The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

  • Revenue agents attack Anambra CLO chair

    Revenue agents attack Anambra CLO chair

    Suspected agents of the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) nearly beat the Anambra State Chairman of the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), Comrade Aloysius Attah, to death yesterday.

    Attah was reportedly investigating activities of the agency’s operatives when he ran into them.

    He was attacked for querying their victims while the exercise was on.

    The CLO chair, who is also a freelance journalist, however, survived the attack.

    He is receiving treatment in an undisclosed private hospital.

    Recounting his ordeal, Attah said: “Having received torrents of reports from our office on various illegalities and human rights abuses perpetrated by various thugs acting as revenue agents for the Anambra State government, I decided to visit one of their operational offices located at the old Ministry of Works beside Basilica of the Most Holy Trinity, Onitsha.

    ‘’On reaching there, I encountered a group of boys operating in a light blue Mitsubishi L300 bus as they were harassing and extorting money from the occupants of a Toyota Sienna with Registration No. Lagos LND 477 AJ.

    ‘’On enquiry, I was told by the driver of the Sienna, Collins Chidubem, that the boys accosted them on their way along Awka Road, hijacked their vehicle and took them to the Works ministry.

    “He said they ransacked their bags, collected N9, 000. For a private car, Chidubem said they demanded N45, 000 from him as emblem fee, seized his car key and deflated the tyres.”

    But then, the thugs descended on him.

    Attah added: “Seven of them accosted me and demanded to know my identity. As I was about to talk, one of them shouted ‘so you came to spy on us, do you know this people before?

    “They then descended on me, kicking and hitting me at the same time. One of them they called Oga, hefty in stature, hit me on the chest and I fell down.

    “As I gasped for breath, another picked a wooden plank nearby and rested the full weight on me. I shouted for help and they boasted that they would kill me and nothing would happen.

    ‘’I managed to run with the last strength in me and hopped into a taxi that took me to the hospital for treatment and to lodge a complaint with the police,’’ he recalled.

    The Chairman of the IGR, Mr. Nwanne Ejikeme, did not respond when contacted.

  • ‘Disunity not peculiar to the Igbo’

    ‘Disunity not peculiar to the Igbo’

    What has life after power been like for you?

    Life has always been the same thing it has been to me because nothing changed. I live in the same house; I stay in the same place. So, I’ve not lost anything. Since when I was governor, it’s the same house, the same bed that I’ve been sleeping. Life has been very busy for me; travelling from one continent to the other and being in almost all sectors of the economy. It has been very challenging to make ends meet.

    What has losing the power to control Abia State meant to you?

    I never had any power of running a state before. I was just a mere messenger of the people and I left happily. This is why I’m saying I never lost anything. As governor for eight years, I was just a messenger of the people and nothing has changed. This is the house I had when I was governor, and I have not changed the house or the chairs.

    How would you respond to the allegation by your successor, whom you almost single-handedly installed, that you left virtually nothing behind and that he took the state almost from the scratch when he succeeded you?

    I’m not going to discuss the governor. I’ll leave that aspect for the people of Abia to defend. I have tried since I left not to discuss him, whether privately or publicly. It has been a strong cause of my life not to discuss him. I leave that discussion to the people of Abia. The day I handed over to him, I told him to govern with his conscience and this is the same thing I’ve continued to say.

     

    At what point did you really fall out with Governor Theodore Orji and why?

    This is what I told you, and I say it again, I am not going to discuss that governor as a matter of principle.

    But Orji has alleged that the main source of disagreement between you was the refusal of his government to sell some properties of the state in Lagos and your native Bende Local Government Area to you.

    It is not true. This I can answer you straightaway. There is nothing like that. We were building a university at Igbere and the university people asked the government to lease the Umunnato General Hospital, which I refurbished when I was governor and nobody is using till today. It’s overgrown with weeds. You can send your correspondent in Umuahia to go and look at it. So they asked him to give them 50 years lease; lease with payment. I am not going to make any profit from Igbere – to the best of my knowledge. Why should I ask him to sell property to me? I was governor for eight years when they were doing privatisation. This is a man I told that there was no need to sell government property. If I wanted to buy government property, I was governor for eight years, I could have bought it. But it wasn’t my desire. I have been living in this house at Victoria Island since 1986. I have my office at Apapa since 1986.

    In an interview in Washington recently, you spoke with displeasure about the current situation in PDP. Are you regretting your exit from the party?

    No, no, no. I was just saying that because many people there are now big billionaires, most are using government money to buy private jets and numbering them outside the country. But these guys were nobody at all before. 1 and Musa Adede of Cross River State…we bought the first private jets in 1989. So if people who were nobody before now start calling others thieves, when they are the real thieves, it’s painful. It’s what I cannot understand. Nigeria is a community of jesters where people don’t really know what their problems are.

    You were among those that founded PDP, which you left to almost single-handedly found PPA, but now you are not in any of the two parties. What does that says about your politics?

    It just says a lot about the attitude of the Nigerian people who were not steadfast. I didn’t leave PDP: Obasanjo virtually drove me and Atiku away. I was deregistered by Obasanjo. I give God the glory; I don’t feel any harm because everything we do is vanity. I am standing on the solid rock. As far as I am concerned, Nigerian people have not shown commitment to democracy. Look at my governor, he worked for me. He knows that I am not a money man. If he will say the truth, which I know will come out one day; he knows I never asked anybody to do anything for money. If money were to be my problem, I would have followed Obasanjo because I had full access to him. My challenge in life is the people, not money. When anybody says I asked him not to work, the person is not being sincere. For instance, I own The Sun newspapers; I don’t interfere in their day-to-day job. I like process, I like system, and this is what most Nigerians lack because they were not prepared for leadership. Most people in positions of leadership in Nigeria today found themselves suddenly in the line of leadership. That is the problem Nigeria has today, people are not prepared for leadership.

    Were you also driven out of PPA?

    No. I left because democracy was no longer the process of choice, but force. People who do these things should be ready to face the consequences in future. If we want to come back to politics, it is either they do it right or everybody would be prepared to pay for it. It is disheartening that a lot of people who won elections are not where they have won elections. Apart from the South-west and some parts of northern Nigeria, democracy has not taken root at all. I am disappointed. This was not what we bargained for, which made me leave my business for politics. Nigerians, whether living or dead, will regret what is happening someday. Leadership is not about possessions, it is about the people. Once a leader cannot reconcile with the people, it becomes a problem.

    What are your plans for the future?

    You will soon see my plans; my plans are great.

    What is your take on the preparations for the 2015 elections, especially with regards to the president’s silence over his intentions and the South-East’s agitation for the presidency?

