The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday

  • Word to the father

    We need a father-figure to do what fa thers do: keep the family together.

    Without any consciousness of leadership, a father should lead naturally, managing talents, strengths and weaknesses for the stability and growth of the family. As a country, we sorely need such a father-figure, for it is lacking. We need him to harness the resources of the country and manage its strong points and challenges. The country echoes with diverse tribal tongues and interests, but that is why we need someone to turn the diversity into strengths from which everyone can gain practically, not just hear in radio jingles or prepared speeches. We need some melody out of our cacophony.

    Even when the kids move out of the home to foster new generations and break new grounds, they still need the occasional stabilising hand of the father. Without being an irritating intruder, off-putting visitor or overbearing figure, a father knows his stabilising role is for life.

    Nowhere do we need such a stabilising hand more than at the states of the federation. They are the constituent parts of the federation but now, they are no more than a disused vehicle left to run without tyres, fuel or driver. It is a fatal ride. The house of the governors have since cracked and has continued to crack. Its roof has blown open. Its foundation has failed. But the most troubling part is that no one is fixing it. As crucial as the governors are to the health of the nation, they have broken up or have been broken up and continue to break up even further. Now, there is no such thing as one forum or one voice. Even in the small bits into which they have been reduced, they are still cracking up into smaller units.

    What good can come out of such a fragmented house? What significant progress can a country with such divided governors make? Let’s face it: governance is about clear-headed vision and committed action, not contrived speeches of achievements. What vision or action can we reasonably expect from such balkanised and distracted governors. They have lost their soul. Love for one another is gone, as is respect for each other. What is left is mutual hatred and bad-mouthing. They will pretend that the machinery of transforming their states is still intact and that even more work is being done. They will say their states have never had it so good. We know better.

    On Thursday when the Northern States Governors Forum (NSGF) called a meeting in Kaduna, only five of the 19 governors attended. Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi stayed away. So did Governor Ibrahim Shema (Katsina) and Governor Ibrahim Geidam (Yobe). None of the three sent a representative. In fact, of all the 19 governors, only five turned up for the Kaduna parley; most preferred to send their deputies or even secretaries. Yet, the NSGF chairman Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger State said everything was just fine, rationalising that representation was as good as attendance.

    Last month, the election of officers of the larger body was even more dodgy. Two factions claimed victory, one still holding as tightly to its claim as the other. The Chibuike Amaechi camp is resolute and as derisive of the Jonah Jang faction as the Jang party is dismissive of the Amaechi group. Under this sort of messy and disagreeable atmosphere, what can we genuinely expect from these leaders we call ours? Can you imagine Jang and his faction attending a meeting called by Amaechi or the Amaechi group turning up for a parley initiated by the Jang camp?

    Does it matter? Yes. Not that Nigerians have benefitted so much from the governors’ forum. In fact, the NGF essentially and usually worked for the sole gain of its members. But the fragmentation and incoherence of the organisation bode ill not just for them but the entire country. It hurts our claim to democratic growth and further demeans us before the world. It casts us as a people quite unable to come to grips with even the rudiments of organised society. The strife among the governors does not inspire any confidence in the next general election. It outlines the shape of a bumpy, messy ride ahead.

    It is depressing that the governors’ ranks can be so easily breached. But is it a self-inflicted wound or an injury caused by an external hand? Whatever the case, it speaks so terribly ill of a country so large and so potentially blessed.

    For me, the biggest worry, though, is that no one is doing anything about it. The father of the nation, the President is too busy denying any complicity in the governors’ disunity to weld them together. Dr Goodluck Jonathan has nothing to gain from the governors’ fragmentation and resultant incoherence. In fact, he has everything to lose. His advisers should tell him that if he does nothing, his administration will go down in history as one under which the governors’ house crashed. And it could be worse for the country. The role of father falls to him automatically by virtue of his presidency. He must play it.

