The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

  • POT POURRI: Annkio Briggs and other stories

    POT POURRI: Annkio Briggs and other stories

    Madam Annkio Briggs, President Jonathan and 2015: I was stopped in my track by an interview in Saturday Vanguard of April 6, 2013. It is titled: “Jonathan must complete South-South slot in 2015 – Annkio Briggs.” Taken aback at such a statement coming from a much respected critic and social interventionist, I read the story ravenously trying to understand the context of Annkio’s assertion but all through the interview, the above headline seemed to have been detached from the body of the story or edited out of it. However, one could see Annkio’s overflowing sympathy for the Goodluck Jonathan presidency and the can-do-no-wrong fervor with which she defends the president.

    It is all understandable that this amazon of the Niger Delta would be drawn to the trenches in defence of her kin; filial sympathy is only an innate call especially when you have endured a life of blatant inequalities, inequity and injustice. Nigeria has been graceless to the land that has afforded her sustenance in the last 50 years, raping and ravaging the Niger Delta most wantonly. One understands Annkio’s angst but we all have come to the harsh reality, most regretfully, that Goodluck Jonathan will not give us succor. Not to Annkio, not to the vastly damaged Niger Delta and certainly not to Nigeria.

    All of us who riled against the so-called cabal in 2010, who rushed to vote Jonathan in 2011 in expectation of a breath of fresh air have all have been sucker-punched it seems. Today, we are left bewildered, frustrated and foaming in the mouth. How could we have gotten it so wrong? How could a man who had a PhD in the bag and the combined hands-on of a deputy governor, governor, vice president, acting president and finally president; how could he be caught up in such inebriated inertia in running the affairs of state. To therefore insist on a second term for a guy who flunked the first term woefully must be the worst kind of self-immolation.

    Annkio insists some elements vowed to make the polity ungovernable for the president; she proclaims that the problems we are embroiled in today have heaped up like refuse for over 60 years and she caps it that, “No other President in the past can claim to have done what Jonathan has done.” Haba Annkio! While it might help to show us just one problem President Jonathan has mastered, it is trite to remind that it’s not how long you rule but the vision, will and character at play? How has Boko Haram got on the way of the East-west road, on delivering power and driving the building of refinery complexes in Nigeria? Is it the Boko Haram that has engendered the mind-bending corruption that has signposted and literally destroyed the Jonathan era? Even Annkio would agree that Corruption has done more harm to the Jonathan administration than the BH and MEND put together.

    Lastly, if the president has wasted the better part of this year in Tom & Jerry-like skits worrying about Rotimi Amaechi instead of driving his so-called reform agenda, who is to be blamed? Creating bogus excuses for the president will never help him to redeem himself. The unpalatable truth is that if elections were held today, Nigerians would probably rise as one to vote out this president. Good for him that he still has two years to pull the chestnut out of the fire, and better for him that his name happens to be Goodluck.

    PDP’s house of commotion Does Nigeria’s ruling clan, the Peoples Democratic Party have a strategy unit that thinks for it? It sure must have a think-tank having claimed to be the biggest party in Africa (unless it is a big for nothing fellow). Here is a quick assignment for PDP eggheads to chew upon quickly: let it do a content analysis of all the PDP stories in the national dailies in the last three months. The report will give the PDP top-notch a clue as to whether the party deserves to be running a country as big as Nigeria (or any country at all for that matter). The harsh truth is that today’s PDP reminds us of those days as kids when we played in the sand: “I will play daddy and you will play junior,” someone will suggest, “No, you will be uncle and I will be daddy,” another will counter and we would go on and on lost in their baby babbles. This is what the PDP has regaled us with in much of the 14 years it has been in power. An air-headed party can only beget air-headed governments. As I write this piece, I do not know what PDP stands for, what is its vision, mission, philosophy and its core essence. Any wonder Nigeria has been in regression in all spheres since the ascendance of PDP?

    Have you not been reading the utterly vacuous reports emanating from the PDP house recently? Ah, Oyinlola frets! Oh,Bamanga Tukur smooches governors! Anenih goes on merry-go-round! PDP governors say yes to Tukur, no, they actually said no! On and on! This cannot be any way to run a great party. PDP has dumbed-down this country so much that we will need a giant crane to reclaim our land.

    Ike Ekweremadu: upstairs peering down News filtering out of Enugu State suggests that Chief Ekweremadu, Deputy Senate President (DSP) is eyeing the Enugu State government House in 2015. Ouch, what a climb down that would be. Though most matters concerning the 2015 electoral ‘warfare’ is still in the realm of speculation, we offer this unsolicited but humble advice to our distinguished number two senator, which is that,climbing down to seek to govern Enugu State is a no, no. We suggest he continues to nurture his already high profile for bigger jobs in the future.

    Lagos gangland.com Incipient gangster activities have been threatening to over take Lagos State for a few years now. Late February, a Lagos State University student known as Damoche was shot dead at the university’s gate. In the last few days, two other apparent members of rival gangs have been shot dead in cold blood. One, said to be a student in the US who was on holidays was killed in Idi-Oro area and another went by the name of Old Skool was gunned down in Somolu-Bariga all in the Lagos Mainland.

    While the Lagos State Government strives to make a model city of Lagos, it must not lose sight of the fact that law and order is supreme. Government officials, security agencies and indeed everyone knows that armed gang cells have become the order in most communities in Lagos with Mushin, Fadeyi, Somolu and Bariga being perhaps the most notorious. Anomie looms when groups of young men arm themselves and regale in killing, maiming the citizenry and terrorising their neighbourhood without fear of repercussions. Governor Babatunde Fashola and the security agencies must move to end this festering lawlessness. Government must stamp its authority.

    AIRCONDITIONED FLY-OVERS: come and see Amosun wonder! I had heard the story but I did not pay it any mind until I saw the photograph on the back page of The Punch last Monday. A newly built air conditioned pedestrian bridge in Abeokuta, Ogun State. My ‘surprisation’, I said muttered as I marveled at the latest Nigerian wonder. How did they come about this bountiful idea and how is it gonna work? To what end is this and how is it gonna be sustained; or are we trying to give the hoi polloi a taste of what we enjoy in which case we are set to trigger a dangerous phenom? In short one could go around the bend pondering this wonder. Perhaps one must go traverse this flight of fancy to fully appreciate it.

  • Once upon an idea

    Once upon a time, there was community. And it was not just an idea; it was also a practice. Does anyone, except foreigners looking for something other than what they have, still believe that we practise community? Those who do are engaged in an unconscious act of self-deceit. For what is the scope of such a community? Does it include the kidnappers? Or armed robbers? Or suicide bombers?

    Sure, we can indulge in a healthy nostalgia of what was. However, it’s even more rewarding to reflect on the logic of what was when it was. The question then is what is the logic of the relationship of the individual to the community in days gone by? How did it evolve? How was it destroyed?

    We may have a good idea of the evolution and practice of community, especially in Yorubaland, by taking a few steps back to the coming-into-being of a new member of a household. The new baby arrives into the waiting hands of the elder members of the household. From that point on, they see the baby as theirs. They invest their time and resources on her. Her naming ceremony is significant because it is the time she is formally recognised through naming. The names she is given reflect the values of the family and community. They must guide her so she does not bring the family name to ridicule.

    The process of socialisation begins right from birth and all extended family members have a role to play. The structure of the family compound makes this easy since everyone is close by. A child cannot misbehave without being corrected immediately. Love is lavished, but the rod is not spared. In this kind of environment, growing children are able to see themselves as a part of an extended family household and not as independent atoms. They see their intrinsic relation to others and see the interdependent existence of their lives with others.