     

    Anybody who wants to run for the presidency should prepare to run. Why should they wait for anybody to tell them whether he will run or not. That is part of the things that are not right in our democracy. I want to discuss the president on performance, not on 2015, and he has said we should give him till 2013, that we would see wonders then. I would be patient till about September or October 2013 to be able to discuss him. I will discuss him fully because I’m not afraid of speaking my mind. I wanted to discuss him this time, but I saw in an interview when he said they should give him another one year to see the miracle that he would perform. But any person who is prepared to run for the presidency should not wait for anybody.

    How will you rate President Jonathan who has been there since 2010?

    I have not seen anything in terms of concrete performance, especially in the areas of security and infrastructure. Here in Victoria Island we are almost always on generator. The fundamental issue is the rule of law. Any president who wants to rule this country should respect the rules and give people justice. If there is no rule of law, there will be no society. The most fundamental issue in any good society for the people is the rule of law. A minister’s son who violates traffic law, for instance, should be penalised like any other Nigerian. Political armed robbers who took the country’s money should not be allowed to walk free. Governance is not about gossip. Once leaders start listening to gossip, they are failures already. People must run government by what the constitution says.

    Do you think the South-east has been fairly treated with regard to access to the presidency?

    The South-east has not been fairly treated. That is why when I see some Igbo people say they are waiting for Jonathan to decide whether he would run or not… Nobody should decide for anybody. As far as I am concerned, it is either you give Igbos the presidency or nothing. Almost 48 years after the civil war, you are telling people they are not entitled to rule Nigeria. Unless an Igbo man rules this country, the country would not be well. That is the truth because we are the salt of the nation. Whether you want to believe it or not, that is the truth. Anywhere you go in Nigeria and you don’t see an Igbo man living there, nobody lives there. So why don’t you give them the opportunity to rule their country? If it is not Panadol, it can never be anything that looks like Panadol. They have given Obasanjo, Yar’Adua, and Jonathan room to rule. Now is the turn of the South-east, it’s either the South-east or nothing.

    But the Igbo do not seem to be united…

    Who has had unity before? When they made Obasanjo president, were Yorubas united? When they made Yar’Adua president, were the northerners united? You people should stop deceiving the Igbos. This nonsense should stop. They would say Igbo people like money, who does not like money? The election of 2011 was effectively put together by some prominent northerners, they collected money. So who does not like money?

    Do you think the Igbo currently have a strategy for the attainment of their presidential dream?

    I know the national appeal is there. I am going to play a leading role within my community to organise people for what Igbos are going to do. I wanted to be totally out of politics, but I’m going to sit back in my house and be part of their planning. I will plan for them and give them to go and execute. Awolowo wasn’t a president but he was a very important man in Nigeria. I’m sitting back to help give the Igbos what they don’t have: planning. I’m going to reconcile those who are quarrelling and get one of them to lead. will get it right this time.

    Have you identified such a person with the qualities you desire for a Nigerian president of Igbo origin?

    They would emerge on their own. But give me some months to be able to consult. The most important thing is the process that gets who would run for president. The president is just a by-product of unity. What I’m talking about is to kick-start the process. I have to go back to the drawing board, go back to the academics, traders, politicians, etc, and re-energise them to move forward.

    Do you see yourself as a potential Igbo leader, perhaps, in the mould of the late Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu?

    I purposely kept away when Ojukwu died because his burial became an avenue for sycophancy. People who abused Ojukwu in my presence, people who never believed in him were praising him in death. I was surprised. That was why I sent a delegation to extend my condolences and I didn’t go. When Ojukwu was alive, they abandoned him. Most of these people who were talking abandoned him. Ojukwu’s brothers are there, they can speak because they know how close I was to him. They know I always tried to be with him at any point of his need.

    PDP has embarked on a mission to reconcile its former members. If you are approached, would you be ready to return to PDP?

    Well, I don’t think so. I don’t think I am talking about party politics now. If I want to play party politics, I would play it in PPA. People cannot always leave when the condition is not good, people should also be there to defend the situation when the condition is bad. I’m not talking party politics now; I’m talking about advising everybody in Igbo land. I want to energise the base. In the next couple of months, I would put in motion the process.

    You said you don’t to talk about Governor Theodore Orji?

    I don’t want to say anything, whether good or bad. Orji is there today as governor of Abia State. I know the value of the office of the governor. I know the value of the position of former governor of Abia State; I know the value of the office of the president. And I say I am not going to talking about it. They have published and said a lot of things.

    But I know that the allegation that nothing was done during my tenure is wrong. Almost all the roads in the state were constructed in my tenure. The Umuahia-Aba road (old road), the Obehie-Azumiri road, the Lokpanta-Udeato road, the Ebem-Ohafia road, all were constructed in my tenure. When I was governor, the Aba roads were motorable. I don’t want to talk about these things. I want the governor to lead the people with his conscience. Conscience is a wound, only the truth can heal it. People are seeing today, they are not seeing tomorrow. I want Nigerians to start seeing tomorrow.

    Go back to your archives. Obasanjo made me the action governor for that regime on account of the Aba roads that I constructed. He came to Aba and campaigned on those roads. Anywhere in the world, roads are maintained every two to three roads, if not, they will collapse. I cleaned up Aba. I like to be modest in my comments and allow our people to decide who is right or wrong. When I was governor, we had free education up to the secondary school level. When I was governor, there were problems in Warri, Rivers, parts of Akwa Ibom, Owerri and Nnewi. People were coming to Aba and Umuahia to live and do their businesses. Nobody has given me credit for all these things because I fought the federal government. I’m the only politician that his businesses were taken. What have I done to these people? I had helped them in the past. I have asked the international agencies to set up a real anticorruption outfit, let us know who the real thieves are. I’m ready to subject myself to the probe, and others, too, should come out. People have been given a lot of waivers, etc. The country is in trouble, it needs to be cleaned up properly. It needs to be given direction.

    You are among the former governors that are being prosecuted by EFCC. Are you saying the charges against you are trumped up?

    My conscience tells me that I have not done anything. I have never discussed with anybody on how to make underhand deals. What I have spent is security vote, which is not much for the size of our state. I applied it to the police and they were happy with what I did with the money. I am the only governor that is being prosecuted for security vote. Even the present governor knows that we were not making deals. Check the calibre of commissioners that I had – Awa Kalu (SAN), Lambert Mmecha, Professor Nkpa (present Secretary to the State Government), Professor Ogbuagu (currently a vice chancellor), Onyekwere Ogba, Ralp Egbu, etc. I will set up a foundation that will deal with the issue of anti-corruption. Material acquisition is not my problem, but jobs for the people. Nobody is talking about creating jobs for the people. Nobody talks about how to build a strong middle class that will be the engine of the society. A population of 160 million people still talking about repairing old rail lines! We must re-strategise on how to build standard rail lines.