  • Kenyans will see fire

    Kenyans will see fire

    God truly loves Nigeria. News filtering in from Nairobi indicates that the Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) President Issa Hayatou will be watching the game between Kenya and Nigeria on June 5, at the behest of the Kenyan president. We are told that they are friends.

    We can start to celebrate because the Kenyans would not be as viscous as they were the last time Nigeria beat them in 2009. This writer cannot but celebrate. It would be a level playing field and I dare the referees to play their usual pranks for home teams.

    Yes, the smiles are back on the faces of the custodians of our football. The Kenyans, I dare say, are in trouble on June 5 at the Kasarani Stadium in Nairobi

    Super Eagles players, coaches and, indeed, eggheads of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) are heading to Nairobi with one target- beat the Kenyans silly in front of their home fans, no matter their antics.

    The synergy struck by the three blocs culminating in Nigeria’s surprise emergence as the best football playing nation in Africa on February 10 in South Africa, is back.

    One of the combatants called this writer on Monday, boasting that the Kenyans would be shattered. I asked if he had forgotten his earlier vow to scuttle our 2014 World Cup quest, he replied: “The chicken has come home to roost.” I was impressed. I was excited and moved to watch the game in Nairobi, irrespective of my earlier vow not to. I declined earlier because of the bitter experience I had when Nigeria beat Kenya 3-2 in Nairobi to snatch the 2010 FIFA World Cup ticket.

    We were pelted with all manner of objects by the fans. We ran from our seats onto the tracks at some point in the game, with the fans alleging that we influenced the referee, even though the Kenyans scored first in that game.

    It was a very difficult game. The Kasarani Stadium pitch was a pigsty. Undulating, almost bald, the pitch was a potential career wrecker for any player who didn’t play with caution. So, it was understandable that our players were cautious, with the Kenyans shining because they knew the turf. Obafemi Martins’ poaching instinct gave us the game. I can still figure Segun Odegbami’s stunned face, hands akimbo, swinging his head, apparently wondering how the beautiful game was being turned into a battle. Odegbami has seen it all. He definitely hadn’t seen this madness with the way he looked. He was part of the Presidential Task Force, who saw the game.

    Nigerians living in Nairobi, who came for the game, hurriedly left for their homes, especially those who came with their kids. It was a horrible experience. We escaped the mayhem because of the ingenuity of the Nigeria High Commissioner to Kenya. He led the soldiers who fought the urchins who had laid siege to the stadium, awaiting the Nigerian delegation outside.

    For once, I appreciated the essence of having an ambassador in a foreign land. This one was awesome. At some point, I thought he was an ex-military man. But looking at his name, he didn’t carry any military appellation. In fact, I walked up to shake his hands when we got to the hotel. I digress.

    Going to Nairobi will be full of challenges, but a united house of players, coaches and the NFF officials is the battle axe that we need to crush the Kenyans’ resistance on the pitch.

    We will miss Victor Moses’ deft touches and dribbling runs, yet we have the men who will spring surprises. If you ask me, Moses’ absence is good. The Kenyans would have kicked the hell out of his feet. They would have flung their elbows at Emmanuel Emenike, if he was there too. The few who didn’t play in the first leg game in Calabar will keep their traps shut at dusk in Nairobi.

    It is heartwarming to note that John Mikel Obi will be in Kenya. Mikel will be looking out for the rocky part of the descent into Nairobi. I can bet you, it is a scary but bumpy experience for first timers into Kenya. We were told that Mikel vomited inside the chartered aircraft.

    In fact, he opted out of the return journey, preferring to fly British Airways out of the country to England. No joke, it is really a horrible experience if you had gone by air to the East African country, for those who don’t sleep inside the aircraft.

