word for every major part of the world   in crisis  and in search of peace. Yet, it was a most apologetic speech, a lesson in finding an excuse for not rocking the boat of world peace and security on his beat and watch,  with  his ‘great ‘ reason being that   his predecessor   started wars he condemned, and for which he was elected   and he   wants no excalation  of such or any  further  wars. Obama’s   two   terms then  seem unalterably   focused   on wrapping up the wars he inherited,   as he has no stomach for any new wars,  no matter the provocations or assault on his nations well known   values   on democracy and human rights.

    Really,   history  is the ultimate judge of global leaders and their actions  and I expect Obama’s speech at the UNGA to  get the usual treatment and leave the  rest to posterity. To  me  however the US President went to a great extent to rationalize why his nation cannot play the role that its policies and history have made the world to expect it to play,  especially in those parts of the world where despots  and governments tyrannise   people with impunity and have no respect for the rule of law. The US through its president last week was  asking such nations and people to paddle their canoes out of despotism because the US under him has closed shop on such expectations. Which  to me is a real pity, and a great global one too, and  a bad day for American image as a champion of democracy and human rights that some have come to believe it is – and that raises a host of questions, some of which we can discuss today.

    First, one could ask what Obama would have done if he had been in George Bush’s shoes in the first year of his presidency in 2001  when  Al Qada struck  on 9/11 . Perhaps another homily similar to the one this week   at  UNGA  would have wished the tragedy away, rather than launching the  war on Afghanistan   or the invasion of Iraq. It  is instructive that while Obama was rationalizing   American dithering and  inaction on Syria and  Egypt  and berating Egypt’s   President Morsi  ,Al  Shebab, an ally of Al Qada was  terrorizing Kenya with impunity and it was from Kenya that Obama’s father came to the US to father the 44th President of the United States. Really,  pleading   before the whole UN  for understanding   of US  foreign policy, mortgages the right of leadership of  the US  in the comity of nations and shows pitifully,  crass  inability to take difficult, personal  decisions on behalf of the US  and indeed humanity as demanded of that office.  Everyone except this US President  knows that the UNGA  is just a talk shop and that real power is in the UN Security Council where  there  are only a handful of powerful members taking action on behalf of the rest  of the UN. And even there,  China and Russia have effectively  shackled the US policy on Syria   for now at least to one of irrelevant indolence.  This may sound harsh but just as   a revolution is not a tea party,  as Morsi and the Egyptians have learnt at great costs, being president of the US is not a bed of roses and demands more than stale sermons that fail to impress in the face creepy and viral   global terrorism that is emboldened by the absence of leadership inertia and deterrence.

    It  is important to know that   this week the US President met his Nigerian counterpart  President Goodluck Jonathan  in New York  before his UNGA address  and there was mutual backslapping and congratulations on the approach they have   both adopted in fighting global terrorism   and a promise of further cooperation between both nations   on the matter. Which is to be expected, as they  are really birds of the same feather in the  way their two nations are fighting the so called global terrorism which is really Islamist militancy. Both leaders are fighting terrorism with kid gloves and in the process allowing terrorist organisations to gain the respect and recognition which they don’t deserve   and which they should be denied at all costs to ground their nefarious  activities and ambition. A sickening revelation on CNN on the Newgate Mall attack  in Kenya were the twin  disturbing  news according to those who survived the attacks, that the Al  Shabab  attackers at the Mall  asked if people were Muslims or not , and killed them if they were not,  and the terrorists did not come to take hostages but to kill as they did not react to any  offer of  hostage negotiations by the Kenyan authorities. Now  over 65 innocent lives have been lost in Kenya to  the emboldened Islamist Militants who say they are fighting Kenya because it has its troops in AU  contingent in Somalia but are really trying to bring the world to its feet with their warped way of life.

    In  Nigeria, the Boko Haram is getting more ferocious and murderous and it seems government policy is to wish it away while government business continues as usual. Even as the President was away in New York a video tape of the leader of Boko Haram, that the authorities claimed  had been killed showed him saying he was hale and hearty and had organized an attack  at Benisheik   in the North East  that killed many people when he was presumed dead. He threatened our President, the French president and the US president and said there will be no democracy in the world but a government of Allah  and for Allah. Such  videos create fears in people’s minds as well as a pervasive environment of insecurity  which  make people doubt if their governments really have their welfare and interests at heart and such doubt can threaten the political and socio economic stability of any society.

    It  would  appear that  the US  and Nigeria are fighting both local  and global  terrorism within the precints of international law  and the rule of law which is an approach that is leading to a dead end   and  growing  global fear  and insecurity. This is because terrorists do not respect the laws of military engagement subsumed in the rule of law or international law. Terrorists use civilian population as human shield and kill women and children to put across their message and should not be allowed to get away with it. A  case in point  is Syria  where the deed has been done and now there is negotiations going on,  on how to dispose of the chemical weapons of murder. It  is a unique case of getting wise after the event. Such  lackadaisical  policy and   diplomacy breed  fiercer breaches of international law as the  Kenyan Mall terror showed. According to a survivor,  one  of the attackers said  Somali women and children have been killed and threw a grenade into the midst of parents and children who were at a TV Show  at the Mall when the terrorists struck in Nairobi. Such  terrorism has no respect for the rules of engagement in international law  and should not be protected by it in any circumstances. Indeed it is arrogance   and the mistaken belief that the terrorist  can not go far   enough that encourages such careless policy that has made the world unsafe for the rest of humanity as we know it today.