    I told the federal government, when I was governor, what they were doing in the power sector that would not work. I gave him a blueprint on how we can have electricity in Nigeria. It is criminal for anybody to think you can draw power from Egbin power station to Abia State, or you will draw light from Lagos to Ebere-Omuma in Rivers State, or draw from Cross River to give light in Sokoto. We have to have cells. Distribution is a problem. Even if you generate, what of distribution? I told them, but nobody listens. Have you forgotten how they kept Abia contractors at EFCC for nine months auditing their books, when I was governor? Which other governor did they do this to? Have you forgotten how they invaded my mother’s house to force me to support them for their third term agenda? I resisted it. I disagreed with Professor Jubril Aminu, a very strong character, as students’ union president, and still eat with him. But that is what Obasanjo does not like. Because I disagreed with him over Third Term, Obasanjo took away all my businesses, he killed my businesses, he tried to ruin me but God did not allow him. If he were patient he would have benefitted from people like us. I used to be Obasanjo’s best friend, but I never knew he doesn’t like hearing the truth.

    What would you say is the legacy you left in Abia after eight years as governor?

    All the low-cost housing schemes in Abia State were built by my government. The Ehimiri housing estate, the two stadiums in the state, were built by my administration. The housing estate at Obingwa had been roofed before we left, even the one at Obakala, apart from the housing estate at Ubeku. Mind you, our resources then were lean – Obasanjo took away our 46 oil wells, which Yar’Adua returned. $650 million was deducted from the state’s allocations to repay money from the wells. I gave Abia people purposeful leadership. Go to the Federal Ministry of Finance and check how much we had from 1999 to 2007.

    I never left any debt for Theodore Orji as governor. I want this to be on record. I left no debt the day I was leaving as governor of Abia State. I’ve heard people say I owed banks N28 billion before I left. That is not true. We were only banking with Hallmark. Hallmark stopped, and we went over to Bank PHB. The day I left, the account was N1.7 billion in overdraft, because Obasanjo asked the Ministry of Finance to hold the money. On June 6, 2007, the overdraft cleared. The documents are there for anybody to verify. I never owed any bank money, which some people now say Abia State is repaying. This is the first time I am coming openly to say this.

    Well, in the process of governance, I’m not saying I was perfect. Wherever I have wronged our people, I’m very sorry for wronging them. Wherever I have done well, they should also praise me for doing well. I’m not perfect, even Jesus Christ was not perfect. I’m human. I must have made several mistakes in Abia as a young man. I wasn’t 50 years old when I was governor. Today, I’m 50 and above. So I know more things that are right and wrong today.

     

  • Labaran Maku’s implausible rationalisations

    Labaran Maku’s implausible rationalisations

    While delivering his goodwill message at last week’s opening ceremony of the 8th Nigerian Guild of Editors Conference in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, the Minister of Information, Mr Labaran Maku, was quoted by a newspaper as explaining that President Goodluck Jonathan’s tolerance of criticism and media attacks was not an indication of weakness. I am not aware any sensible person could draw that link and conclusion. Indeed, what I know is that many analysts believe that the president’s irritability in the face of media attacks, not his grudging toleration of criticism, is the real indication of his weakness. Only a few weeks ago, the president exasperatingly regarded himself as the most criticised world leader today. Readers will recall that this columnist dismissed that hyperbole as far-fetched.

    Even if Maku was misquoted on the link between the president’s toleration of criticism and assumed strength, it neither harms nor libels him. After all, the president had himself said in a church service many months ago that he found it quite appropriate to rebuff public attempt to transform him into something alien to his gentle personality. He was neither an Egyptian pharaoh nor a rampaging general, he had deadpanned.

    In the said goodwill message, Maku in fact said something quite disturbing and inappropriate. According to the newspaper report, Maku told his audience that the president’s patience in the face of criticisms and media attacks was due to his respect for the media and the fact that Nigeria was a very complex society. So, if he didn’t respect the media, he would not tolerate criticisms and media attacks? Do the constitution and our laws not enjoin him as an elected politician deriving his legitimacy from the people to accept, not even be patient with, criticisms?

    Maku also talked about the president’s understanding of the complexity of Nigeria. But there is nothing in the president’s behaviour and speeches to show he understands that complexity, or that he knows what it means to operate constitutional democracy. The president is of course at liberty to ignore the constitution and refuse to be tolerant. If he did, he would discover that if military regimes couldn’t hamstring the press, and couldn’t kill it either, not even he as president, were he to declare a state of emergency, abrogate habeas corpus, and call for censorship, could tame Nigeria’s boisterous media.

    Surely, both Maku and the president need not be reminded that the media played a very major role in emancipating Nigeria from colonial tyranny. The present day media, proud legatee of the anti-colonial media, is unlikely to shirk the responsibility of joining forces with patriots to liberate the country from tyrannous politicians, if the occasion should demand it, and fight bitterly to maintain the country’s independence and integrity, even if that job should seem superfluous. Maku, a journalist himself, must rid himself of that appalling patrician mindset that regards presidential obedience of the constitution as benevolence that can be withdrawn at will. The provisions of the constitution concerning civil liberties cannot be abrogated, circumscribed or dispensed as favours. They cannot even be amended out of the constitution.

     

  • Mimiko pressures truth

    Mimiko pressures truth

    During his campaigns last week, Governor Olusegun Mimiko was quoted as describing his disagreement with Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) leaders as a face-off. I was also thoroughly flustered by his claim that he was pressured to join the ACN. Does he not expect other parties to try to win the state from his Labour Party (LP) if they cannot get him to defect? What face-off? Since he stood pat on LP, is it not reasonable to expect that other political parties, of which he is not a member, would try to take the state from him?

    Even more inconceivably, the governor describes the ACN effort to take Ondo State as an expansionist agenda. By dignifying this outlandish reasoning on the soapbox with his time, the governor shows his inability to think nobly. Every party exists to expand, not to stay in one place or to contract. The PDP hopes to gain more states, contiguously if it can manage, or by leapfrogging, if it cannot manage. Does the LP not expect to gain more states, if it can find the competence and the ambition?