    The picture just painted suggests the limit of individualism. Not that the community forces itself on an unyielding individual; rather the individual, through socialisation and the love and concern which the household and community have extended to him/her cannot now see himself or herself as anything apart from her community. Interest in her success is shown by members of the extended family who regard her as their “blood” and the community members are also able to trace their origin to a common, even if mythical ancestor. There is, therefore, a genuine feeling of oneness among its members.

    The process of socialisation, which begins in the family compound, ultimately gets extended to the community playground and market square, where the child is further exposed to the virtue of communal life. Here, the child and others like her have their exposure to the display of selfless efforts by adult members of the community. They see how adults contribute to the welfare of the community; how they contribute towards the education of one of them; how they prepare the market place for the new yam festival, etc.

    Building on the initial experience in the family compound, these new members of the community now see themselves as destined to carry the banner of the community. They make up their mind to do their part. They will pursue community interest and shun individualism. This is the meaning of the common saying: I am because we are. It follows that the common rendering of this saying to the effect that the individual in traditional Yoruba society is crushed by the almighty presence of the community is not the whole truth.

    Of course, individuals are valued in themselves and as potential contributors to communal survival. Further it is known that many individuals have the wisdom to guide the community and such people are well-respected. After all, the wisdom that created the idea and sustained the practice of community in the first place originated with individuals.

    This conception of the person in relation to the community is derived from particular metaphysical assumptions that are themselves value-laden and are therefore the basis for the articulation of particular moral values to which all subscribe. First, a person is a creature of God and as such is endowed with dignity and inherent worth. This is based on the belief that a creature of God shares in the dignity and worth that is sourced by God. This is the basis of Yoruba belief in the individuality of persons.

    Second, there is a metaphysical basis for egalitarianism in the Yoruba account of the making of humans. The most important element in the make-up of humans, that which endures their existence is emi, the breath of life; it is given by God and is given equally to all. Therefore, no-one can claim a greater share of God’s love and care, and everyone can claim an equal right to life.

    Third, a person thus endowed with dignity and inherent worth has a capacity for moral virtue and responsible choice and is therefore subject to praise or blame.

    Specific moral values also follow these metaphysical assumptions. First, because the individual is a creature and child of God, the community regards itself as the guardian of the baby, as seen above. Therefore it cannot cause unnecessary harm to the child and thus to an adult, and it must continuously seek the promotion of the good and welfare of the child.

    Second, a child that is immersed in love and care from infancy to adulthood in this way has a responsibility to contribute to the welfare of the children that he or she brings into the world and to the continuity of the group. Indeed, the faithful discharge of this responsibility is an essential precondition for the accord of personhood status to adults of sound body and mind. In other words for this group of individuals, personhood is an acquired status. An irresponsible loafer is treated as a non-person.

    The solidarity among members of a community is healthy because it is beneficial to all. There is common enjoyment and/or common suffering. But what must be prized most highly is that when genuine community relations exist, there cannot be a case of one section rising against the other. For there is an in-built mechanism of unity made possible by the internalisation of the communal norms by young and old, men and women: “I am because we are.” When I am conscious of the fact that my existence is made possible by the reality of the community, I will not undermine that reality since I know that my existence would be impacted.

    We have now embraced the logic of individualism at the expense of community. Yet we are wondering why things have fallen apart. Even our religious sensibilities have been destructive of our traditional values and have embraced the logic of individualism wherein what is important is no longer our earthly communities but those of the world beyond. The consequence of this is that it doesn’t really matter what happens to the former, individuals who embrace the latter have nothing to fear.

    Whereas communities of yore invested in the training of their youths according to their understanding and the resources available to them, we have neglected the youth in spite of the abundant of resources available to us. Yet we expect them to see themselves as communal beings. We practise a “do-or-die” politics in which opposing camps are construed as enemies to be eliminated, the antithesis of communitarian ethos, and we wonder why militants thrive across the land. Whereas in genuine communities, either everyone is poor or everyone is wealthy, we are now comfortable with the combination of extremes of undeserved wealth and extremes of unjustifiable poverty. Isn’t it time we learned the simple truth that what we sow is what we reap?

  • When evil stalks the land

    When evil stalks the land

    Fear rules the land these days. The people live in fear. Whether in or out of the house, they are afraid because they don’t know when that kidnapper or robber will strike. Even though many of us live in fortresses, we no longer feel safe behind our high fences. The walls we built round ourselves to protect us have become our prison yards. As we go out daily, we pray that evil will not befall us; that we will return home safe and sound. When we do, we heave a sigh of relief and thank God for His mercies.

    On the road and at work, we say the same prayer. ‘’Father, oh Lord, protect us from those watching us with evil intentions’’. Our prayers for protection and preservation have been doing wonders, if not many would have found themselves in the lair of hoodlums. Hardly a day passes without news of kidnapped or missing persons. We have seem to come to terms with it as a way of life. We tend to believe that these things must happen and when they don’t happen, we are shocked. Isn’t that strange? We are shocked by what should ordinarily not move us, while we feel unconcerned when calamity befalls people.

    Parents either kill or sell their children. Some also use their children for money rituals. This is the depth to which our society has sunk. Human lives no longer have value. To hoodlums, killing is nothing; they seem to derive joy from this dastardly act. Why are people so bestial? Why do they kill or kidnap people? Is it for money? The ready answer will be to say it is for money, but we will be missing the point by so doing. Something must have informed a person’s decision to become a killer or a kidnapper or a robber. Some have blamed it on poverty; others on the devil. What this shows is that these people are psychologically troubled.

    In the past few years, these maniacs have made the country unsafe. We all live with our hearts in our mouths for fear of the unknown. When the Niger Delta militants were granted amnesty in 2009, we thought we had seen the end of kidnappings and all sorts of killings, only for some faceless goons in the Southeast to start their own. Then came Boko Haram. The Southeast goons have made kidnapping their business and they are making a kill from it. They kidnap people and get their families to pay huge ransom. They are smiling to the bank, while many households are wailing over their losses because at times, those kidnapped are killed. In some instances, they collect the ransom and still kill their victims.

    Pioneer deputy governor of Anambra State, the late Dr Chuddy Nwike, was one of such victims. After kidnapping Nwike, the kidnappers demanded $30 million ransom. The family negotiated and they agreed to collect N5 million. The family took the money to the designated place, hoping that Nwike will be released as agreed. He was but the family got only his body. As I write this on Tuesday night, his killers have yet to be found. Of course, this is no longer a case of kidnapping but murder for which those involved should be brought to book because it might have been done deliberately as revealed in the confession of one of those arrested over the abduction of Prof Kamene Okonjo, mother of Finance Minister Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

    The suspect killed his victim, a woman, to avenge, according to his accomplice, the death of his brother. Was the brother killed by the slain woman? he didn’t say. It seems there is no part of the country where they cannot strike. Abeokuta, Abuja, Enugu, Warri, Ilorin, Umuahia, Kano, Kaduna, you name it, they have been there. Many people are abducted daily on the streets or in their homes that we don’t get to hear about. These hoodlums are so brazen in their daredevilry that they can operate anywhere, even if security operatives are around. Does it mean that our security agents cannot match these hoodlums who have spread their tentacles far and wide?