    Since we are leaving leaders who unwittingly promote terrorism  and its   murderous appendages, by their action  or inaction, to history   and posterity to judge, it is to history that we turn  for an example that we hope can inspire the way forward  for a peaceful world. We  ask  the world to look at the monument to Horatio Nelson at Trafalgar Square in London and  the story of the War that begat   it. Nelson’s   high Column adorns Trafalgar Square in tribute to the feat of the British Admiral with one eye who routed the Spanish Armada that was threatening Britain at the time. When the smoke signal came that the British  fleet should  abandon the chase of the Spanish  Armada,  other British Admirals turned back their ships but Horatio Nelson persisted and secured a great victory for his nation over the Spanish fleet. When told by his lieutenants  that the smoke signal to go back was on,  Nelson famously retorted –  ‘I  have only one eye. I have a right to be blind some time. I really do not   see the signal’.

    That is the stuff of leadership  and defiance that the world needs  in confronting global terrorism today and running it aground, once and for all. Such leadership comes  from a hunch or action  or a sense of honor or responsibility  that gets it right in spite of the law or the odds  and in the nick of time.  It  is not to be found in any sermon or  speeches  at  the UNGA  as at this week nor in any post dated negotiations  at the UN Security Council. It  is to be found in the balls of leaders who take calculated risks to save lives and nations. Horatio Nelson had it   and used it and the world is still paying its homage to his  Column shooting   straight into the air at Trafalgar Square in the British capital. That really is the gratitude of history and posterity to really great leaders. We  wait with  apprehension,  baited breath and hope for such leaders to save us from the terror that has engulfed our  global  environment for now ever so murderously and pray  that they have the courage to emerge sooner than later and in God’s name we pray Amen.

  • Big Brother, celebrity-maniacs and other ‘guinea fowls’

    If we could take a minute to introspect, we would find that our obsession with Big Brother Africa (BBA) game show is only a symptom of our malaise. We would find that the decadence we lament started with our descent as a people and our ‘creative’ perversion of our media.

    This minute, conversation degenerates into mere gossip and heartfelt dreams manifest as perfection of perversity, everywhere. Everybody is a sucker for “high-society.” Like heat-maddened farm rats, ordinary people are persistently yearning for news about “high-society.”

    It’s the little packets of madness that we need to fear. How unforgivably silly the society becomes in its lust for celebrity gossip. The news we read, for the most part, is too paltry for the human genius. I do not know why our news should be so trivial.

    It is the stalest repetition. Yet we madden and lust for celebrity humdrum to the point that one is tempted to wonder why too much passion is squandered in pursuit of too little substance. We live for idle amusement and thus…the nature of our daily news.

    Our facts appear to spiral in the atmosphere, insignificant as the spores of the toadstool, and yet impinging on the surface of our mind, poisoning it, till it becomes not much in expression and thought. Superfluities meet superfluities; when our life ceases to be inward and absorbed, interaction degenerates into mere tittle-tattle and humanity relapses into the filthiest of averages.

    Every celebrity is a media creation; I repeat. While some may be deserving of the exaltation liberally accorded them, not a few celebrities, like Beverly Osu, Karen Igho and a host of other BBA past ‘inmates’ are undeserving of the hero worship they receive and so desperately seek. It is hardly the fault of the celebrity however, that the press and the society in general have chosen to accord them immeasurable hero worship despite their deficiencies.

    It takes more than newsworthiness to create a celebrity. The vast, interlocking web of resources and institutions involved in creating and maintaining a single celebrity is astounding. From media outlets to fan clubs and agents, from media products to gossip columnists, a star is never solitary, but often the result of hundreds of backstage orchestrations and player deals.

    It is even all the more disturbing to watch our fascination with celebrity gossip slide into precisely the kind of ruthless pursuit of its subject to which we claim to be ostensibly opposed; it is disheartening to observe the infringement of morals and humaneness at the heart of our inquest.

    There is no such thing as virtuous curiosity. Our curiosity oftentimes does violence to its object. On the flipside, it leaves the society stuck in a revolving cycle of spectatorship that believes in its own virtue even as it corrupts itself – a perfect representation of Jacqueline Rose’s the “perverting of curiosity in motion.”

    And even our so-called superstars have learnt to profit albeit fraudulently from the society’s perverse curiosities about their affairs. From Chaucer’s early poem, “The House of Fame,” whose hero-poet wrestles with the fame bestowed on him by society to Martin Scorcese’s film, King of Comedy, in which an amateur comedian jokes to a national television audience that it is “better to be king for a night, than schmuck for a lifetime!”

    Not to forget Nigerian actress, Genevieve Nnaji’s illuminating response to a CNN interviewer’s poser about her celebrity status, “Oh yeah, I don’t even need to wake up. Just sitting down sometimes, I’m like (sighs), sometimes I hate my life, but I can’t complain” — these celebrities and their works speak to us, even give voice to our own desires, as they reflect back to us the realities and illusions of today’s celebrity culture.

    Celebrities who insist, often with apparent desperation, that they do not court publicity, who try to hide from the public gaze on which they are totally dependent (they are legion – open any paper), are either naive or unapologetically fraudulent. With respect to Nigerian celebrities, being fraudulent and then, infantile, comes easy. Not only are most unable to discern that this is the balancing-act they are required to perform, they believe –erroneously so – that by virtue of their claim to stardom, they should have both the press and the public subjected to their whims.

    Therefore, the juveniles that they are at heart fail to realize that they are never functioning quite appropriately as befits their status; never perpetuating so perfectly the drama and duplicity on which celebrity thrives, as in the moments when they make that exasperating and utterly deceptive claim.