    And in Mimiko’s quaint exegesis, it is haughtiness to express confidence in one’s party’s ability to sweep the polls. Has he not also expressed confidence his impending victory would disgrace the opposition and silence them for a long time? Would that qualify as pride? When Mimiko assumed office, many expected him to be capable of elevated ideas, even if he looked and sounded too flighty to replicate the administrative panache of Awolowo, the hero of his insincere contrivance, whom he quotes prodigiously. As I indicated here last week, the governor’s main campaign weapon is denigrating other parties’ ‘empire-building’ potential, which he says is evil. Let him quit idle chatter and instead focus on the modest achievements he has wrung from his fiefdom, if indeed those achievements can be described in such exalted terms.

  • Technology, politics  and  global security

    Technology, politics  and  global security

    The  killing of the US  Ambassador in Benghazi, Libya this week over the  alleged blasphemy on Islam in the film – Desert Warriors – said to be about life 2000 years ago, bring to the fore the good, the bad and ugly side of the internet as a fast and speedy generator of information and ideas. The presence of objectionable scenes on the Holy Prophet and Islam sparked off murderous protests in the Middle East with protesters looking for Americans to kill  maim or skin alive. In Cairo the situation was similar to that in Benghazi . Just as  in Senaa the Yemeni  capital where protesters besieged the US embassy and tried to enter it.
    The US has reacted in a tough way and has sent war ships to the area but it has to respect and use diplomacy first and has asked that the governments of Egypt and Libya cooperate with it in securing the lives  and property of diplomatic staff. Libya on its own has apologized to the US  government for the killing of the US  ambassador and four other Americans in the embassy. In  a tribute to the fallen ambassador who reportedly died of suffocation  the wife of the US president said it was particularly painful because the Ambassador was one of those who saved Benghazi during the uprising against the Muammar Gaddafi regime. Which shows clearly that the use of information in the internet  age can be particularly dangerous especially with  the speed with which bad or good news spreads without giving time  for clarifications, authentication or verification.
    Today,  we discuss the dangerous use and misuse of information generally  especially with regard to the younger generation and the use of information technology in securing our environment  as well as its potential for doing just the opposite. We  do this without  any pretences whatever and acknowledge that Nigeria is in the same boat as any of the North African or Middle East nations- involved in street revolutions – but are now biting the finger that fed them in staging successful revolutions against dictatorship – which is information technology and the internet featuring social networks like facebook and twitter.
    This is because the Boko Haram strategy of attacks  in Nigeria have been to use  home made bombs and we have been shown armories of the sect and the implements used in making bombs from knowledge and skills acquired from the internet to bomb churches  and other targets in Nigeria. Yet, the internet was created to germinate and spread information and knowledge in a form of democratization that breaks the monopoly or hoarding of information and brings data and hitherto protected information within reach of the masses  in terms of spontaineous availability and accessibility. Given the horror and  the speed of the killing of the US ambassador and the rising profile of Boko Haram bombings in Nigeria, one is tempted to ask if there has not been a mistake somewhere on the expected use of information on an unfettered internet and totally free social networks and  on – line information sharing systems.
    Again, we stress that   the essence of information is in its sharing and usage to promote causes and events. As events this week show this can be a double edged sword. This  is because just as a phone call or information on facebook can lead a suya seller to make bumper sales by moving his wares to a different location based on information  received, the same telephone can tell a bomber the location to detonate his bomb for maximum effect.
    In Tahrir Square  in Egypt, the demonstrators that gathered to oust Housni Mubarak were aided by IT gadgets which were seized and were to be tendrered as evidence against them by Mubaraks agents and they would have been sentenced by the Egyptian authorities still pro Mubarak then. But the US government intervened and the IT gadgets were released and some of the trials stopped. Now Egypt   has an elected President who was elected by a revolution that rode on the back of mass mobilisation  through IT but the US embassy was under siege this week in Cairo  and American lives were  on the line because of information from the internet on a blasphemy on Islam  in a film.
    The same can be said of Libya and Yemen where the same people the US supported against their oppressors  turned their anger  on the same US. Which really shows in violently pragmatic ways that it is not only in diplomacy that we say that there are no permanent friends but permanent interests. In social networking too whilst the essence of sharing information is to galvanise interest in causes and events there are no permanent friends in the subsequent flow and direction of information. That is the bitter truth the death of the US Ambassador has revealed in Benghazi, Libya this week.
    This throws up again the issue of Wiki Leaks and its founder now holed up in the embassy of Ecuador in London whilst the British government struggles not to break international law – especially the sanctity and sovereignty of  resident embassies, in seeking to arrest and send him to Sweden to face sexual assault charges. I  have never been an admirer of the Wiki Leak founder because I think he violated privacy and security bounds and laws in revealing information on governments and  diplomacy online just because a frustrated and wayward US soldier was willing to get paid for such information. Yet the Wiki Leak founder was made a Man of the Year by a leading Nigerian newspaper sometime ago – which I found repugnant. Just as I feel bad that some people have revealed information in Nigeria  on leading SSS officials on line thus  blowing their cover  and jeorpadising their security.
    This to me is like  giving jailed convicts unfettered access to the judges that jailed them. The result is predictable – sheer murder and mayhem fuelled by a mad  urge for retaliation and vengeance  against public officials who have just done their legitimate functions and duties. Which certainly is most unfair.
    This brings to mind again the optimism of the CEO of Facebook  Sheryl Sandberg at  the beginning of this year in an article in the publication – The World In 2012  – from The Economist stable. In  the article titled –Sharing the Power of 2012 – the Facebook boss, a lady noted that after the earthquake in New Zealand in 2011 which destroyed property worth over $10bn in Christchurch  – social media connected people to the resources they needed to begin rebuilding their lives.  On Egypt she wrote that   in 2011   the Egyptian  people confronted a government that was not listening to them and used social technologies to amplify their voices.
    Technology she said  gives  ‘a name and a face – a true identity – to those who were previously invisible and it turns up the volume  on voices that may have otherwise been too soft to hear’. She ended gleefully that in 2012 greater  sharing of information around the world is inevitable and that deeper and richer caring will be profound. Definitely the Facebook boss never thought of the sort of Information backlash that turned technologies that created freedom into weapons of destruction  this week in the Middle East. Which also brings to mind bitter memories of the beautiful daughter  – of a Nigerian general -who made friends on the internet who lured her to her death in Lagos from Abuja on the fraudulent pretext of being business experts.
    In essence then  and quite ominously the Americans must prepare for events like the murder in Benghazi this week and the reason is not far fetched. Technology – spawned democracies are prone to religious backlashes simply because they are not immune to religious sentiments  and the Middle East  is a hotbed of religion and Islam is the major religion.
    In addition whilst the nations  and citizens of the Middle East may thank the US for aiding the advent of  democracy they hate the Americans with the same vigor with which they hated the dictators that the US has helped them to  depose. Indeed   in deposing  the dictators the masses of the Middle East have not forgotten that it was US foreign policy that kept the deposed tyrants in power for so long  in the first instance. So  they reason that if the US can abandon its friends so easily it is better not to be too cosy with a nation  that really has no permanent friends  in their region but only  permanent interests this time woven around technology. More importantly, technology and its usefulness and power capabilities aside, there is no way the people of the Middle East can be true friends of the US as long as the support for the state of Israel remains the corner stone of the US Middle East Foreign Policy . That really is the true import of the deadly  information backlash that claimed the ambassador’s life in Benghazi, Libya this week.