    They struck in Lagos on Monday night when they kidnapped Ejigbo Local Council Development Area chairman Kehinde Bamigbetan, who was on his way home. Bamigbetan is not your typical politician, who could be said to have had a run in with his opponents to warrant his abduction. Until he served former Governor Bola Tinubu as chief press secretary (CPS) a few years ago, he was a reporter doing his job quietly. Even as CPS, he was not a loud person. He preferred to allow his work speak for him. So, why will anyone kidnap such a person? It appears the spate of kidnappings is not going to stop any time soon. So, the government must rise up to the challenge of smoking out these monsters.

    The nation cannot continue to be held by the jugular by some criminals who think that they can use the weapon of fear to cow everybody. The insecurity in the country is not something for the government to gloss over. It should rise up and act now before things get out of hand, that is if they have not already. Those in power should not think that because they have security men at their beck and call, they are safe from the reach of these criminals. They should show concern over what is happening because what comes round have a way of going round. They may have an army guarding them today, but will they enjoy that privilege for life. Once they are out of office, they are as vulnerable as those of us who look up to them for protection today.

    In as much as I don’t want to heap all the blames on the government, I cannot shy away from the fact that it is not doing enough to address the security challenge. The police, which should lead the campaign against kidnappers and other criminals, are not alive to their responsibility, yet they enjoy huge support from the states. Virtually all the states are trying to outdo one another in order to meet the needs of the police, yet we are not getting results from them.

    I wonder if the Inspector-General

    of Police (IGP) is still there. If

    he is, he should wake up from slumber. The police get vehicles, communication gadgets and even subvention from the states to facilitate their job of crime fighting, yet they find it difficult to work. What is their problem? What is the essence of all this support by the states if the police cannot deliver?

    We cannot continue to wring our hands in frustration over our inability to tame the excesses of kidnappers, Boko Haram and other criminal elements and at the same time be wasting money on equipping the police. No, there is no sense in doing that. If the police cannot make use of these equipment to curb crime, it will only be logical for the states to stop wasting money on them.

    Kidnappers are on the rampage and they are not ready to stop because of the easy money they are making. It does not matter to them that they waste lives in order to make this easy money. To them, it is all in the line of business and so the end justifies the means.

    As long as there is easy money in kidnapping because people are ready to pay ransom secretly, they will continue to brave the odd to get it. Should the government continue to watch as these people perpetrate criminality? The answer is obvious; there is nowhere in the world where criminals are given a free hand to operate and ours cannot be different.

    It behoves on the government to break the back of kidnappers and other criminals by applying the force of law. We have allowed them to operate for too long and they have come to see themselves as being above the law. But nobody is above the law. We must make them know this by bringing them to book no matter what it takes.

  • Hegemon in a peripheral region: Future of Nigeria’s foreign policy (3)

    Hegemon in a peripheral region: Future of Nigeria’s foreign policy (3)

    The present educational institutions that are grossly under-funded and under-financed are not capable of producing the outcome that this country needs for its industrial and economic leap forward. Yet this is critical to the kind of role Nigeria has to play in the sub-region. Nigeria can afford to finance its educational institutions at the appropriate level of funding and also provide modern infrastructure required in an emerging economy. One of the obstacles to this availability of funds is the current pervasive corrosive and debilitating corruption. It does not seem the Nigerian elite particularly those running the affairs of the country at public and private sectors realise that corruption is not just a criminal offence but has become a cog in the wheel of development and has therefore become a security issue because without development there would be a rise in poverty and immiseration in our country. Economic growth and development would redound on our country’s political stability, domestic strength and consequent power and influence in our region.

    Political stability is a necessary condition of development particularly in a post-colonial country like Nigeria. The bane of African politics is the instability arising out of the plural nature and the multiplicity of tongues in many African countries. The incessant coup d’états of the past was the result and the manifestation of this malady. In the case of Nigeria, about 350 different languages and ethnicities have been identified. Some of these languages are of course related. This multilingualism is further compounded by the divide of religion among votaries of Christianity, Islam and Traditional African religions.

    Poverty in the land has unfortunately exacerbated fissiparous religious and ethnic tendencies in the country. Politics in Nigeria is becoming gradually a zero-sum game.

    Electoral victories are most times manipulated through rigging and other anti-democratic means. Leadership selection is usually compromised by ethnic differences and affiliations to the extent that dissatisfaction with the political process is generally the outcome of electoral and political party processes. The result of all these is political instability.

    The exposure of the country to the outside world of terrorism has not helped. In order to be heard, ethnic and religious factions in the country sometimes result to arms as witnessed by violence in the Niger-Delta; ethnic militancy in the South-east and South-west expressed through cultural organisations and youth movements. But the most challenging problem the country now faces is the terrorism of religious fundamentalism in certain parts of Northern Nigeria. There is growing evidence and fear that the Boko Haram movement has links with the Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM) and Al-Shabab in the Horn of Africa. The ongoing campaign against the forces of secession and fundamentalism in Mali, in which Nigeria is involved militarily, is the greatest challenge the current government faces. It is a case of stopping fire in a neighbour’s house so that it does not consume one’s house. For Nigeria therefore to remain stable and prosperous, steps would have to be taken to consolidate democratic and economic development at home. Once this is done, the place of the country would be assured in the sub-region, in Africa and in the world at large.

    Nigeria’s role in the future of the sub-region

    Unlike physical development of a country in areas such as housing, roads, infrastructure, telecommunication, educational facilities, health and social welfare, a country’s achievement in the area of foreign policy is sometimes difficult to measure. The dividends of foreign policy are always not quantifiable, even though peace is a factor in development, it is not easily measurable. Nevertheless, peace in our region, due to Nigeria’s leadership, especially when it physically intervenes to prevent wars would be obvious to everybody. In recent past, Nigeria’s intervention in Guinea-Bissau, in Togo, in Principe and Sao Tome outside our region was decisive in bringing peace and avoiding war in those countries. Our intervention in Liberia and Sierra Leone, worthwhile as it was, had to be subsumed in the final stages within the UN peace-keeping operations. Nigeria’s role in bringing peace to Liberia and Sierra Leone was not always acknowledged and sometimes it is forgotten when the success is ascribed to the UN; despite the fact that the fighting and dying in those two countries had virtually been done before the UN’s advent and presence and this was at a cost of about $8billion to Nigeria’s exchequer between 1989 and 1998.

    On the question of peace keeping for which Nigeria has acquired justified credibility and covered some yardage in our march to global recognition, there is need to preserve the sanctity of our reputation. Along with India and Bangladesh, we have provided troops in many UN Peace Keeping and Peace Enforcement operations. But in recent times due to corruption and the Nigerian “factor” our troops have sometimes been provided with poor arms and equipment leading to our troops performing below par and consequent UN criticism of our troops’ ineffectiveness and lack of courage. Our honour is involved. If we are to continue to be relevant in this respect we must adopt best practice in kitting, provisioning and arming our troops with weapons that are new and conformable to UN military standards. This in any case is a reimbursable expenditure and the UN pays for services that meet UN standards and there is no reason to buy cheap or second-hand weapons for our troops.

    Our involvement in peacemaking in the Ivory Coast raises some fundamental questions in one’s mind. For the first time in our history, Nigeria had to compete with South Africa in our sub-region for influence. In the past, we used to imagine there were two powers in West Africa, Nigeria and France, but the involvement of former South Africa’s President, Thabo Mbeki in the Ivory Coast was a sign of what is to come in the future, when South Africa and Nigeria would have to compete for Africa’s leadership. The denouement in the Ivory Coast finally came in the form of French military intervention, albeit under UN auspices to get rid of Laurent Gbagbo who is to face trial in the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Nigeria was complicit in this French intervention. It is true that Laurent Gbagbo should have left power after losing the election; but a situation where a former colonial power intervenes to remove a sitting African president and with Nigeria being complicit in this removal raises a fundamental question in one’s mind.