    If truly they do not crave media and public attention, let them desist from making their affairs known to the public. Let them desist from scorning such attention only to divulge news of their purported “best kept secrets” to the media surreptitiously. Celebrities who do that while making a show of their distaste for the limelight embody the worst form of infantilism and narcissistic tendencies.

    The vanity of their renunciation contains its own disavowal. It is a blatant hypocrisy that they perpetrate claiming that they do not want to be seen or become the subject of public attention; it simply says very much about their impoverishment in character and worth.

    It is even more disturbing to watch the society’s curiosity translate into precisely the kind of ruthless pursuit of subjects perpetrated by celebrity journalism. It is about time Nigerian journalists learned to focus on the issues that truly matter. How are news of the “high-octane” wedding of a telecommunication company proprietor’s daughter’s wedding, a Reality Show contestant’s current boyfriend, a professional hip-hop dancer’s pregnancy – outside wedlock – and the likely father of the child more beneficial to the youth and the society than a report about the dwindling culture of scholarship on the nation’s campuses and outside them? How is such news more beneficial to the public than the lack of functional local government authorities at the grassroots and the deplorable state of vocational and public primary schools across the country?

    It should be the media’s job not to give equal time, not to give 12 inches in a newspaper story to the idiocy and eccentricities of Nigeria’s middling rich trash and their spoilt kids. It is apparent that a passion for celebrity gossip has become the next illogical evolutionary step of journalism and readership in the country.

    Basically, it is in the media’s best financial interest to pervert its principal role as “Status-Conferrer” according to the public’s yearnings. This bespeaks a deeper perversion of the journalism ethic particularly, its “Agenda-Setter” function.

    But the fault is hardly the media’s alone. Now that it has been confirmed that the Nigerian press is fundamentally a trash can cum sounding board for the psychosis and perversions of celebrity trash and their families, the public’s role in their perpetuation of such depravity is undeniable.

    Given the public’s fascination with celebrity trash and their world, everyone remains complicit in the societal perversion. In essence, the Nigerian society is being ruled by base desires and voyeuristic inclinations for accounts of celebrities’ lives. This has led us to the point where we are not getting the journalism we need but rather the journalism we deserve.

    •To be continued…

     

  • About Hajj

    About Hajj

    This article is not new. It was published in this column during Hajj period last year. It is being repeated here today with some alterations in response to readers’ popular demand. Here it goes:

    Hajj in the life of a Muslim is like pregnancy in the womb of an expectant mother. The experience varies from woman to woman. The foetus in the womb undergoes various stages before reaching the stage of delivery. But by the time the child is finally delivered, the mother feels a relief of her life. And the child assumes a tabula rasa (clean slate) that makes him absolutely innocent.

    A pilgrim is like a newly born child, spiritually, if he strictly performs Hajj as prescribed by Allah. But if he returns into the world of vanity, he automatically becomes like a person in snow white attire who finds himself in a palm oil market. Unless he spiritually guides his loins, he may immediately become a tainted person both in body and in soul.

    Pilgrims who are going on Hajj must be prepared to go through series of rigour both spiritually and physically. The rigour of getting the money with which to perform Hajj; the rigour of getting the travelling documents including visa; the rigour of taking care of the home front before embarking on the holy journey; the rigour of boarding the plane with a sense of high risk; the rigour of going through the security search at the embarkation point as well as in Saudi Arabia when entering and when departing; the rigour of performing the Tawaf and Sa’y; the rigour of moving from Makkah to Mina on the 8th of Dhul-Hijjah, then to Arafah on the 9th of Dhul-Hijjah, and back to Mina via Muzdalifah on the 10th of Dhul-Hijjah; the rigour of locating the tents at Arafah; the rigour of throwing the pebbles at the Jamrat in Mina on the three or four days known as Ayamu-t-Tashrik; The rigour of performing Tawaful Ifadah at the sanctuary in Makkah after the first day of throwing pebbles; the rigour of shaving the head and slaughtering the rams, the rigour of performing the farewell circumambulation otherwise known as Tawaful Wida‘i all in the midst of millions of people can be too much to forget so soon after Hajj.

    Whoever is not bothered by the money spent on Hajj should at least be bothered by the various stages of the involved rigour including that of visiting Madinah. To lose all these to the forces of Satan after Hajj is like losing one’s travelling passport after obtaining visa. The prayer of every genuine pilgrim is to retain the validity of Hajj forever.

    Performance of pilgrimage must be based on genuine intention and high spiritual standard. An intending pilgrim must have attained puberty. He must have been an ardent practitioner of the first four pillars of Islam: (Salat, Zakah, and Sawm) all of which are fervently based on faith (Iman). Hajj without these pre-requisites is like a tree without roots.

    Money is a major pre-requisite for Hajj but it is not absolute.

    Hajj, the last pillar of Islam shows very vividly, the similitude of what mankind will experience on the Day of Judgment. Looking at the unique way in which pilgrims dress for Hajj and how they assemble at Arafat leaving their luggage behind in Makkah, one will realise how ephemeral this world is.

    The various stages of preparation through which pilgrims pass before arriving at Arafat are symbolic of our peregrination in life as human beings. Like the Day of Judgment, Arafat is the climax of Hajj performance. Anybody who misses Arafat misses Hajj. But Arafat is not by physical appearance alone. It takes a combination of factors to participate effectively in that great assembly which serves as the climax of Hajj.