    Each time Mikel wants to play for the Eagles, he makes the difference. If you ask me, Mikel gave Nigeria the trophy in South Africa. Recall the last minute safe he made by clearing the ball off the feet of one Ivorien in the quarter finals game. I thought the goal

    had been scored, watching the Ivorien lift his leg high and backwards to blast the ball home. Mikel stole in from behind and kicked the ball through the Ivorien’s legs. He was shocked. He thought he had scored. Such is the commitment of Mikel when he comes to a game ready to play. I won’t blame him, not after over 64 matches for his club, Chelsea, across the busy European league season. Take a bow, brave guy.
    If Mikel plays to his capacity in Kenya, the hosts will fall. But we need to remind goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama to concentrate fully during the game. He had a few bad outings against minnows, such as Kenya and Liberia, in the past. Many explained his poor showing to his being on the bench at Lille FC in France. Now that he had decent runs with his Israeli club, one hopes that he remains alert all through the match. If he had positioned himself properly in the first leg game, the Kenyans wouldn’t have scored a goal.
    Between Mikel and Enyeama, lie our hopes of beating the Kenyans. The goals will come from set plays but these two men must talk to others on how to control the game without incurring the wrath of the fans through unnecessary delays. We could kill off the game with three first half goals. If that happens, the Kenyans would be forced to applaud good possession football since they would be watching the current African champions live, for most of them, for the first time.
    Going to the FIFA World Cup subsequently should be our birthright, given our players’ exploits in Europe and the Diaspora. As much as 23 Nigerians won medals for England at the London 2012 Olympic Games. Need I mention Nigerians who play football for other countries? We must be at all World Cups, like Brazil; it is not an impossible task.

    Wanted: psychologist for Super Eagles
    I have kept my distance on matters concerning the Super Eagles, with particular reference to the change of guards. It is true that funding the team costs so much.
    I have chosen to comment on it because the NFF has recalled the media officer. It means that they want to be told the truth. No team goes to a football war without a psychologist. Such a man must be tested. Robinson Okosun was in the Eagles squad that lifted the Africa Cup of Nations. The psychologist is as important as the doctor, nurse and masseur. They are the ones who condition the players (athletes) for sporting activities after the coaches have done their jobs. It is a symbiotic chain that works.
    In the first two games where the Eagles wobbled through their matches, it was said that Okosun played a significant role in psyching up the boys to better their performance.
    The evening before the game against Cote d’ Ivoire, I was on the practice pitch to watch the team. Okosun and the players understood themselves. Okosun, the players said, went round each one’s room before the game to psyche them up. They spoke glowingly about Okosun’s competence. One was, therefore, shocked when he and the media officer were dropped.
    Now that NFF chiefs are fortifying the squad, it won’t be out of place if the team’s psychologist returns. We don’t need any campaign before the NFF knows the importance of having a psychologist in the Eagles.
    I don’t know if the chief coach made any complaints about Okosun’s competence. I doubt it. With a Doctor of Philosophy degree (PHD) in psychology, with cognate experience in the sporting aspect of it as a player and athlete, I wonder why he is still at home, while the Eagles are in Germany. It is instructive to add that Okosun’s first and second degrees are in Physical and Health Education. So what other criteria does he need to keep the job?
    Okosun may not be indispensable, but why don’t we learn to sustain a working formula?

  • Chopras: Fix immigration ‘slippery ladder’

    Chopras: Fix immigration ‘slippery ladder’

    When we came to U.S., we were able to grab onto a high rung. Not so for today’s newcomers.

    Despite the heated differences over immigration reform, everyone can agree on one thing: Nobody comes to America to get poorer.

    The two of us speak from experience. During medical school back in India, our gaze was fixed firmly on America. The era was the early 1970s. The Vietnam War had created a serious doctor shortage. With unusual swiftness after we passed an easy exam, we entered the country, first Deepak and then Sanjiv. An overnight flight landed us in the same community hospital in Plainfield, N.J. We were off and running in the land of opportunity.

    Our reception, though, was lukewarm at best. Immigrants grab on to the ladder of success at different rungs. We grabbed a high rung, no doubt. We arrived with a medical degree and had spoken fluent English our whole lives. But native-born doctors looked down on foreign-born ones. As graduates of rigorous U.S. medical schools, they had their suspicions about our training in India, which happened to be excellent.