  • Challenge of unemployed youths

    Challenge of unemployed youths

    And suddenly the real architects of the current situation where majority of about four million annual graduates from our universities roam the streets without jobs, where PDP stalwarts, and their sympathizers who have access to free money import products of labour from other nations while over 60% of our 40 million youths remain jobless, and those whose policies have contributed to the misery of our youths (the National Bureau of Statistics placed the country’s misery index at 34 per cent), are warning us of the coming apocalypse if the problem of youth unemployment is not urgently addressed.

    Leading those who have been shedding crocodile tears about the misery of our unemployed youths is the father of PDP himself, ex-President Obasanjo who when challenged over his administration’s lack of a coherent policy on employment told bemused Nigerians that the recharge card and plantain chip hawkers on the streets of our major cities represented dividends of PDP policy on employment.

    And now the CBN governor, irrepressible Sanusi Lamido Sanusi whose policy led to the loss of about 50% of the banking sector workforce and who recently called for downsizing of the civil service by 50%, quoting data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) put unemployment rate in 2011 is 29.3 per cent, Yobe and Kano at 60.6 and 67 per cent respectively. This according to him means ‘unemployment has not only doubled in the last five years’, but saw the development whereby ‘unemployment is widening at a time of economic growth’, as an aberration’

    Sanusi who has been the star of Jonathan PDP administration in the last four years accused government of failing to ‘create an enabling environment that can encourage industrialisation of a country that produces oil yet imports refined fuel, a country that is in the tomato belt yet import tomatoes’.

    He perhaps forgot to add that we are a nation with acres upon acres of rubber plantation and sixth oil producer in the world and yet import used and substandard tyres; that we abandoned our massive oil palm plantations to import palm oil from Malaysia that came to borrow palm nuts from us; that in spite of our over 1,200 kilometres of coast line, we have for the past 50 years imported fish and that with over 80 million hectares of arable land, two third of which is located within a geographical zone where Sanusi told us his grandfather once supervised ground nut pyramids, we import ground nut oil.

    Government officials are also not left out. They have been talking from both sides of the mouth. While the Statistician-General of the Federation, Dr. Temi Kale put the figure of jobless and unemployed Nigerians at 20.3 million and praised President Jonathan for this feat, the Director General of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), the body statutorily charged with the responsibility to design and implement programs aimed at combating unemployment in the country, Mallam Abubakar Mohammed on his part put the number of unemployed youths at 50%.

    But although President Jonathan administration has continued to dig the hole making our escape more difficult with acts of executive profligacy, the president’s inability to fight corruption, and our legislators shameless involvement in constituency contracts, etc, but he cannot be held responsible for the situation in which we today find ourselves.

    That unenviable position is reserved for the past successive military regimes that mortgaged the present and the future of our youths. While Gowon and Murtala/Obasanjo regimes destroyed the academia and the bureaucracy, the two most important institutions in society, Babangida completed the cycle through structural economic derailment otherwise known as Structural Adjustment Program (SAP).

    Buhari lost his job because he was not prepared to do what Babangida, Kalu Idika Kalu, and Olu Falae eventually did. They accepted IMF loan, opened our market to importation which only increased employment for the youths of the exporting nations. Eskor Toyo and Sam Aluko warned that we would become a net importer of cheap goods, that local manufactured goods would become more expensive, that foreign capital would become more mobile while our labour also a factor of production would be immobile. Beko Ransome-Kuti, Gani Fawehinmi, Alao Aka-Bashorun and others took to the streets and were clamped into prison serving jail terms from Ikoyi to Gashua. Newspaper houses were closed down. Journalists were picked up in broad day light. Many simply escaped to Afghanistan.

    Babangida and his group devalued our naira which was almost at par with the pound sterling. And as our nation became a nation of immigrants, Margaret Thatcher in order to prevent economic immigrants from Nigeria slammed a visa requirement on Nigeria, a commonwealth country that was hitherto exempted from visa requirement.

    Of course, the PDP, peopled by military new breed that breed only corruption, messed up the privatization and commercialization exercise imposed by IMF as part of their conditionalities. Nasir El Rufai, the former BPE Director General confirmed blue chip companies on which the nation had invested over a hundred billion dollars were sold at give a way prices to PDP members and their cronies. World Bank projected the exercise would lead to the creation of seven million jobs. But our nation lost the enterprises, lost the job opportunities and lost our investments as a result of PDP greed.

    Today our ceramic industries, textile industries, automobile support industries, and pharmaceutical industries are all dead –their factories turned to ware houses for Italian tiles, imported guinea brocade or Taiwanese rice or fake substandard India and Chinese drugs.

    Poverty started by Babangida’s SAP is today manifesting in the activities of hungry and angry uneducated youths led by unemployed educated youths from the north, kidnapping for ransom and human trafficking and prostitution by jobless youths in the South-east and South-south.

    And now that those who mortgaged the present and future, of our youths have become apprehensive; now that our angry youths especially those below 30 years who have never known anything outside military dictatorship and corruption by military-created new breeds that populate our national and state assemblies know where they are coming from, they can take their future in their hands.

    After all, Chinua Achebe told us, if a people cannot remember where rain started beating them, they may not know where to dry their clothes. Now, our twitter savvy facebook friendly, miracle-seeking drenched youths, who earnestly supported President Jonathan on the basis of their interaction on the social media in the 2011 election, now know why they have remained drenched. They also can now see that the military is not an option.

    For their economic liberation, they must get their politics right. And to do this, they need a sense of history instead of saying the past has gone with the old people. This was the trick Babangida used to destroy our political culture and saddle us with new breed without values or role models.

    Their job is therefore simple. Mobilise and elect leaders that will be on the side of the people. Leaders who will not like the military and PDP buccaneers, behave like looters of conquered territories; leaders that can stop importation of textile, shoes, ceramics, tyres, fish, and rice. Leaders that can judiciously divert huge resources wasted on phantom fuel subsidy to massive subsidy of agriculture sector and the cotton belt of the north to keep restive youths busy. And above all leaders who have faith in Nigeria and ready to have a national conference to discuss our differences, unlike military and their PDP surrogate who are insisting Nigeria unity is not negotiable because they are beneficiaries of the current anarchy.

  • A vote for amnesty

    A vote for amnesty

    WHO can beat Nigeria’s ingenuity?

    Just when you think that a problem is intractable and that we should learn to live with it, a solution appears and the matter is resolved. Just like that.

    Whoever thought the serenity in the Niger Delta was possible? Now oil companies are pumping the stuff without much hassle. Forget the whimpering about oil theft – Is there a place where you do not have petty thieves and scoundrels? Former militants have left the rough and tumble life of the creeks from where they almost turned the Niger Delta into a Somalia of sorts for the fast and bustling life of the city. Many have been to South Africa and some other places that used to exist only in their imagination. Their former bosses now belong to the enviable league of billionaires, running huge contracts, living like kings and partying like Hollywood stars. New life.

    Does anybody still doubt the efficacy of amnesty as the magical pill for many – its vociferous advocates actually insist all – of the ailments that trouble Nigeria? Forget the recent killing of 12 policemen in the quiet creeks of Bayelsa. That was the handiwork of some idle criminals, who we shall, unfortunately, always have with us, anyway.