    For Hajj to serve its spiritual purpose in the life of a pilgrim, certain steps must be taken before leaving home. They are as follows:

    • Fine-tuning the first four pillars of Islam very sincerely

    • Packaging the intention to perform Hajj

    • Ensuring the security of the way

    • Providing for the family and dependants at home

    • Paying all the outstanding debts including promises

    • Ascertaining the condition of health

    • Perfecting immigration procedures and undergoing all necessary medical services including inoculation

    • Assuming a mood of humility like that of a servant approaching his master.

    • Readiness to endure hardship and to tolerate fellow pilgrims’ attitudes.

    Admonishing Muslims on spiritual journey, including Hajj, Prophet Muhammad once said: “Actions shall be judged according to intentions. Whoever embarks on a spiritual journey for the sake of Allah will be adjudged on that basis. And whoever bases his/her intention for pilgrimage on marriage or material gains should not expect any reward beyond that for which the intention is based”. The steps to follow in the performance of Hajj are as follows:

     

    The Miqat

     

    Miqat is the specified place for the wearing of Ihram dress. There are five of such places in all. But the one earmarked for pilgrims from Nigeria cannot be reached by pilgrims travelling by air. It is over-flown while crossing the Red Sea. What most Nigerians do therefore is to wear their Ihram dress in Jeddah which has now been adjudged right through a Fatwah. Thus, Nigerian pilgrims can now wear their Ihram dress on arrival at the pilgrims’ airport in Jeddah.

     

    Tawaful Qudum

     

    Tawaf means circumambulation of the Ka’bah. The very first Tawaf to be performed by any pilgrim on entering Makkah is Tawaful Qudum. It is performed before a pilgrim settles down in any residence. Tawaful Qudum is an obligatory Sunnah from which only residents of Makkah among pilgrims are exempted.

     

    Residence in Makkah or Madinah

     

    Most Nigerian pilgrims often seek their accommodations in Makkah or Madinah close to the Haram. This is to enable them walk to and back from the Haram conveniently at the time of any Salat. To minimise pilgrim’s regular occurrence of missing their ways, they are provided with hand bands bearing the addresses of their residences. Pilgrims are therefore advised to wear such bands at all times to enable them show it to either the Hajj guides or policemen when the road is missed. It is also important for pilgrims to always be with their identity cards provided by Nigerian Pilgrims’ Commission or private agents. This is to enable them to be identified in case of sickness, accident or even death.

     

    Movement to Mina

     

    Pilgrims must be ready to undergo some rigour in the process of moving to Mina from Makkah. The rigour which normally affects all pilgrims is engendered by limited time available for millions of pilgrims who must move to that spiritual camp before the sunset on the day preceding Arafah day.

     

    Arafah

     

    At the Plain of Arafat, pilgrims are advised to stay under their tents and concentrate on the spiritual activities that take them to the place.

    They must reach Arafat by mid day when Salatu-d-Dhuhr and ‘Asr should be observed combined. Anybody who is not at Arafat by mid day is considered not to have taken part in the assembly and therefore missed Hajj. Immediately after observing the combined Salatu-d-Dhuhr and ‘Asr, the Imam who led the two Salat is expected to give a sermon. Listening to such sermon is as compulsory as giving it.

    The great assembly of Arafat terminates shortly before sunset (Magrib) and the pilgrims return to Mina via Muzdalifah.

     

    Muzdalifah

     

    At Muzdalifah, pilgrims are expected to halt their journey to observe Magrib and ‘Ishai combined. They are also expected to pass the night there and observe the Salat-s-Subh of the following day before proceeding to Mina. Muzdalifah is adjacent to Mina and is therefore a walking distance.

     

    JAMRAT

     

    Stoning of the devils (Rajmu Jamrat) begins a day after Arafat and continues for the next three or four days that the pilgrims are supposed to spend at Mina. This exercise is obligatory and without it, Hajj is incomplete. There three points at which stones are to be thrown. Seven pebbles are to be thrown at each point on every one of the three or four days to be spent in Mina.

    While going for the pebble-throwing exercise, pilgrims are advised to take their pebbles along with them. Except for the first day when seven pebbles are supposed to be thrown at only one spot, pilgrims are required to throw twenty one pebbles each day the three spots provided while they remain in Mina.

    Picking such pebbles at the point of throwing them is forbidden. All pebbles must have been picked before leaving the tent for the ‘Jamrat’ or on the way.

     

    Majzarah (Abattoir)

     

    Slaughtering of all sacrificial animals is done at the abattoir in Mina. Pilgrims do not need to bother themselves by going to the abattoir for the purpose of carrying out this compulsory obligation. They can simply buy the guaranteed ticket sold by designated Saudi agents. The ticket is the evidence that one has performed that duty. The slaughtering is done on behalves of the pilgrims by some authorised artisans who are paid by the Saudi Hajj authorities from the money paid for those animals. The animals to be slaughtered at Jamrat range from rams to camels. A pilgrim should slaughter one ram or more while seven pilgrims may combine to slaughter one camel or five of them may jointly slaughter on cow.

     

    Tawaful Ifadah

     

    For pilgrims who can afford to go to Makkah after throwing the first seven pebbles, it is good to perform Tawaf-ul-Ifadah. For those who cannot, the exercise can be deferred till the end of Tashrik.

    Pilgrims who have performed Tawaf-ul-Ifadah are free to shave their heads and change from their Ihram dress into civil or traditional dresses.