    The prejudice against us wasn’t severe, but it was there. We knew that Boston medicine was legendary, so that’s where we set our sights. But there was scarce chance back then that a South Asian physician could get affiliated with one of Harvard’s prestigious hospitals. Both of us wound up at the Veterans Administration hospital and worked with determination and ambition.

    Changing opportunities

    Looking back, we were climbing a slippery ladder to success. For every three steps we took up, we’d slip two steps down. But at least the rungs weren’t pulled out from under us.

    Today, the sad truth is that opportunities for immigrants have changed. As the gap between rich and poor has drastically widened, and as illegal immigration has created so much hostility, a lot of rungs have broken on the ladder or don’t exist anymore.

    Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist David Autor has coined a phrase for it: the “polarization of job opportunities.” White-collar jobs for the college-educated exist at one extreme. Service jobs for the less educated, including the invisible immigrant workers who do the jobs no one else wants to do, exist at the opposite end.

    This polarization has been exacerbated by major job losses in the middle due to the recession and technology. This is not just a problem for immigrants, of course. The long-term unemployed (particularly anyone older than 50), laid-off factory workers and recent college graduates are forced to seek work for which they are overqualified.

    America needs to repair the ladder to success, putting everyone on more solid footing no matter what rung they grab first. To grasp how urgent this need is, a fellow Indian immigrant, Fareed Zakaria, on his CNN program, GPS, assailed the myth of upward mobility in this country. Among his key points, Zakaria included studies over the past two decades that showed economic mobility has decreased in America. We now lag behind many European countries and Canada. Rags-to-riches stories are becoming the exception. A Pew Research report on upward mobility shows that few poor people rise into the upper middle class. A lot of factors are responsible, including education, the neighborhood you live in, and the stability of your family structure.

    Big economic impact

    The extended economic downturn has put a squeeze on every rung, but immigrants get pushed down especially hard. Laws against hiring undocumented workers are tightening on employers, especially in the construction and agricultural sector. Deportations have sharply increased under the Obama administration.

    On the upper rungs, students who come to America to take advantage of our world-class colleges and universities are forced to return to their home countries before applying to be readmitted and find work here. Thus the law forces a brain drain that helps our foreign competitors and frustrates high-tech employers where thousands of jobs go begging.

    All these trends need to be reversed with a clear-eyed understanding that immigration is economically, culturally and spiritually enriching for America. Members of Congress and each of us, native born or immigrant, must actively counter any anxiety or suspicion that immigration is a threat. The answer isn’t special treatment for immigrants. It’s equal opportunity for all.

     

     

    Deepak Chopra is the founder of The Chopra Foundation. Sanjiv Chopra is professor of medicine and faculty dean for Continuing Medical Education at Harvard. Their dual memoir, Brotherhood: Dharma, Destiny and the American Dream was released this month.

     

  • Again, the Akpabio jinx manifests

    The nation was served a yellow card by the Jonah Jang faction of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) penultimate Friday after the re-election of Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State as the forum’s chairman. In a move considered by many political observers as an ominous sign for the 2015 general elections, the governors loyal to Jang turned the rule of democracy on its head, declaring that the election in which Amaechi polled 19 votes and Jang polled 16 was won by the latter.

    Not surprisingly, the rebellion against Amaechi was led by Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State who has earned himself a reputation as the chief motivator for the second term ambition of President Goodluck Jonathan. Of course, many would wonder at the desperation with which Akpabio has been pursuing the Jonathan’s re-election bid in the face of the President’s growing unpopularity. Considering that he only last year predicted that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would remain in power for another 50 years, Akpabio’s reputation is by emerging political realities.

    Besides, the Akwa Ibom State governor is fighting an emotional battle. In the build-up to President Jonathan’s presidential campaign about three years ago, I had done a piece as a columnist with Punch newspaper, in which I chronicled the numerous instances where campaigns championed by the governor had ended in fiasco. In the said piece, I had prayed that the campaign train of Jonathan would not suffer derailment with the overzealous involvement of Akpabio. The said piece drew the ire of some Akpabio supporters who bought spaces in the media to hauled abuses at me.