    After a long hesitation, the Federal Government has been persuaded to have faith in its own medicine. Now, it has agreed that granting amnesty to the Boko Haram insurgents will stop their bloody campaign against the state, a fiendish campaign that has claimed thousands of lives and limbs.

    President Goodluck Jonathan was insisting that the sect’s leaders were faceless and, therefore, could not be pardoned. We can’t grant amnesty to ghosts, he once told elders in Borno State, the engine-room of the insurgency.

    But trust those spoilers who will always want to throw a spanner in the works. They would not even allow the committee set up to study the feasibility of amnesty for Boko Haram submit its report before telling the government to abandon the scheme without suggesting any other viable alternative. They said it would cost money and give people the impression that any group can take on the state and win. The government, as focused as ever, has refused to listen to these unsolicited expertise. It is forging ahead with amnesty.

    How can you run such a gigantic scheme smoothly without spending money? Committees will be set up. Won’t the members get sitting allowances? They surely will require the coziness of a five-star hotel, perhaps somewhere in Dubai or the serenity of the Obudu Cattle Ranch to hammer out the details of the deal. How will their hotel bills be settled? Who picks the travel bills? What about other logistics? Souvenirs for committee members for sparing their time and risking their all for such a crucial national assignment. Cars for their shuttling from one centre to another. Lunch break. Dinner. And a gala night after the whole process must have been completed. Who will pay for all that?

    I am sure those leading technocrats who are well grounded in the workings of the bureaucracy must have advised the government not to listen to the blathering that amnesty does not necessarily mean dishing out cash.

    The sect’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, has rejected amnesty but elders insist the scheme must go on. That is the spirit.

    In Abia State, over 5,000 repentant kidnappers and other criminals are seeking amnesty. They petitioned the House of Assembly that they surrendered their arms in 2010 but are yet to be enlisted in the programme. Governor Theodore Orji recalled that Aba, the industrial city, used to be a den of criminals. The government built camps and was about resettling the youths when the Federal Government announced its amnesty. Now, the youths are stranded.

    Said Orji: “They were in camps…but when they heard that the Federal Government had provided largesse to their colleagues, they abandoned the camps. We took their names to the Federal Government, but no response. They promised not to make trouble…they maintained it till their kingpin, Osisikankwu, was killed. Please, tell the Federal Government to start where we stopped.”

    Will the Federal Government listen to Orji’s cry? A fellow who realised the governor’s agony has suggested that the state should float an organisation to fight its battle for amnesty. His Excellency may consider the name Abia Youths Earnestly Ask for Amnesty(AYEAA). There can be no more auspicious time for such a group.

    A reliable source told me yesterday that there are plans to extend the bonanza to all those other groups who distract the government from providing the much vaunted but hardly available dividends of democracy so as to create a conducive atmosphere for the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to perfect its plan to capture 36 –an error there, please – 32 states in the 2015 elections.

    Most likely on the line are armed robbers and their cousins, the kidnappers as well as ritualists who have turned the country into one vast arena of serious crimes. The other day in Delta State, the kidnapped Vice Chairman (Southeast) of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Chudi Nwike, was killed. His abductors, after collecting a N5million ransom, murdered the captive, the conveyor of the cash and the driver who brought him to deliver the money.

    Imagine the effect of granting such depraved souls amnesty – with some compensation for taking them off their lucrative business. Many big men who are scared of being snatched off their SUVs can then drive round the cities without trepidation, my friends from the Southeast will start going home for festivities again and people will no longer be afraid of flaunting their wealth.

    The police will then have time to return to their all-important duties of arresting people for wandering, teaching stubborn motorists who won’t renew their particulars promptly some lessons in good citizenship and keeping overzealous motor park touts in check. Peace.

    The bloodletting in Jos has been on for so long that nobody seems to remember exactly what may have caused it. Some say it is a settler-indigene palaver. Others argue it is a matter of religious differences. Herdsmen and farmers clash. Whole families get hacked to death by night marauders. Imagine proclaiming a general amnesty for them all –complete with compensation for whatever discomfort a peace deal may have caused the combatants. Jos will return to being the home of tourism, with visitors flocking in from all over the world. Just imagine.

    Even the Lagos “area boys” can do with amnesty. Imagine the streets free of alcohol drenched, red-eyed toothless youths, their mouths foaming, singing your praises – unsolicited. It is all simple. Some compensation; just a few bucks for some of those stuff that make them high. And there will be peace.

    Who knows the pension cash scandal would not have been this terrible if the leading actors and actresses had been offered amnesty. If they won’t drop what they have stolen, an amnesty will at least stop them from stealing more. There would have been no need for the Senate to issue a bench warrant for the police chief to seize anybody. Some old people would not have been carrying placards in support of a man who the Senate believed had questions to answer. No.

    A professor of Conflict Resolution, who is a research fellow in an international agency, has just told me of a paper he is putting together on “Dialectics and dynamics of amnesty in Nigeria: A case for global application”, which he is recommending to the United Nations (UN). The result of a 10-year study, the work encapsulates all the fine details of how Nigeria formulated the magical pill that is set to bring all-round tranquility.

    It is unfortunate that Shekau has rejected amnesty. He said the sect, being the one which has been wronged, should be the one to offer Nigeria amnesty. Not the other way round. In the spirit of our belief in the efficacy of the therapy, why don’t we then ask Shekau and his boys to give us all amnesty?

    Let Bamigbetan go, please

    S I was writing yesterday, I cast a glance at the book shelf. My eyes hit Teacher, don’t teach me nonsense, written by Kehinde Bamigbetan, the Ejigbo Local Council Development Area chair who was kidnapped on Monday near his home on the outskirts of Lagos.

    Bamigbetan, a journalist-turned–politician, would not hurt a fly. His abductors are asking for $1m but I know Korki, as he is fondly called, is not rich in cash; his worth lies in his reputation as an activist who has pledged to ensure that we have a Nigeria where nobody will see crime as a lucrative venture.

    I plead with his abductors to let him go today.

     

  • Countries that cease to exist

    Trojafuit is a Latin word that means “Troy was, Troy is no more”.

    It illustrates a city that once, was but is no more. Troy is a city according to Greek legend that was captured by the Greeks under Agamemnon after a 10-year siege. Historical Troy was discovered by the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann at Hissarlik in north-western Asian Minor, a few miles inland from the Aegean Sea. The excavations conducted by him from 1870 to 1890 and by others since then, have revealed 10 periods of occupation of the city, which was destroyed and rebuilt each time.

    The first five settlements at Troy belong to the Early Bronze Age, ending soon after 2000 BC. Troy II in particular was a flourishing community, with impressive fortifications and domestic buildings, but was destroyed by a major fire. Troy VI saw an influx of new settlers who introduced horses, but an earthquake shattered their city in about 1300. It was followed by Troy VIIA, but this phase did not last long before being destroyed by fire. The indications are that this was not an accidental disaster, but accompanied the capture of the city by enemies. The date of destruction approximately by 1250,coinciding with a flourishing Mycenaean civilisation in mainland Greece, indicates that it was this event which lies behind the iliad, and that the conquerors of Troy VIIA were Greeks. Troy remained unoccupied for perhaps 400 years before Troy VIII was established. Troy IX lasted into the Roman period.

    But today inspite of all its beauty, Troy is no more.

    In fact when we refer to Troy today, it’s all in the past tense.