    The only reason for any pilgrim to go to Makkah from Mina during the camping period is to perform Tawaf-ul-Ifadah. No pilgrim should break camping rule by going to Makkah without performing Tawaf-ul- Ifadah. And after performing Tawaful Ifadah, no pilgrim should remain in Makkah or elsewhere without returning to Mina before sunset.

    With the completion of the camping days in Mina and the arrival of all the pilgrims in Makkah, Hajj has been completed except for Tawaf Wida‘i otherwise called farewell Tawaf. That Tawaf is compulsory.

    It is then left for pilgrims to decide whether or not to go to Madinah. Going to Madinah is not compulsory. It can neither validate nor invalidate Hajj. But it will be spiritually odd for any pilgrim to choose not to visit the Prophet’s Mosque.

    Throughout the Hajj exercise, what should be uppermost in the mind of a pilgrim is the spiritual benefit.

    Hajj is compulsory only once in a life’s time for those who have the wherewithal to undergo it and can satisfy the conditions attached to its performance.

    On arriving home finally, pilgrims are not expected to start organising parties in celebration of a successful Hajj performance as ignorantly done by some Nigerians. Maintaining Hajj is a necessity for those who know the value of doing that. Whoever is privileged to perform Hajj once should forever be grateful to Allah as no one is sure of getting another chance.

     

  • The next century of Nigeria -1

    One of the reasons for the amalgamation of Nigeria in 1914 was the economic complementarity of the two British protectorates of northern and southern Nigeria. In other words, it was an economic union but it is not certain that Sir Fredrick Lugard who was behind the amalgamation was prescient enough to hope that economic integration will lead to political integration. In fact, he tried to preserve the political, social and cultural dichotomies of the two regions of Nigeria as he met them. He did try to import indirect rule into the south-western part of the country with its strong indigenous monarchies which he wrongly equated with the northern emirate system and where there were no chiefs in the largely acephalous south-eastern part of Nigeria, he gave warrants to any strong man he could find in the society to become chiefs . This import of the northern emirate system into the south did not always work out. In fact evidence exists to suggest that it led to disaffection and revolt against the colonial government and its surrogates in the south.

    At an official level, the colonial administration tried to separate people of the south and the north with the effect that southerners living in the northern part of Nigeria lived in the strangers’ quarters or outskirts of towns appropriately named Sabon Garis (new towns). The same thing happened to northern Nigerians living in southern Nigerian towns. So there developed segregated townships, one for native and indigenous inhabitants and the other for their fellow countrymen and women coming from outside the regions. The two local administrations were also separated; the northern part of the country until the 1940s was ruled by orders-in-council, meaning by the colonial officials in collaboration with the Emirs while there was an element of democratisation in the south beginning from 1923 when elections were held in Lagos and Calabar to choose educated Nigerians into the legislative council of Nigeria in which the representatives of the north were largely colonial officials. It was not until 1946 that attempts were made to bring the north into the mainstream of Nigerian politics and by this time, the sense of nationalism even though found in the south and in some pockets among educated northerners particularly teachers was not felt in the entire country. The effect of this was that it was easy for the British colonial officials to persuade the northern leadership of imaginary threat from their southern counterparts which led to a comment by a critical colonial official who said that if somehow Nigerians had disappeared from Nigeria even as late as the 1940s, civil war would have broken out between the British officials in the north and the British officials in the south.

    The point to note is that by the 1950s, Nigerians themselves inherited the prejudice harboured by the British colonial officials in the north and in the south. The result was that when political parties were formed in the 50s, the Jamiyar Mutanen Arewa (JMA) which metamorphosed into the NPC (Northern Peoples Congress) and the Action Group which developed from the Egbe Omo Oduduwa in the South-west were regional parties formed to challenge the nationalist pretension of the NCNC (National Convention of Nigeria and the Cameroons) formed as far back as 1944 as a mass movement and was later to change its name to the National Council of Nigerian Citizens. There was no national party that cut across all the various ethnic groups. This shows to a certain extent that amalgamation did not lead to political integration of the country and the seeds of separation and dichotomy that was sown in 1914 has germinated and grown into a strong tree.

    Nigeria has witnessed series of ups and downs including a civil war and ethnic, religious and fratricidal conflict in some parts of our country in which people of different ethnic groups have found it necessary to kill one another in order to assert and preserve their identities and hold on to indigenous rights and land. The military since their intervention in government in 1966 had tried very hard to restructure the country in such a way as to minimise this regional fissiparous tendencies in the country by dividing the country into several smaller states for ease of administration and development. But it is a moot question whether the sense of separate ethnic identity among Nigerian peoples have been minimised. In fact some have suggested that the military itself as a way of control found it convenient to encourage this sense of separate ethnic identity among Nigerians. After the end of military rule, the politicians have not helped matters because they too have not been able to form country wide political associations rooted in national ideology. The fact is that most political parties in Nigeria seem to be agglomerations or associations of people formed largely for sharing what is euphemistically referred to as the national cake. The result is that Nigerian politics is about sharing rather than baking the national cake and this sharing is done along ethnic lines and those shut out of the sharing usually feel left out to the point of eagerness to bring down the whole national architecture on everybody’s heads. While this is going on, the task of creating necessary infrastructure on which to build a virile nation and an industrial economy that would provide jobs for the teeming youthful population has been abandoned. It seems every successive government becomes more and more corrupt, inefficient and inept than the previous ones. This is therefore not a good augury for the future.

  • Reading Jonathan’s lips

    Even if those close to him pretend not to know, President Goodluck Jonathan knows what he is up against in the build up to the 2015 general elections. Many members of his party, especially from the North do not want him to seek reelection in 2015. These people claim that he reached an agreement with the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors that he would only do one term. But from the look of things, the president seems interested in more than one term. That is no news, you would say.