    Of course, they felt a sense of triumph as Jonathan eventually won the election. Lost on them was the fact that the massive goodwill Jonathan enjoyed in the build-up to the election would have dwarfed even the ill luck of Jabesh. Unfortunately, the situation is now different as evident in the loss suffered by the Akpabio camp in the just-concluded chairmanship election of the NGF. The once brimming bucket of the President’s goodwill has drained so much that he cannot even muster enough support from PDP governors to make his favoured candidate win the election.

    Expectedly, many political observers believe the result of the NGF chairmanship election is a microcosm of the fate that awaits Jonathan and his supporters in 2015. There lies the plight of Governor Akpabio whose record of jinxed supports was worsened by last week’s election.

    An abridged version of the piece is reproduced below for the records:

    Nigerians with progressive bent are upbeat about the prospects of Jonathan’s emergence as the winner of the presidential race next year; a development many believe is guaranteed to change the political equation in which the presidency is literally the birthright of the major ethnic groups while the minority groups, including those of the Niger Delta on which the nation depends for survival would only enjoy the right to vote.

    With the voice against zoning getting louder by the day from the most unlikely quarters, such as the North and other parts of the country where Jonathan’s candidacy would have suffered vehement opposition, the coast is getting clearer and clearer for Jonathan to transmute from the providential president he is now to one elected by popular will. Of course, fairness demands nothing less.

    But my worries stem from the prominece Governor Godswill Akpabio is already enjoying among Jonathan’s supporters. The governor seems to have been having a running battle with ill luck. So much so that many people now tend to believe that enlisting his support in a mega venture like presidential campaign could amount to taking a risk.

    Two years ago, the blossoming career of Nigeria’s former WBC heavyweight champion, Samuel Peter crumbled in the face of the mega support Akpabio mounted for him in far away Germany. As Peter’s title defence date with Ukranian boxer, Vitalis Klitchsko on October 11, 1998 drew near, the governor was at his vocal best, telling anyone who cared to listen that Peter was about to tap from his training, perseverance and determination to make the nation proud.

    In the months ahead of Peter’s clash with Klitchsko, the governor threatened to lead a delegation to Germany to witness the fight. “I will be by the ring side in Berlin. When you see Don King (Peter’s promoter) by the ringside in Berlin, the next person you will see is me,” he said. Of course, Akpabio made good his vow to storm Germany. But what happened? Peter was battered by Klitchsko so much that he could not answer the bell in the ninth round. Klitchsko dethroned him as the world heavyweight champion!

    The Akpabio government had a hectic time denying a story to the effect that the governor offered one of the state’s elder statesmen, Obong Donald Etiebet, the sum of $200,000 to embark on a trip overseas for medical treatment. The gesture later turned into a nightmare for the elder statesman as bandits stormed his house and carted the money away.

    The day the Nigerian team played its opening match against Argentina in the World Cup soccer competition held in South Africa in 2010,Akpabio reportedly stormed the venue with a lorry load of cash he promised to dole out to the players if they won. But ill luck connived with ill fate to rob him the chance to celebrate with the Super Eagles as the South American team defeated them and the Nigerian team eventually crashed out of the competition at the group stage.

    The lesson was, however, lost on some Nigerian journalists who converged on Uyo for a conference. According to the then chairman of the Lagos Council of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, Mr Wahab Oba, the governor demonstrated his support for the journalists by giving them a million naira “in fulfilment of his promise to assist us for a project we are doing in Lagos.” But as the media men headed back to Lagos, they were kidnapped by gunmen who kept them for one week before they were set free by policemen.

    With Akpabio now at the frontline of the Jonathan-for-President campaign, will the story be different?