  • A case for one man, one gun

    I would start by declaring that I am quite aware of the sensitive nature of the issue I have chosen to write about. I am also not oblivious of the criticism it may attract from many of our countrymen who believe that since Nigeria remains a baby at 52, its citizens must necessarily be infants endowed more with infantile emotions and temperament than discretion and sound judgment.
    I am talking about the need to grant responsible and emotionally mature Nigerians access to arms to defend themselves and family members in the face of increasing inability of government to live up to its basic responsibility of protecting the lives and property of its citizens.
    While British philosopher, Thomas Hobbes, might not have had Nigeria in mind when he propounded his theory of state of nature in the 19th Century, no honest observer would dispute the fact that Nigeria today is a replica of the picture he painted of the human society before the advent of government. Life in that primitive society, he said, was solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.
    To be sure, the debate on whether private arms should be legalised is not new. But at no time was the issue as germane as it has been in the past one year or thereabout, considering the numerous sources of violent attacks on innocent Nigerians. The attacks had come mainly from armed robbery and hired assassination. Now, the people are contending with insurgent groups like the Boko Haram. In many of the northern states, for instance, churches have become desolate as Christians in those states fear that they could be attacked during service as has been experienced in states like Borno, Yobe, Plateau, Niger, Kaduna, Adamawa and Kano.
    The foregoing is besides the menace constituted by thugs who are in the habit of unleashing terror on workers and owners of new building sites. The Yoruba call them omo onile. Armed with all manner of dangerous weapons, they move from one building site to another, brandishing guns and other dangerous weapons as they make illegal and unreasonable demands from the owners of such projects. There is also the menace of kidnappers; a trend that has virtually brought the states in the South East to their knees. Ten days ago, it took a combined squad of the Inspector-General of Police and the Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Anambra State Police Command to unveil an intimidating armoury of a kidnapping gang that had terrorised the zone for years. So massive was the armoury that the Commissioner of Police in the state said the kidnappers were capable of defeating a small army.
    Early in the week, dare-devil robbers laid siege to Lagos, the commercial nerve centre of the nation, killing no fewer than 10 people as they embarked on a shooting spree around the city after attacking a bureau de change, carting away about N150 million away. The robbers, who were said to number about eight, including two women, drove round in two SUVs. They shot at five policemen inside their patrol vehicle, killing two of them instantly while the third died in the hospital. A stray bullet was said to have hit a six-year-old girl in the eye while her grandmother was hit in the forehead as they watched television in their home.
    The Lagos incident occurred at a time that residents were beginning to think that the police in the state had finally found the winning formula against the men of the underworld. With a lot of support from the state government, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the state’s police command had taken the battle to robbers and incidents of robbery reduced remarkably. The sudden burst of robbers to the scene last Sunday, therefore, came as a shock to many. It pointed to the fact that the police are overwhelmed by the crime rate in the nation, not necessarily because they are incompetent but partly because they lack the necessary equipment. With the nation’s population standing at more than 150 million, the less than half a million policemen available in the country is a far cry from the United Nations’ recommended police strength of 222 per 100,000 people.
    The foregoing scenario has triggered the agitation for a state police in some quarters, but the fundamental question remains how states that are barely viable enough to pay their workers’ salaries would muster the funds needed to equip and maintain its own police? The only viable option we are left with, is to allow individual Nigerians to take their destiny in their own hands by making it possible for them to own their own guns and stop living at the mercy of heartless robbers, kidnappers and hired assassins.
    The fear that is often raised against this proposal is that it could lead to needless killings as temperamental individuals could open fire on their compatriots at the slightest provocation. But this line of reasoning is flawed because it presupposes that such trigger-happy fellows will get away scot-free, whereas we have laws that stipulate death sentence or life imprisonment for such an act. The average Nigerian is a passionate lover of life and would do anything to avoid an act that would lead him or her to incarceration, not to talk of being executed. The current setting in which millions of Nigerians acquire arms illegally is more dangerous because it leaves the law abiding citizens at their mercy. And because the guns in circulation are not registered, it is easier for their owners to kill and get away with it.
    The principle of one man, one gun sets up a scenario of mutually assured destruction. It inhibits the reckless use of gun, knowing full well that the man you set out to kill, his friends or neighbours could also be armed. Armed robbers operate with the brazen boldness they do because they know that the likelihood that they will be challenged during an operation is remote. An armed robber will think twice before invading another man’s house if he knows or suspects that his would-be-victim could be armed.
    Patriotic Nigerians need as many guns as they can muster to neutralise the ferocity of bloodthirsty criminals that hold the nation by the jugular. The alternative is to continue to live at their mercy because the security agencies in whose hands we have entrusted our lives and property have proved time and time again that they are incapable of standing up to them. Imagine how many lives could have been saved in Jos, Maiduguri, Adamawa, Yobe, Kaduna and Kano if ours were a country of one man, one gun. It may not provide the answer to bombs, but it is capable of inhibiting other forms of reckless killings.
  • Light from Lagos