    But, it is news because he has not come out to tell the nation categorically that he will be running. He has promised to do that next year. The chairman of his party’s Board of Trustees (BoT), Chief Tony Anenih, wants him to declare before next month. The president may have tacitly done that with his statement in the United States (US) a few days ago. Until now, we had followed his body language, which spoke volume than words before his New York Declaration.

    Although as usual, he chose his words carefully, his message was crystal clear. What he will tell us next year will not be different from what he said in New York on Monday. As we have always said here, Jonathan will run in 2015, no matter how the Babaginda Aliyus of this world feel. What matters to the president is that he returns to office in 2015 and he will give 1001 reasons why he should do so when he addresses a world press conference on the matter in 2014.

    The president does not give a hoot whether or not his ambition will overheat the polity, that is if it has not started doing so already. In the past few months, from Abuja to Bida, Lagos to Lokoja, Enugu to Kaura Namoda, we have heard nothing but talks about Jonathan’s plan to return to the job at the expiration of his present tenure. The Group of Seven Governors and their loyalists stormed out of the PDP convention in Abuja some weeks ago partly because of what they termed the president’s plan to use the party’s structure to push his ambition.

    Led by a former chairman of the party, Alhaji Abubakar Kawu Baraje, the G7 has been unrelenting in its campaign that Jonathan should not seek what it calls a third term through the backdoor. The group believes that the president will be going for a third term if he seeks reelection in 2015. Its position is informed by the fact that Jonathan was sworn in first as president in 2010 after the death of President Umaru Yar ‘ Adua. In 2011, he stood for election and won and was sworn in on May 29 of that year for his current tenure.

    By virtue of the Constitution, the president is entitled to two terms of eight years after which he becomes ineligible to run for office again. While the New PDP members insist that he is no longer eligible to seek reelection, the president and his supporters believe that he is eminently qualified to return to office in 2015. Besides the Constitution, they are also citing his experience on the job to support their case. The president, they say, has no less than six years experience as president and two as vice president. He was also governor for one – and – a – half years, and deputy governor for six – and – a – half years. What else are we looking for in a president? Tell me, will Nigeria not be lucky to have such an experienced person lead it for life?

    This is what the president’s supporters have been trying to say to us, but we have refused to listen. Why dump an experienced and God fearing candidate like Jonathan because of a so-called one term pact to which the people are not a party? If some politicians reached such a Gentleman’s Agreement with him in the confines of their homes, should they now draw us into it? Should such an agreement be binding on us? Is the agreement cast in iron that it cannot be breached? If these people were in the president’s shoes will they behave differently? Agreement ko, agreement ni. Agreement or no agreement, the president has told the world that he is qualified to run, if he seeks to do so in 2015.

    He said it was not illegal for the president or a governor to stay in office for two terms, apparently referring to the Constitution, which says in Section 137 (1): A person shall not be qualified for election to the office of president if –

    (b): he has been elected to such office at any two previous elections and Section 182 (1) : No person shall be qualified for election to the office of governor of a state if –

    (b): he has been elected to such office at any two previous elections.

    Armed with these provi

    sions, Jonathan gushed

    before the world: : ‘’Already, we have a Constitution that makes provision for a maximum of eight years for anyone who wants to become a president or a governor. There is no president or governor that all citizens vote for but at the end of the election, if somebody emerges, you must allow the person to work. If you love your country, you would want your country to work. That does not mean that you will not vote against the person if you don’t like the way he works, but you must allow him to work’’.

    Interpretation; those of you who do not want me to run in 2015, yes, you are entitled to your position, but for God’s sake allow me to work. You have the right to exercise your franchise for or against me at the poll, but for now allow me to work until the election. Can the president accuse the opposition of distracting him? Is he not the one distracting himself with the many battle fronts he has opened to ensure that he crushes those who stand in his way on the road to 2015? Can he honestly say he has no hand in the Nigeria Governors Forum brouhaha?

    Can he say he is not empowering Nyesom Wike, the supervising Minister of Education, to fight Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi? Can he say he is not in support of his wife’s needling of the same governor? The truth is the president is fully involved in the fray, which has affected governance. What job does the president do these days than to attend to issues concerning his ambition. If he is not meeting with the G 7 to resolve the crises rocking the PDP, he may be having talks on how to reconcile the warring governors.

    Governance has taken a back stage because of his ambition. There is no way he can be fighting for his political future and still have time to attend to state matters. It is just not possible. So, why delay what he can do now till next year? He should just accept Anenih’s advice and declare his political stand today. We are tired of reading his lips and body language. As the Yoruba will say, let him unmask the masquerader. But will he?

    Apo 9

    Eight years ago, the news of the killing of six persons in Apo, Abuja, by the police shook the nation to its foundation. As usual to justify their bestial act, the police described the victims as “robbers”. Their families, friends and business associates challenged the police claim. Through these people, the nation got to know that the police killed the Apo6, five men and a woman , and tagged them robbers in order to hide their dastardly act. Eight years on, the families of these people are still crying for justice. Don’t forget, the police chief, who led that operation, escaped from custody and is still at large. Last Friday, a similar scenario played itself out in the same Apo. Nine persons, described as commercial tricycle operators (Keke NAPEP) were killed by operatives of the State Security Service (SSS) in a dawn operation. The SSS described the victims as members of the dreaded Boko Haram, the insurgent group terrorising the Northeast. The SSS may have received information that Boko Haram members were in that place before storming there, but did it verify the report. Security agencies are not expected to take any information at its face value. They must sieve it to know how to use it. Did the SSS do that in this case? Or did it just act on the spur of the moment? These are some of the puzzles that must be unravelled so as to avoid another extra – judicial killing by another security arm in Apo.