  • Terrorism, poverty  and  the democracy agenda

    Terrorism, poverty  and  the democracy agenda

    In  Addis Ababa  this week the Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegh and current Head  of the African Union accused the International Criminal Court of Justice of racial bias in the prosecution of errant world leaders and pointedly stated that the AU is not well disposed to the prosecution of the current president of Kenya  Uhuru  Kenyatta and the Vice President for the  post election violence in the 2007  presidential elections in that nation. In  Accra Ghana  the president of the country noted that Islamic militancy will soon overcome the whole of West  Africa if care is not taken and that he is saying this even though Ghana does not have such insurgency on its hand right now. As  Nigeria celebrated the government’s Democracy day  on May 29 and key former presidents shunned the invitation of incumbent Nigerian president to the occasion, it turned out that the UN  Secretary – General  Ban Ki Moon was celebrating the UN  Peace Keepers Day   on the same day and was commending fallen Nigeria’s soldiers as ten percent of  the Nigerian UN Peace Keepers have died  in 2012 in the UN peace keeping role and the UN published their  names on that day.

    At  another global forum the   Jim  Yong Kim,   the Group MD of the World Bank  was audacious  enough to announce that the World body was planning to eradicate global poverty  by 2030  by making access to  health facilities affordable globally in pursuit of  the goal of global  poverty alleviation .At  the other end in Syria however   Bashar  Assad the president of that nation boasted  that the balance of power is with the Syrian army in its war with those he called terrorists  and he accused some nations namely Saudi  Arabia  and Turkey of financing the rebellion in his nation while acknowledging that Hizbollah, the Party  of God in Lebanon  is fighting alongside the Syrian army in the war to preserve what he called the territorial integrity  of Syria.

    It is my  contention today that world leaders  on occasions behave like the proverbial ostrich with its head buried in the sand while the body is there for all to see . Secondly while some cling to power by all or any means because they cannot contemplate life out of office, there  are still some who believe  that to serve humanity is still a possible task in spite of manmade  challenges  and obstacles  both  locally and abroad. Thirdly in the name of democracy, security  and political stability,   politicians and world leaders  mostly indulge in promoting their whims and caprices and  in muscling their opponents  to submission if not annihilation in pursuit of their   so called political agenda   and objectives. Let me now hook these observations to the news items I have highlighted today.

    Starting with Kenya, let me  state  categorically  that the accusation by the AU Chairman that the ICC is racially prejudiced against African Leaders is a false alarm and is indeed a dangerous case  of jaundice   and prejudice. It cannot survive any moral scrutiny either in Addis Ababa or Nairobi. This is a fact the  current president and Vice president of Kenya will be the first to admit as they were not on the same side during the 2007 elections or the  post  election violence. They later buried the hatchet and contested on the same ticket in 2013 knowing  that the charges at the Hague were  hanging on their neck like the proverbial sword  of Damocles . That their ticket clinched the Kenyan presidency in spite of the ICC charges is a victory for democracy and the dictum that a people deserve the leaders they have. That however does not absolve them of culpability in the murder and mayhem of the 2007 post election   violence in Kenya. The charge that 90%  of those being prosecuted  by ICC are Africans is sheer  persecution complex and a product of colonial mentality. The world is a global village and such sentiments belong to the past. That is why the Arab Spring revolution got rid of leaders like Housni Mubarak and Muammar Gaddafi. If the AU wants, it can   negotiate a reprieve or pardon or even a stay of prosecution for the Kenyan leaders. It should not however insult the intelligence of Africans by talking of racial bias towards African leaders by the ICC. That  is an anachronism and a dubious  charge  indeed  that  cannot hold water.

    On the charge by the Ghanaian President John  Mahama  that Islamic Militancy will  destabilize West Africa if care is not taken , I cannot agree  more. He  gave  the example  of the French Military  intervention in Mali  and the need for the AU  to form a standing intervention force to counter  regional insurgency  and I cannot agree more. What I  think is lacking is the moral  capacity  and commitment on    the  part of both political  and religious  leaders in the region to tackle the problem of militancy head on,  on a once and for all basis , instead  of the present half- hearted approach of thinking that the problem will go away as rapidly as it has surfaced. In addition the issue of negotiating or succumbing to blackmail while keeping  trained armed forces at bay is counterproductive as it gives the militants  a   false  sense of strength and importance  as such vacillations and dithering     give them ample time to select their next target  for terror with maximum impact.