    There is a drink in the modern day world served at social events for celebrations and anniversaries by the very privileged, rich and powerful in the society. It is called Champagne. But the name Champagne was once a province in the Northern east France adjoining Lorraine. International trade fairs were held there in the middle ages. In 1284 the marriage of Jeanne, daughter of Henry III, the last count, to Phillip IV (the Fair) led to union with France. The discovery of the method of making its celebrated sparkling wine, champagne, is attributed to a Benedictine monk, Don Perignon (1668-1715).

    There was an Ottoman empire, Persia, Prussia, Tripolitania, Catalonia, Bengal, Corinth-a province in the old Greek, Daaphine-a former province in France, East Anglia of EastEngland, Saragossa-a province in Italy, Herlots in the ancient Greek, Chempa, Corsica, Gran Colombia, Cilicia-a province in the old Turkey, Pergamum, Northumbria, Funj empire in the old Sudan, the Frisians of the old German territory, Byzantine empire, Anjou-a province in the old France and even the Roman empire.

    These were cities or provinces or empires that once existed.

    Now, let us turn to the present; let me cite a few nations that have fought civil wars. They include Georgia, Guatemala, Rwanda, Sierra-Leone, Liberia, Nepal, Ireland, Haiti, and Yugoslavia.

    Countries like Kashmir are still in a war just like Somalia, Sri Lanka, Syria, Afghanistan, and Yemen. There is civil insurgency in Laos today, Moro uprising in the Philippines and Islamic insurgency in Thailand, drug war in Mexico and civil disturbances in Uzbekistan.

    In the Global Peace Index compiled by Jeremy Nester, he listed only 10 countries in the world today as safest countries. They are Slovenia, Finland, Canada, Japan, Sweden, Austria, Iceland, Norway,Denmark and New Zealand.

    According to him, “attitudes and demographics determines the safety of a country, the index include the number of homicides per 100,000 people, the potential for being the target of a terrorist attack, level of hostility to foreigners, educational attainment and unemployment rates and several other factors.

    Of course nobody can predict the future, and by definition travel involves some inherent risk. These include both statistically improbable occurrences like plane going down in the Andes Mountains, to more likely events like being pick-pocked on a crowded bus. Travelling to the world’s safest nations does not guarantee an incident-free trip however. In travel as in life, there are no guarantees”.

    Unfortunately today and very unfortunate indeed, Nigeria is listed among the 20 dangerous countries in the world by the Global Peace Index (GPI).

    The listing raises a concern whether this country can break up or not. In short can Nigeria glass ceiling be shattered? The answer is that it can but it is not desirable. I do not want to contemplate a situation where Nigerians will part ways among themselves.

    It is true we are facing serious challenges like other nations, but divorce is not the best solution to a troubled marriage. I want to believe that no matter what we are passing through at the moment, we shall overcome.We shall survive. For, the best comes out of us when we are down.

    And why should this country break up and for what? We should not even contemplate it at all. We have been together for long and we shall continue to be together. And there is no easy way to part. Let us think of the on-going war in Afghanistan, Syria, to teach us a lesson.

    Let us also think of what is going on in Burundi, Congo, East Timor and the Central African Republic.

    This brings to mind to the pre-civil war meeting that took place, when our military rulers had to proceed to Aburi to solve a crisis on January 4 and January 5, 1967. Aburi by the way is a town North-east of Accra, the capital of Ghana. From Accra to Aburi will take 45 minutes’ drive and it will be less when the dual carriage road from Tetteh Quarshire circle to Adenta Barrier is completed by next year.

    At Aburi the Nigeria military rulers including Yakubu Gowon, Robert Adeyinka Adebayo, David Ejoor, Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, J.E. Wey, Mobolaji Johnson, and Timothy Omo Bare all assembled. After much discussion in Aburi, the deputy inspector General of Police at that time Omo Bare, stood up and told the meeting that “We cannot sit here…. and divide up Nigeria, because the way things are now moving is towards regionalisation of everything, and I do not think it is safe or that we are right to divide up Nigeria at this table”.

    No leader, tribe or group of people has the right to break up this country. And the present political class must be reminded that they cannot escape if Nigeria should degenerate further into a major crisis.

    This country must be saved. Nigeria must not go the way of Troy or Champagne.

    • Teniola, a former Director at the Presidency writes from Lagos

     

  • Fighting the Boko Haram

    Fighting the Boko Haram

    Sometimes in early 2012, I was in Enugu where I ran into a handsome, innocent-looking, young boy who was working in the hotel where I stayed. I asked him why he was‘slaving’ out in the hotel instead of being at school. The boy simply looked at me, shook his head lazily and began a short but pathetic story that almost drew tears from my eyes. “I am 19 years old. My parents are from Imo State. I was born in Maiduguri, where we were all living until recently when we were forced to run down to the East to avoid being killed.” According to little Isaac, the father is a welder by profession while his mother is a petty trader. His immediate elder brother was a student at the University of Maiduguri, while he, Isaac, had just secured admission to the same university, before the Boko Haram disturbances escalated.

    Isaac told me that it got to a point that “these people started going from house to house to look for southerners, most especially Igbo, and they were just killing them. We had to hide in the forest for some days before we were finally able to run down to the East. My elder brother has dropped out of school. He is now in Lagos while I could not go to the university even though I had secured admission. That is why I am working in this hotel”, he said.

    Isaac’s plight and that of his entire household is typical of the endless dislocation that indigenes of a section of the country have suffered in the last three or four years of the insurgency in the North. Many have died. Many have lost one or both parents. Many others have lost their husbands, wives, children, breadwinners and all that. It would appear that apart from the indigenes of the troubled areas who are daily being callously mowed down, those who have had to bear the brunt of the displacement are people of a particular ethnic extraction. There are many others from several parts of the country but the preponderance of the ‘refugees’, if I may call them so, are from the South-east.

    Take the recent massacre in Kano. The Sabon-Gari Park that was hit by suicide bombers is mostly patronised by Igbo traders. Most of the luxury buses you find there are owned by Igbo transport magnates based in the East. Agreed many northerners and other tribes who were within that vicinity at that time were also cut down. Nevertheless, many of the victims were apparently Igbo traders.

    The ongoing insurgency is a northern breed of senseless brigandage that has been cleverly concealed as a religious war, whereas it is not. To ascribe religious fundamentalism to the disturbances is to insult the religion of Islam, which abhors violence or the taking of innocent lives. To the best of my knowledge, there is no religion that supports the shedding of innocent blood, not to talk of large-scale killings that have now become common occurrence in that part of the country.

    So, if some group of misguided youths, miscreants and other social misfits are going about killing and destroying schools, places of worship, businesses and all that, they cannot claim to be doing so in the name of Allah or God. If the mere mention of Allah by Muslims is usually followed by “the most Merciful, the most High”, then where do these criminals get their doctrine of violence and destruction from?

    One psychological way of winning this war on terrorism is to remove the toga of religion from the insurgents. In this case, rather than calling them Islamic fundamentalists, religious extremists, Jihadists or what have you, let us simply refer to them as terrorists which they are. The average man or woman in the North respects his or her religion with a passion. The average northerner, especially those without formal education, is being told that the terrorists are waging war against infidels or unbelievers. In that case, they can never cooperate with anybody working against those terrorists who they regard more or less as their messiahs who will free them from the perceived tyranny of the unbelievers.