  • Sarkin Zazzaun Suleja, the (almost) rejected stone…

    Sarkin Zazzaun Suleja, the (almost) rejected stone…

    Last Monday witnessed the colourful climax of the four-day celebration of Alhaji Muhammad Awwal Ibrahim’s ascension to the throne of the historic Suleja Emirate 20 years ago. Suleja, the emirate’s capital, is the biggest satellite town of Abuja, the federal capital, bar possibly Keffi in Nasarawa State.

    The emirate was founded in the early 19th century as Abuja by Abu Jatau – Abu Ja, for short – (in English, Abu the fair skinned), the youngest of three sons of Ishaq Jatau, a prince of the Zazzau Habe dynasty ousted from Zaria by Usman Dan Fodio’s jihad. Abu Ja’s formal title as emir was Sarkin Zazzaun Abuja. Makau, the first son had died in a battle near Lapai, a Nupe town in today’s Niger State. Abu Ja, himself, died shortly after founding the emirate and was succeeded by his older brother, Abu Kwaka (Abu, the dark skinned). Since then the emirship of the territory has alternated between the two houses of Abu Ja and Abu Kwaka.

    In the old colonial North right up to the end of the First Republic in 1966, the emir was ranked 22nd among the region’s 31 second-class emirs and 38th among all the 119 gazetted emirs and chiefs in the region. It was thus one of the most important emirates and chiefdoms in the region.

    In 1944, one of his uncles, Alhaji Suleimanu Barau from the Abu Kwaka ruling house, became the sixth emir. He reigned for 35 years and it was during his time that the regime of General Murtala Muhammed took the momentous decision to move Nigeria’s federal capital from the congested coastal city of Lagos to a virgin territory in the middle of the country. This so-called virgin territory was in Abuja emirate.

    A nation-wide competition to find a name for the new capital ended with a decision by the federal authorities to simply appropriate the existing name of the territory and ask its rulers to find another name. Alhaji Suleimanu Barau, who happened to be emir at the time was, like the founder of Abuja, fair skinned. The emirate simply adopted his abridged name–Suleja.

    However, it was not only its original name that Abuja forfeited. About 80 per cent of today’s federal capital was Abuja territory, with the rest coming from neighbouring Nasarawa and Kogi states.

    This was the diminished emirate, whose throne Alhaji Muhammad Awwal Ibrahim, CON, ascended exactly 20 years ago last Monday. His ascension is today a classic case of the old saying about a bad beginning making a good ending. It is equally a classic case of how tenacity in the pursuit of one’s objective is more likely than not to pay off.

    When Alhaji Suleimanu died in 1979, he was succeeded by Alhaji Ibrahim Dodo Musa from the Abu Ja ruling house. Alhaji Ibrahim, in turn, died in July 1993, thus returning the crown – or, more appropriately, the turban – to Abu Kwaka. Easily the most prominent prince of the House was Alhaji Muhammad Awwal. At that time he had been a university administrator, a permanent secretary in Niger State and had capped his successful public career as a two-time elected governorship of the state between October 1979 and December 1983.

    His career apart, he was a superb linguist, who understood and spoke English, a subject he had his first degree in, Arabic and his native Hausa fluently and eloquently. He also had a deep knowledge of Islam, his religion.

    As governor he, like so many prominent politicians of the Second Republic, was eventually to fall under the heavy sledgehammer of General Muhammadu Buhari, whose coup truncated the Second Republic three months into its second four years: a military tribunal under General Buhari’s regime found the governor guilty of abuse of power and corruption, sent him to prison practically for life and banned him from ever holding public office.

    Twenty months after General Buhari came to power, he was ousted by his army chief, General Ibrahim Babangida, in a bloodless palace coup in August 1985. One of General Babangida’s first acts was to release many of the politicians jailed by his predecessor and grant them amnesty. Alhaji Awwal was a beneficiary of this amnesty.

    As the most prominent prince from the Abu Kwaka House, not to mention the fact that he was school mates at Government College, Bida, with some of the most prominent citizens of Niger State, notably Generals Muhammadu Wushishi, one-time army chief, Babangida, Gado Nasko, then FCT minister, and future head-of-state Abdulsalami Abubakar, many Nigerlites thought he was not only the most obvious choice. Many, including this reporter, thought he was the best.

    Apparently we couldn’t have been more wrong in our thinking in the eyes of the four kingmakers, led by the Galadima, Alhaji Shu’aibu Barde, who met after the seventh day prayers for the repose of the soul of Alhaji Ibrahim, to choose his successor; Alhaji Awwal did not make the shortlist of three candidates they sent to the civilian governor, Dr Musa Inuwa, to choose from. Top of that list was Alhaji Muhammad Bashir, the chief librarian of the University of Abuja and Alhaji Awwal’s cousin and son of Alhaji Suleiman Barau, the sixth emir.

    Alhaji Bashir, it turned out, was also the popular choice. However, for some seemingly inexplicable reason, Governor Inuwa rejected the kingmakers’ choice under the pretext that they were not properly constituted.

    The pretext was not without basis. The emirate’s kingmakers were Madaki as chair, Galadima, Wambai and Dallatu. All four were supposed to be appointed from the emir’s ordinary subjects. However, during his reign Alhaji Suleimanu appointed prominent princes to fill in the titles, except Galadima. There were widespread suspicions that he did so to eliminate all possible challenges to his son, Bashir, when next it was the turn of his House to produce the emir.