    Next, according to UN reports, Nigeria made the largest contribution to world peace in 2012 . This is according to the UN Report that  17 Nigerians were killed  last  year  on peacekeeping duties  and this was announced on Nigeria’s Democracy Day  May 29  which also is the UN Peace  Keeping Day. The UN Secretary General   Ban Ki Moon therefore commended the Nigerian Peace Keeping Contingent for making the greatest human sacrifice for world peace in 2012. Which to me is a source of pride as a Nigerian  and I seize this opportunity to commiserate with the families of the gallant soldiers who made the supreme sacrifice in the service of their nation. Incidentally May 29 was picked by the Obasanjo Administration  as Democracy Day when it was elected  into  office in 1999. This year however Obasanjo shunned the Democracy Day in Abuja and was instead in Dutse, Jigawa State where he was showering praises on the state Governor Sule  Lamido at the First Jigawa State Investment Forum. In Abuja President Goodluck  Jonathan was busy,  lamentably and apologetically pleading with Nigerians bent on judging his two years in office, to have a marking scheme before doing that –whatever that means.

    At  the World Health  Assembly – WHA  in  Geneva,  Switzerland the World Bank Group MD Jim Yong Kim, an American and a medical  doctor spoke on the theme –  Poverty, Health  and the Human Future- and noted that to end poverty and boost shared prosperity, the nations of the world need to drive global growth by investing in human capital, health education and social protection for all their citizens. He made the revealing news that out of pocket health expenses force about 100m people into poverty every year. Heidentified three  areas that health delivery can enhance economic growth  and national planned efforts to make universal health delivery achievable through access, quality  and affordability. Yong Kim seems to be saying what one has always known that a sound mind needs a sound body. Coming from a global financial institution noted for infrastructure development and finance, the pursuit of poverty alleviation by 2030  by this unique American head of the World  Bank,  is a   most welcome  welfarist   approach  to  global growth  and economic    development.  This is because democracy at the end of the day is about the welfare of the citizenry and a better life for those who elected those who now tyrannise them globally  .Surely  the World Bank’s   Group  MD poverty alleviation approach to economic growth  and prosperity through access to quality and affordable health facilities by 2030  is highly commendable –  and is a huge, innovative step in the right  direction. We wish  him well.

    Lastly the war in Syria has shown clearly that democracy in that nation will not come on  platter  of gold. Rather than  be frightened by the prospect of becoming a Housni Mubarak being driven to court in a cage or a  Gaddafi  beaten to death by a mob, Bashar Assad  has dug in in Damascus and there is no sign of him giving up as the west is betting on . Better still for him,  his Russian supporters  have given him about 300  anti aircraft equipment in case of any creation of a no fly zone like the one that crippled Gaddafi’s well armed forces . So,   it is not always the case that nations fall like dominoes in the face of insurgency as happened in N Africa two years. In fighting insurgency  to a stand still and still retaining the loyalty of his army in the wake of international isolation, somehow the blood letting leader in Damascus   has my  grudging admiration. Perhaps the Russians have seen something opaque to the rest of us in siding with the son of an old ally Haffez Assad. Time, surely, will tell.

  • Fetish of baby factories

    Of all the atrocities of baby factories in the country, the scariest is the fact that no one is seeing the abominable crime in the trade, let alone hunting down the criminals and keeping them out of business.

    In Abia State, Governor Theodore Orji’s wife Odorchi has reportedly pledged to “flush out baby factory in the state”. And to demonstrate the state government’s similar disposition, Lady Odorchi promptly adopted a baby whose father was incapacitated by a ghastly accident.

    In neighbouring Imo, Governor Rochas Okorocha has reportedly donated some millions for the upkeep of expectant teenage mothers and babies rescued from a baby factory in the state. He has also gone on to say that all orphanages will henceforth report to his office or perhaps that of the “first lady”.