    So first and foremost, let us change our attitude to those who engage in this senseless destruction of lives and property. They are simply terrorists. It is also very instructive to note that there are many types of Boko Haram – the religious, the political and the criminally-minded. The religious Boko Haram seem to have taken a back seat in the insurgency. They are probably those who, from time to time, have signified their intention to negotiate with government. These ones have lost steam and may have seen the futility of their escapades.

    The political Boko Haram, on the other hand, are those who hide under this facade to perpetrate political killings of opponents. The recent killing of political leaders of a particular party in Maiduguri is evidence of this. The political Boko Haram are those who want to wrestle political power either at the centre or in the states or local governments by destabilisation. With the 2015 general elections fast approaching, they could resort to political assassination of opponents.

    The last but not the least here are the criminally-minded people who have invoked Boko Haram to satisfy their satanic interests. These are those who kidnap and extort money in the name of “protection fees”. The ready armies for this group are the unemployed and hungry youths all over the place. Some even incite these jobless youths because of mere business rivalry to wreak havoc on innocent people.

    The recent revelation by Alhaji Attahiru Ahmad, the Emir of Anka, Zamfara State, says it all. The Emir had opposed the issue of amnesty for the hoodlums who are engaged in this unending insurgency. At a recent workshop held in Kaduna on peace building and conflict management for sustainable development organised by the National Emergency Management Agency, the Emir said: “Amnesty is for people you can identify. Where were our leaders when members of Boko Haram were going to receive training outside the country? Let us check ourselves; if there must be justice, we must go back to the basics.”

    Ahmad blamed the current security challenges on the elite and politicians. He said: “From experience, I have come to realise that whenever you have crisis and a proper investigation is carried out, you always find the involvement of these two classes. Within my domain, a sad experience occurred sometimes ago when an Igbo man who owned a shop was attacked and his shop burnt because his son was said to have torn a copy of the Quran. But upon investigation, I found out that a native of Anka, who was also in the same business with the Igbo man, deliberately roped in the Igbo family. He took a piece of paper with an Islamic inscription on it and tore it into pieces in front of the Igbo man’s shop and then raised the alarm, calling on all Muslim faithful to come and see a copy of the Quran torn into pieces by the son of the Igbo trader. The crowd grew angry and set the house and the shop of the Igbo man ablaze immediately. You can see that this native of Anka did this malicious act purely for personal interest and not religion. And that is how it is with the elite and the politicians”. Ahmad added: “As a traditional ruler who lives with the people, I have come to a conclusion that if the common man is left alone, there is going to be peace in the land. But any place you find crisis, just look around, you must find the involvement of these two classes –the elite and the politicians.” What more should be added? Basically nothing. Ahmad has said it all. This is food for thought!

  • Media/ Educators: Use ‘Cartographically& NigSat2 Approved’ Authentic, Map of Nigeria

    Media/ Educators: Use ‘Cartographically& NigSat2 Approved’ Authentic, Map of Nigeria

    The prevention of error, mistakes or deliberate misinformation, require the same level of awareness and investigation and a high level of suspicion about the most trivial of ‘things going wrong’. When is a mistake part of a secret plan? When it recurs, in spite of correction, again and again. Now here is a storm in breakfast tea or tuo cup On NTA Breakfast AM on 11-4-13 at 8.28am there appeared a hand-drawn ‘map’ or better called a ‘mis-map’ of Nigeria during a film about Nigeria and close to a section showing people carrying bags of farm produce out of canoes.

    The so-called ‘map’ of Nigeria had the Rivers Niger and Benue hardly out of the Atlantic Ocean, maybe about 10% from the Bight of Benin resulting in a huge‘potbellied’ North and a miniscule ‘short knickers’ South. In a few seconds, before I could exclaim or protest to my TV, the picture had gone and been replaced by a map of Nigeria showing states. But the damage had been done. Mind control. The psychological damage had been done to millions of viewers nationwide. The message was clear ‘I’m bigger than you!’ Only a few weeks ago and previously some years ago, I raised the issue of ‘Authentic Approved Maps of Nigeria’ showing accurate topography and especially the manipulation of the positions of the Rivers Niger and Benue. The manipulation of the position of these rivers is part of the psychological warfare going on as an undercurrent in the media and education systems controlled by those more interested in dominance than democracy. Of course if you teach with falsified maps and pictures in schools and show falsified maps and pictures on the media then the people are forced to believe what is fed to them.

    However it behoves those of us who went to school to learn how to ask questions to now ask questions on behalf of those who do not ask any questions. In the absence of a Tsunami eating up Nigeria’s coastline at the rate of 20 km per annum how is it possible for the Rivers Niger and Benue to be approaching Lagos so fast? Even if it is, the distance of the Rivers Niger and Benue from Maiduguri, Daura and Sokoto should remain the same abi? Fortunately we have the pictures from late NigSat 1 and surviving NigSat 2 and copious Google maps and photos from astronauts, cosmonauts and ‘Chinesonauts’ to help verify if this new phenomenon is true. Of course rivers change course, deserts become seas and seas become deserts, but these monumental events take millions of years. It really would be a first for NTA to have discovered that the River Niger and Benue are actually moving ‘down South’ into the Bight of Benin.

    It raises the question of where will all the people go when the South disappears. Will these millions be swept into the sea and extinction? Will they migrate over the Rivers Niger and Benue into the North? There what will they be called? Refugees, immigrants, Southerners or strangers? What will we call the North when there is no South? New Nigeria? These questions are for the future but the future may be here, the way the cartoonists are redrawing the map of Nigeria perhaps to suit secret political instructions. There is need for powerful Presidential, NASS, NigSat1 & 2, Geological Survey, Cartographers, geography teachers and swimmers and canoe makers conference to sort out this issue of ‘Where are the Rivers Niger and Benue in Nigeria’. The venue of the conference can be at the confluence of the said rivers where Lord Lugard pitched his tent to ‘rule’ or ruin Nigeria and where Nigeria was conceived and born -Lokoja. Of course some would prefer to have conference in Ladi Kwali Hall, now almost synonymous with profligate government spending for little poly direction returns.

    The conference outcome would be the ‘True Authentic Position of the Rivers Niger and Benue vis a vis the Northern and Southern Borders of Nigeria-2013’. It would produce the map dimensions to be used in all public and private discourses on Nigeria, teaching, politics, economics etc. Only this will save the South from being swept into the seas, mentally and physically, by cartoonists, cartographers, graphic artists and career politicians with agendas.

    Territorial grabs are well known instruments of subjugation and oppression against other countries. But criminal and calculated‘imaginary’ rerouting of physical structures as important as rivers belonging to the ‘the common man and woman’ is a new dimension in psychological warfare when we are not at declared war. Tsunamis can come from the sea and some say they can come from the land or‘Sahel Sand’ as well. Well this psychological tsunami must not be allowed to drown the South, by mistake or design.

    Who ‘owns’ Nigeria? We are not and have never been satisfied by the crumbs that fall from the table set by God as our birth-right but sat at by politicians and their close confederates/ co-conspirators- the civil servants and contractors. If any other country had our resources where would they be now? There were European monarchies with the citizens called serfs or glorified slaves. The local ruler could even sleep with your new wife on wedding night –just to show how decadent they were! We must reassess the value of being a Nigerian. Why are we being undervalued by our leaders?

  • Amnesty for Boko Haram: between Gumi and Kukah (II)

    Amnesty for Boko Haram: between Gumi and Kukah (II)

    Interestingly, many of those that have condemned the Odi massacre, including President Goodluck Jonathan – remember the embarrassing altercation last year between him and former president, General Olusegun Obasanjo, over the massacre? – and supported the granting of amnesty for the Niger Delta’s militants are the same people that have since been advocating the use of the same force, indeed an even more brutal one than that used in Odi, as the only solution to Boko Haram.