    Light from Lagos

    An acquaintance put through a distress call to me very early in the morning about three weeks ago. It happened that officials of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) had impounded two trucks waiting to discharge raw materials into the premises of his company at a location in Lagos. The time of the operation was about 1.30 am. Surely, the vehicles could not have constituted an obstacle on anybody’s path at that lonely hour my friend agonized. I immediately called the Lagos State Commissioner for Transportation, Mr. Kayode Opeifa, a trained scientist, passionate progressive activist and one of the brightest minds it has been my privilege to know. To my utter surprise, Opeifa said there was absolutely nothing he could do about the matter. He was cocksure if an infraction had not been committed, the vehicles would not be impounded. The Transport Commissioner advised that I call the Managing Director of LASTMA, Engineer Babatunde Edu to have a clear idea of what actually happened. I was in a quandary since I hardly knew the LASTMA MD. Would such an obviously busy man respond to the call of an unknown member of the public? I tried my luck and called Engineer Edu’s number repeatedly without success. I was about giving up in despair after about half an hour when my phone suddenly rang. It was a surprisingly polite – Engineer Edu on the line. “I see you’ve been calling my line,” he said, “Sorry I have been attending to an emergency. Is there anything I can do for you”? I introduced myself and explained my friend’s plight pleading for his consideration and kind intervention.
    Again, I was in for another surprise. The LASTMA MD said he could not arbitrarily overrule his men who were actually on ground on the matter. He however promised to investigate and get back to me. Within an hour, Engineer Edu was back on the line: “I have established that it was not a case of broken down vehicles,” he said, “The vehicles were waiting on the highway for two other trucks to exit the premises before gaining entry to offload their own cargo. Even then, they still committed an offence by parking on the highway. The company should have planned its operations more efficiently by calling on the vehicles only when its premises was free for them to enter without causing any obstruction on the highway. But since it is not a case of broken down vehicles or deliberate obstruction, we will release the vehicles once they bring in a letter of request for our own records,” he said. Of course, I understood Engineer Edu’s point perfectly. After all, only a few years ago, Nigeria had lost one of her best television journalists, Mr. Lekan Asimi of Channels Television, when his car had rammed into a stationary vehicle right in the middle of the road late at night under the bridge at Maryland on his way home from work.
    Now, a number of things struck me about my experience with the Lagos State transport authorities on this occasion. Firstly, is the fact that even as most of us are enjoying our sleep at around 1.30 am, some traffic officials are alert at their duty posts and working hard to ensure road safety. Of course, this is not limited to the traffic sector. In a similar vein, men and vehicles of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) are ubiquitous across Lagos striving to secure lives and property day and night. Also, many of us who wake up to see our communities and highways free of refuse every morning have only the faintest idea what a yeoman’s job staff of the Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) in conjunction with the private sector operators in waste management do all night to keep this mega city of at least 16 million residents reasonably clean. Secondly, despite our personal relationship, it struck me that the Transport Commissioner did not arbitrarily utilise the powers of his office to order that the vehicles be released by fiat. Thirdly, the MD of LASTMA defended the integrity of his men and only ordered the release of the vehicles after thorough investigation and following due process. Fourthly, the central preoccupation of the LASTMA MD was not revenue generation through payment of the statutory fines but the operational efficiency of the offending firm to guarantee traffic safety and sanity. Of course, none of this is to say that LASTMA, like any other human organisation, does not have its own fair share of bad eggs and functional lapses.
    On further reflection, I reasoned that the commitment to the sanctity of impersonal rules and self restraint by both the Transport Commissioner and LASTMA MD was itself a reflection of the leadership values exhibited by Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) from the top. We have here a classic example of what the great inspirational writer, John Maxwell, calls ‘Leadership as Influence’. The true leader is like a city on a hill. His innate values cannot be hidden. It is not the words of the leader that counts. Rather, his spontaneous day-to-day actions reveal who the leader truly is. Only recently, Governor Fashola apprehended two military officers driving illegally on the dedicated Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) lane. What gave the Governor the audacity to take such a bold step? Simple. The power of moral example. The force of influence. As Governor, Fashola sits through the traffic himself rather than jump at the least opportunity on the BRT lane to hasten his movement. Even more, he has never once used the siren since his assumption of office. His argument for this is so simple yet so profound that it is baffling why most other public office holders in the country continue to abuse the siren as a misplaced status symbol.
    The blaring siren, Fashola argues, is actually an indication of abnormality and a disruption of routine and order. The ambulance rushing an accident victim to hospital. The police van speeding to the scene of a crime. The fire truck trying to beat traffic to salvage a burning building. Are we then, Fashola asks, marooned in a permanent state of abnormality as a society that sirens have become a fixed feature of our collective mental furniture? Are our public office holders permanent hostages of a disorienting siege mentality that they cannot move without sirens?
    So much has been written about Fashola’s remarkable success in the areas of environmental renewal and radical modernisation of infrastructure. Yet, I believe that his most enduring legacy will, in the final analysis, not be the concrete projects of bricks and mortar he leaves behind. Rather, it will be his consistent and deliberate efforts to inculcate in the citizenry those critical values without which a modern civilization cannot be sustained. Yes, the artefacts of physical technology are important. But more critical are the habits, attitudes, dispositions and values that constitute the soft or cultural technology that provides the supportive frame work for material civilisation. A smooth, well paved, wide, modern road is a marvel to behold. But misused by drunken, distracted, lawless drivers or even pedestrians indifferent to traffic rules, it becomes a death trap – a veritable curse.
    In a modern mega city like Lagos, the absence of strict traffic laws impartially enforced could easily mean loss of limb or life for multitudes. This no doubt informed what some perceive as the seeming draconian sanctions against traffic infractions in the newly enacted Lagos State Traffic Law. Interestingly, two of the groups most affected by the law – okada riders and the National Union of Road Transport Workers – have openly expressed support for the law. These groups intuitively grasp the great political scientist, Professor Harold Laski’s words of wisdom expressed over eight decades ago: “Liberty, therefore, is a positive thing…I shall not feel that my liberty is endangered when I am refused permission to commit murder. My creative impulses do not suffer frustration when I am bidden to drive on a given side of the road…Historic experience has evolved for us rules of convenience which promote right living. To compel obedience to them is not to make a man unfree.”  Without law and order justly enforced, a people perish. Once again, Lagos shows the light for others to find the way.
  • Eagles: Too big to fly