    If that was his strategy, it almost worked. When Alhaji Ibrahim died in 1993, only the Galadima was not a prince. The other three, Alhaji Shuaibu Na’ibi, the octogenarian Madaki, Alhaji Aliyu Bisalla, the equally elderly Wambai and Alhaji Awwal himself as Dallatu were all princes. All three had to step down since, by tradition, they could only be voted for and could not themselves vote.

    This meant only the Galadima was left to vote. Hence, the reconstitution of the kingmakers, which brought in the emirate’s Chief Imam, Salanke, the Friday Mosque Imam and Magajin Malam, who anoints and turbans a new emir. Under normal circumstances, all three played only spiritual roles in the selection of an emir and had no vote.

    The Galadima as the only one with a vote on the panel left no one in doubt that his choice was Alhaji Bashir. But he was not the only obstacle Awwal faced. Others included the emirate’s tradition that only sons of emirs were eligible to contest. Alhaji Awwal was a grandson.

    Another formidable obstacle was the state’s council of emirs, headed by the late Etsu Nupe, Alhaji Umar Sanda Ndayako. The council played an advisory but important role in the selection of emirs in the state.

    As Niger State’s governor between 1979 and 1983, Alhaji Awwal and the Etsu Nupe became estranged over the politics of the state. It, therefore, did not come as a surprise that the Etsu supported the selection of Alhaji Bashir as emir. In this, however, he was not alone. Minutes of the meeting of the council on September 14, 1993, which the rested Citizen magazine was in possession of and excerpts of which it published in its cover story of the July 32, 1994 edition, showed that all the other six emirs present – those of Kontagora, Borgu, Agai’e, Lapai, Minna and Kagara – unanimously supported the choice of Alhaji Bashir.

    Even the governor was said to have been reluctant in his rejection of Alhaji Bashir and merely bowed to intense pressure from his “ogas at the top”, i.e. friends of Alhaji Awwal in high places, to ask the kingmakers to rethink their choice.

    The problem with the governor’s pretext was that the kingmakers he rejected were the same ones that chose Alhaji Ibrahim as Suleja’s seventh emir in 1979, the only difference being Alhaji Awwal’s father as the Dallatu.

    Instead of heeding the governor’s instruction for a rethink, the Galadima headed for the courts in October 1993. As if in anticipation of this move, another selection panel was reconstituted at the behest of the state government, this time with Santali replacing Galadima as the chair. Predictably the new panel shortlisted four candidates and put Alhaji Awwal on top and Alhaji Bashir as third.

    The governor quickly announced Alhaji Awwal as the new emir on September 23, 1993. All hell broke loose in Suleja the following day and in the aftermath of the riots that followed it became impossible for months to turban Alhaji Awwal as the emir.

    On November 17 1993, General Sani Abacha struck and threw out the civilian governors elected under General Babangida, including, of course, Dr Inuwa. Then, on May 10, 1994, the Niger State High Court sitting in Suleja under Justice Oseni Oyewo ruled in favour of Alhaji Bashir and directed that the state government “appoints him as the emir of Suleja, immediately.” The government did not comply immediately and Alhaji Awwal went to court on appeal and succeeded in getting a stay of execution.

    Still the state’s military administrator, Colonel Cletus Emein, who had succeeded Dr Inuwa, seized upon the judgement of the Suleja High Court and immediately deposed Alhaji Awwal as emir and banished him to Rijau in Kontagora emirate. However, instead of Rijau, Alhaji Awwal chose and was allowed to live in Kaduna.

    It was from there that he appealed the Suleja High Court judgement all the way to the Supreme Court. There, he finally got a favourable judgment on December 6, 1996 when the court said his selection in 1993 was valid.

    However, Suleja remained without an emir until January 2000 when the civilian governor at the time, Abdulkadir Kure, took the bull by the horns and restored him as emir. Again all hell broke loose.

    It’s been 13 years since those riots and the people of Suleja have since resigned to their apparent fate. In those 13 years Alhaji Awwal, on his part, has conducted himself in ways that seem to have endeared him to his subjects and eliminated the initial popular opposition he faced. In the simplicity of his lifestyle and in shunning materialism, he seems today to be the nearest replication among all the emirs in the North of the much revered late Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Abubakar III, father of the current Sultan, who reigned for over 50 years.

    As he celebrates 20 years of his controversial ascension as the eighth emir of Suleja, he must be aware that the world is watching to see how he resolves the problem of his emirate’s kingmakers, which has been at the heart of the crisis of his own selection. Right now all four – Madaki, Galadima, Wambai and Dallatu – are princes rather than his ordinary subjects. Were he to pass away today there will be no proper panel to choose a new emir, something that can easily plunge the emirate into a crisis worse than his own.

    The emir must also know that there are indeed speculations in town that he is moving quietly to make his ruling house the only one. These speculations may be totally baseless. Even then he should not dismiss them as mere mischief. Instead he should come out openly to assure his subjects that the speculations are false.

    As a deeply religious emir, probably the closest duplication of a scholar-emir in the North since the deposition of Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi in 1963 as one of Kano’s most powerful emirs, he should know from his own experience that men can only propose but it is only God who disposes.

    He should therefore focus his mind on leaving behind a praiseworthy legacy and leave the rest to the Almighty God.

    Allah ja zamanin sarki! Ya sa sarki ya gama lafiya.