    For example, The Punch (March 14) which has consistently condemned dialogue with the sect called the amnesty “outrageous” and “gravely precarious.” Yet as recently as January 15 it had praised amnesty for the Niger Delta militants as a “panacea for peace in the hitherto restive oil-rich Niger Delta…” even though, in fairness, it also expressed some concern over the seemingly open-ended approach to the amnesty.

    The Nigerian Tribune, which also opposed any form of dialogue with Boko Haram in its editorial of July 13, 2011, had apparently forgotten its editorial of February 8, 2011 wherein it said “Soldiers and other security agents, even if they are professionally neutral, cannot bring lasting peace to Plateau State. The people of the state must begin an honest search for peace.”

    Similarly the Nobel Literature Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka has been vehemently opposed to dialogue with Boko Haram. Yet back in 2001 at the height of the clashes between security forces and the Odua Peoples’ Congress, he petitioned President Obasanjo to condemn what he said were the human right abuses of OPC members and called for dialogue between the organisation and the authorities.

    In the light of his high reputation as a champion of human rights, let me crave the indulgence of the reader to quote his petition extensively.

    “What,” he said in that petition, “has become apparent and undeniable is a systematic project of decimating this organisation through acts of intimidation, brutalisation and extra-judicial killings. We cannot stand by and watch these murders continue, openly or in secret. The gaols are filled with alleged members of the OPC. We have evidence of their routine ill treatment, and the resolve of the police to continue in their conduct, in full impunity. Much of these atrocities constitute punishable crimes in any decent society. They are being catalogued, and will be answered some day, unless restraint is exercised and the agents of excess called to strict order, and urgently.

    “No one advocates violence. State violence is no less reprehensible than the sporadic violence of extreme civil movements in society. An organisation is not condemned by the actions of infiltrators, agent provocateurs, and even the authentic lunatic fringe within a movement.

    “There is law in this nation – at least, we are persuaded that we now live in a society organised around the principle of legality. The police are not above the law. The police are certainly not licensed as killers in society. We insist: THESE KILLINGS BY STATE AGENCIES MUST STOP…

    “It is time that the OPC be called to dialogue in whatever states they exist, but most especially in Lagos State… If the path of dialogue is rejected and the current project of piecemeal pogrom is pursued, let it be understood that full responsibility lies in the hands of this government and its security agencies.”

    At the time of Prof Soyinka’s petition, OPC had clashed violently not only with the police. It had also done so with just about every major ethnic group resident in Yorubaland, all in the name of protecting Yoruba interests. Tell newsmagazine, in its edition of October 30, 2000, accurately captured the organisation’s reputation for violence in its cover story of the four days of mindless killing, maiming and destruction OPC unleashed on Lagos residents from October 15, mostly against so-called Hausa. In a sidebar to the story, the newsmagazine catalogued the organisation’s bloody attacks between July 16, 1999 and October 15, 2000 under the caption “(OPC’s) Trail of Blood.” The description couldn’t have been more apt; the bloody trail included attacks on the Ijaw Egbesu Boys in Ajegunle, Hausas in Sagamu, Ajegunle and Mushin, Igbo traders at Alaba market and even a clash between the Gani Adams and Dr Frederick Fasehun factions of the organisation in Mushin.

    The difference, they say, is that Boko Haram, unlike OPC or the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), is faceless and its goals and demands are irrational. The simple answer to the first excuse is, if Boko Haram seems faceless – and it is not, because the authorities very well know and have occasionally been in contact with several of its leaders, including Imam Abubakar Shekau – it is because it seemed politically convenient for government not to put any face to the sect’s leadership. At least twice it was persuaded to dialogue with government and lay down its arms. Each time someone, obviously an insider, leaked the move to a select media before negotiations had even begun in an apparent attempt to scuttle the talks. Worse, the authorities arrested those the sect sent to begin the talks.

    Whatever anyone may think is the difference between Boko Haram and MEND as a beneficiary of amnesty, the fact is that the militants did not come out from the creeks where they operated from until it was clear that late president, Umaru Yar’Adua, was sincere in his commitment to bring an end to the problems of Niger Delta. So far such sincerity in seeking an end to the insurgency in the North has been lacking in President Jonathan’s government and in its security agencies.

    As for the argument that the goals and demands of the sect are irrational, there is also the simple answer that however irrational, those goals and demands do not, and cannot, justify the terrible collective punishment the communities in which the sect’s suspected members live have been subjected to all these years. This is the lesson of Justice Lambo Akanbi’s judgment on Odi.

    In any case, it is not all of the sect’s demands that are irrational. Its stated objective of Islamising Nigeria through the barrel of the gun is certainly irrational if only because the Qur’an (2:256) itself categorically states “There is no compulsion in religion…” It also says in Chapter 3 Verse 20, “…So if they submit then indeed they follow the right way; and if they turn back, then upon you is only the delivery of the message and Allah sees the servants.” In other words, the word is persuasion not force.

    Islamophobes, of course, love to quote Chapter 2 Verse 191 of the Qur’an which says “And kill them wherever you find them, and drive them out from whence they drove you out, and persecution is severer than slaughter…” as evidence that Islam is a violent religion. This is simply plain mischief – probably worse; mischief, because the quotation is taken completely out of the context of the verse before it and the two after.

    Verse 190 of the chapter says “And fight in the way of Allah with those who fight with you and do not exceed the limits, surely Allah does not love those who exceed the limits.” Verses 192 and 193 respectively say “But if they desist, then surely Allah is Forgiving, Merciful” and “…Fight with them until there is no persecution, and religion should be only for Allah, but if they desist, then there should be no hostility except against the oppressors.”

    Taken as a whole it is clear from these verses that the Qur’an is against aggression. It admonishes Muslims to fight only in self defence and even then never to exceed the limits. No sane person would disagree that bombing churches, schools, motor parks and media houses, killing and maiming innocent people, etc, as Boko Haram has done, is exceeding Allah’s limits even in self defence.

    But other than Boko Haram’s untenable goal of Islamising Nigeria by force, there is nothing irrational in most of its other demands, especially the demand that the security forces stop the abuse of their powers in carrying out their duties to secure peace, law and order in society. This is a demand that has been repeatedly made by Amnesty International and myriads of local human rights organisations, including CLO and CDHR, even as they have rightly condemned Boko Haram terror.

    That the country is less secure and less peaceful today than it was four years ago when President Yar’Adua ordered the military invasion of the Maiduguri stronghold of Boko Haram, is proof positive that the preference for the use of force by the authorities almost to the exclusion of other options is a triumph of wishful thinking over the experience of the last four years.

    The big lesson of these four years of the failure to crush Boko Haram despite the military occupation of its redoubts is that amnesty for its members has become a doctrine of necessity. On its own, it may not guarantee peace, law and order in the country but without it we are not likely to see an end to the sect’s terror any time soon. Besides, it is not likely to cost the country the leg and arm that amnesty for the Niger Delta militants has cost this country – over N200 billion so far, and counting.

    Now that President Jonathan seems to have made his choice, albeit tentatively, between those like Bishop Kukah who support amnesty and those like Sheikh Gumi who oppose it, he will, hopefully, follow it through in good faith and refuse to be deterred by his more gung-ho security chiefs who have consistently failed to deliver on their boasts of crushing Boko Haram.