    Eagles: Too big to fly

    Travelling with the Super Eagles can be fun. They excite one with the delusion that they are doing Nigerians a big favour. They think they are super beings and consider others as leaches, who must quickly be blown out like catarrh in the nostrils. Their swagger irritates largely because they hardly can fill the immigration forms unguided.
    Little wonder, the fans don’t flock around them. Elsewhere, the convergence of stars attracts lovers of the game to them. Soccer freaks cherish such moments, taking pictures, getting autographs and, possibly having some souvenirs. Not so for the Super Eagles; they treat their fans like the plague.
    Going to Liberia on Friday morning threw up the best opportunity for the players to change their ways towards others. Not so for these bunch, like the folks before them.
    You will expect that such early morning movement will elicit greetings from the young men when they see elders. No way! Instead, they block their ear-drums, pretending to be listening to music, Yet will acknowledge greetings from one another. In fact, we had a good laugh watching them, their ear phones on, chatting. It is evident that this is the Eagles subtle way of shunning people.
    As we boarded the chartered IRS aircraft, the players, officials, high ranking government functionaries, including Senators, House of Representatives and NFF Board members were instructed to lead the way. Others boarded after them. But it was inside the aircraft that this distasteful scenario happened.
    An elderly member of the Nigeria Football Supporters Club was shocked at the way a top Eagles star refused to allow him sit beside him.
    Having boarded the aircraft earlier, the star sat at the aisle, spreading his legs majestically. Not even the friendly tap from this elderly supporter could sway the chap. As the elderly one walked towards the inner row, he muttered inaudible words. My heart sank. Another supporter walked towards another Eagles star who sat alone, asking to sit beside him; he refused. I couldn’t stomach this because the airline officials had done a head count and knew the number of vacant seats. I beckoned on one of the airline officials who intervened. Guess what? The irritant chose to sit with another mate, who sat alone in one of the two- seaters. Unwittingly, the aircraft had been fouled by bad blood. Soon, the aircraft was in the skies, flying its two hours 45 minutes course.
    With 18 aeronautical miles to the Roberts International Airport in Liberia, the pilot informed us of a final descent, urging us to look towards the left to admire the Atlantic Ocean and its amazing waves.
    Then the spectacle for those who have been there would be a smile. In three minutes, the aircraft roared as if it was taking a plunge into the ocean, a big sigh sprang out from the hitherto snoring aircraft of over 93people. Soon, the aircraft found its length on the runway, spending much of 12 minutes flying low on the Atlantic.
    Then the panic. AIT’s Wale spoke the mind of many panic-stricken passengers when he said in Yoruba: “Se airplane fe we ninu odo n i(Does the aircraft want to swim?) Then smiles and backslapping as the pilot put the aircraft on the runway to roll to a gradual halt on its tyres.
    It was drizzling. There was some turbulence before the final descent. (We were forewarned by the pilot).
    Having walked through immigration, I went straight to the elderly supporter to plead with him. Once I raised the issue, his face got winked, but my friend broke into a reluctant smile as I teased him with his favourite song. Before then, he had said in Yoruba: Ade, ori nkan timori. Boy yen o nisorire. (Ade, did you see what I saw? That boy won’t do well), he sighed heavily.
    The elderly supporter later withdrew the curse. When the game began, the irritant was one of the culprits who ruined our victory dance. As he fumbled, my mind went to the
  • Deity defenders and prophet protectors

    Deity defenders and prophet protectors

    After the initial shock occasioned by the horror of senseless killings in the name of God, I often wonder if I am alone in my puzzlement over the rationale. The logic of the position of perpetrators of horror on behalf of the deity and/or his prophets goes like this:

    My God has been abused or demeaned.It is right and proper to defend the defenceless.My God is defenceless.
    Therefore it is right for me to defend my God.Defending my God requires inflicting harm on the abuser.Therefore it is right to inflict harm on the abuser.

    If this does not represent the reasoning of the deity defenders, then that reasoning defies logic. What else could be the driving force or motivating factor? Of course, we could discountenance their rationality and that is how we have always dismissed the once-upon-a-time occasional outbursts of religious violence. They are just fanatics, we surmise, and they are on the fringe of rationality.

    While this might be true, I want to pursue a line of reasoning that grants some rationality to the perpetrators of religious violence. I want to assume that they are as rational as everyone else and try to delve into the logic of their conduct. In any case, in light of the fact that these are no longer rare occurrences, it behoves us to pay attention. More to the point, my assumption of some element of rationality driving the agents of death in the name of God appears to be supported by our efforts to dialogue with them.

    Let me also emphasise the point that deity defenders and prophet protectors are not the monopoly of any one religion—at least not confined to any one of the proselytising or Abramic religions. Christianity had its crusade just as Islam had, and still has its jihad. So the position I advance here is an equal opportunity challenge to the logic of any religion that has its share of deity defenders.

    If the argument above fairly represents the logic of deity defenders and prophet protectors credited with rationality, we have a simple task to challenge its soundness.Let the truth of the first premise be assumed—God has been abused and demeaned. And let us grant the truth of the principle that it is right and proper to defend the defenceless.

    The third premise of the argument which appears to present God as a defenceless being is one of two premises that appear to violate the logic of good judgement. Stating that God is defenceless, for all intents and purposes, appears to be more blasphemous than the original act of blasphemy that the deity defender is determined to protest. For it detracts from the omnipotence of God and presents human pretenders to power and strength as superior to the deity.

    Yet, if the assumption that God is defenceless is untrue, the foundation on which deity defenders rest their action is exposed as spurious. But if it is true, then the whole edifice of religion tumbles down. How can anyone rationally believe in a defenceless God or justify confidence in the ability of a weak deity? Given this dilemma, the position of deity defenders is clearly absurd. The truth of the premise that God is defenceless puts them in an awkward position of worshipping a weak and defenceless God. Its falsity puts them in a position of doing on God’s behalf what he can do for himself.

    I think we can all agree that God can defend himself and His prophets don’t need us to fight their cause. This was Martin Luther’s assurance when he suffered tribulation and persecution after he engaged the Church in his historic reformation efforts. “A mighty fortress is our God”, he proclaimed; “a bulwark never failing; our helper he amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing.

    For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe; his craft and power are great, and armed with cruel hate, on earth is not his equal. Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing, were not the right man on our side, the man of God’s own choosing? Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is he; Lord Sabaoth is his name, from age to age the same and he must win the battle.”

    Among the 99 names of Allah are the ones that describe his power and strength. Allah is As-Salaam, the source of peace and safety; Al-Muhaymin, the Guardian and Protector; Al-Aziz, the Almighty, the defeater who is not defeated; and Al-Fattah, the Victory Giver. All these appear to deny the truth of the position of those who would take it upon themselves to defend God against blasphemers. What else then could be going on?

    It appears to me that what is going on is that we make the deity and the prophets in our own image, and that is the macho man image. Even when we acknowledge that God can defend himself, and when we understand that vengeance is his, we cannot let go and let God because we feel insulted when our God is insulted. It is akin to the story of the dutiful son who feels insulted by an assault on his papa.

    Even when his old man contends that he can take care of himself or has decided to brush aside the insult, the son makes himself the victim. The personalisation of perceived harm to the deity and the prophets goes to the heart of the turmoil of our contemporary experience. Unfortunately, knowing that it has no basis in spirituality or religiosity and that it is purely self-serving will not make it go away.

    The second offending premise is the one that describes the means and the instrument of defending the deity. “Defending my God requires inflicting harm on the abuser.” If you wonder why this proposition is assumed, the answer is that it is the only way to make sense of the violence that has become an integral part of any protest against what deity defenders and prophet protectors consider an abuse of their God.

    It is difficult to see how defending a God or prophet must warrant harming people, including innocent ones who are not responsible for the insult in the first place. After all, the deities and prophets are acknowledged as peace, loving. It cannot be otherwise.

    If they are creators of human beings and are intent on promoting the good of their creatures, they have to endorse peace and prohibit violence and harm. It follows then that whoever claims to defend a deity by inflicting harm on the creatures of the deity are engaged in a fundamental confusion of the mind. And only the deity can cure such confusion.

  • The nature and dynamics of insurgencies (I)

    The nature and dynamics of insurgencies (I)

    In recent years, there has been a global surge in both the intensity and range of insurgencies and terrorism. Nigeria is one of the latest to be added to the growing list of states affected by sectarian insurgencies. The US Department of State reported recently that of some 15 countries surveyed in 2011 for terrorism Nigeria ranked fifth. It also ranked 15th in kidnappings with 17 kidnappings reported. The figure for kidnappings is certainly underestimated. It is much higher. Since then, the tempo of terrorist attacks and kidnappings in Nigeria has certainly increased. In northern Nigeria, Boko Haram, the violent and extremist Islamic sect, has accepted responsibility for virtually all the terrorist attacks inflicted on the country. These increasing global insurgencies and terrorist acts are deeply rooted in the history of the various states affected. The Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria which first came to light in 2009 is a product of Nigeria’s colonial and violent post-colonial history. It presents Nigeria with its gravest domestic security challenge ever. There are fears that the insurgency could lead to the collapse and ultimate disintegration of the state. It has polarised the northern and southern parts of Nigeria as most of the victims of the Boko Haram insurgency are from the South.

    Insurgencies are not new in the history of states. They go back to times of antiquity, as far back as the old civilisations of the Greek city states and the Roman Empire when the rulers of these ancient civilizations often had to face the challenge of insurgencies, insurrections, and revolts. The main aim of insurgencies has always been the overthrow of the established order and its replacement by a new social and political order. Insurgents seek power through violence. Ultimately, both the Greek and Roman Empires fell as a result of these internal rebellions and insurgencies. The objectives of modern insurgencies remain the same; the overthrow of the existing order and its replacement by a new order or government. In modern history, examples of insurgencies and terrorism go back to at least four centuries, spanning many continents and states. These include the 1776 American war of independence from British colonial rule and the French revolution of 1789. In the Balkans, the old Hapsburg Empire was overthrown by a series of insurgencies, including the murder at Sarajevo of Archduke Francis Ferdinand by a Serb nationalist. This incident led to World War 1 and the break up of the Hapsburg Empire and Monarchy. In Russia, the Romanov Monarchy was brought down in the 1917 revolution against Imperial Russia. This bloody conflict, in which the entire family of the Tsar was wiped out, gave rise to the new Communist Empire of the Soviet Union. More recently, internal dissent and grievances led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Ethnic war and cleansing in Yugoslavia led to its collapse and the rise of several successor states in its place. Most of the conflicts in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries involved the struggle for national independence from foreign rule, territorial expansion and grandeur. But some, such as the religious crusades between Islam and Christianity, were religious in character. Either side fought to expand its frontiers and its religion. In 1945, a Jewish terrorist group bombed a hotel in Jerusalem to drive out the British from Palestine and establish a Jewish state there.

    In addition to inter-state conflicts, we now have internal insurgencies and insurrections directed at the overthrow of the established social and political order in the affected states. The sources of this new kind of insurgencies range from political and economic factors to religious causes. Examples of these include the current sectarian conflict in Afghanistan between the insurgents, the Taliban, an extremist Islamic sect, and the Afghan government. In Pakistan and India terrorist groups, mainly extremist Islamic sects have continued to pose serious security problems to those countries. In the Middle East, the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians remains unresolved, with bands of insurgents and terrorists moving freely from one country to the other. In our own region of West Africa, the virtual dismemberment of Mali by Islamic warriors which have seized the northern part of the country constitutes a warning that insurgencies are spreading rapidly in the Savannah region of West Africa and the Sahel. Nigeria is just one of the possible targets of international terrorism in West Africa.

    There is no agreement on what constitutes an insurgency or terrorism. This reflects the divergence of views among those viewing the phenomenon. Normally, insurgencies are directed against the government and public institutions. It is more selective. On the other hand, terrorists want to destroy the entire social order in the country, not just the government. That appears to be the aim of Boko Haram. Sometimes, the phenomenon is described as militancy to secure a limited local objective. For instance, the various colonial struggle and conflicts, particularly in Asia and Africa were, in general, portrayed by the ruling colonial authorities as insurgencies or terrorism. In Africa, the ruling colonial authorities dismissed those fighting for the independence of their countries as insurgents or, worse still, as terrorists. The classic examples are those of the epic struggle by the ANC against apartheid South Africa and the bloody war waged by the Mau Mau against colonial rule in Kenya. Nelson Mandela of the ANC and Jomo Kenyatta of the Kenya African Union were accused of terrorism and sent to life imprisonment for leading the nationalist struggles in their respective countries. But the African nationalists claimed that their movements were nationalist in character and aimed at ending apartheid rule in South Africa and British colonial rule in Kenya. From the perspectives of the colonists, the Africans challenging foreign rule in their countries were insurgents or terrorists, a charge rejected by the African leaders. They considered their struggle as just and rejected the claim of the colonial powers that they were terrorists. The colonial powers also resorted to brutal terrorist means to end the various rebellions. French brutality in the Algerian war of independence is well documented.

    Boko Haram is not a nationalist movement. In post-colonial Africa, the current insurgencies are not overtly directed against foreign rule. Instead, they are local in nature and directed against hated local authorities and foreign influences. But then those who take up arms locally against established authority still do not think of themselves as terrorists, or even insurgents, but as nationalists fighting for a just cause. It could be for religious reasons. It could also be due to local grievances. They resort to insurgencies or terrorism to over throw a regime they consider lacking in political or moral legitimacy. Examples of this, in which insurgents and government forces contend for power, abound in different parts of the world. Recently, the so -called ‘Arab Spring’ has led to the sudden eruption of political violence and the overthrow of some despotic regimes in the Arab world, including Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia in North Africa. Change was needed in the Arab world where despotic regimes had firmly established themselves. The Syrian regime of President Assad is the latest Arab government facing a serious insurrection and revolt of a religious character. The conflict is principally one between the Sunni and the Shiites for control of Syria. The Arab Spring is, in some cases, the result of sectarian conflict between the Sunnis and the Shiites. In other cases it is a revolt against despotic governments and bad leadership in the states affected by the insurgencies and mass revolt.