    All that may be a good thing but neither from Abia nor Imo has come any firm assurances that the crime in this blatant baby factory assault will be punished.  In one instance, we hear, two employees of one “factory”, an elderly security guard and a 23-year-old man, both fathers of the factory babies, have been arrested. The owner of the “factory”, a woman known only as Madam One Thousand, has melted into the proverbial thin air. I fear that when things quiet down and we have exhausted our initial misgivings and horror, Madam One Thousand will stroll back to her beat to take off where she left off with new recruits and hirelings.

    Who are the patrons of baby factories which have been discovered not just in the Southeast but also in Lagos? How long have they been in operation? How far spread is the menace? To what use are the babies put?

    Some argue that baby factories thrive in Nigeria because childless couples will rather have a baby through such factories than live with the apparent societal stigma. It is also said that our adoption laws are not streamlined, leaving couples having conception challenges with little or no choice but to acquire a child by hook or crook.

    Such arguments do not move me. Ours has since become a fetish society, with desperate people who are willing to, and really do, anything to make money and push up their profile and society rating. People are killed and their bodies quartered for money rituals. These crimes are reported frequently.  What is not often reported is the punishment of the criminals and that may because the rogues are never apprehended or prosecuted. Beneath the baby factories lie some atrocious crimes our leaders somehow gloss over.

    A typical baby factory drips with crime, from its roof to the foundations. A closeup report on the recent one in Imo was instructive. Madam One Thousand’s “factory” is conceived to deceive. A sachet water facility is in front shielding visitors from what lies behind. An elderly man is the guard. Who will suspect anything? Apparently, there is a sophisticated ring beyond its gates. According to one report, medical doctors do refer teenage girls with unwanted pregnancies to such a “factory” where they could have their babies quietly and move on with their lives. On getting to the “safe haven” they discover an entirely bizarre, new world from which they cannot escape. They are crammed into too few rooms with only mats for beddings. They are scarcely fed. They are probably not paid. The guard walks in to sleep with them and impregnate them in turns. A 23-year-old comes in also to sleep with the girls and ensure that the mission is accomplished. Again and again, the girls are delivered of babies whose destinations their mothers know not.

    One of the rescued girls said she was told that rather than have an unwanted child she could give it to someone who wanted it. But it is not clear what they will do with the child.

    By virtue of their age, some of the girls are minors but that fact does not dissuade operators of illicit facilities. It makes no difference to them if some of the girls’ parents have no knowledge of their children’s whereabouts, wellbeing or safety.

    Those who blame this crime on poor adoption laws and unfriendly African disposition to childlessness prefer to forget that the same African society abhors fraudulent acquisition of children. It is also implausible that minors and teenagers are so woefully dehumanised and exploited just to make childless couples happy. It is unacceptable that girls as young as 14 are beaten up when they try to escape just because operators of such inhuman facilities want to help other people.

    All there in this is nothing but atrocious, fetish crime against teenagers, against their parents, against the newborns, against the Nigerian and African society, against the laws of the land, against humanity. The state and federal governments and their agencies are obliged to investigate this sordid crime and, for once, make the criminals pay.

  • On the whining plain

    So, with presidential alacrity, some detained Nigerians with strong links to the Boko Haram sect have been set free and handed over to various state chief executives? That is okay. But inasmuch as we cannot question the so-called ‘presidential magnanimity’ in the furious rush to ensure peace in troubled parts of the northern region, I guess we reserve the right to make some observations as regards the freedom granted these suspects, including women and children. We just hope that the authorities are truly convinced of the willingness of these persons to steer clear of suicidal tendencies and live the kind of normal lives which every law abiding citizens crave. Do we take it that the freed suspects now know that their freedom to exhale does not necessarily mean that they must force the rest of us to conform to whatever they believe in? In the simplest of words, do they know that we don’t need to die for them to live? That there is nothing salutary in turning the land into a killing field just because they perceive other Muslims, Christians and people of different shades of religious persuasions as mere unbelievers, worthy only of  being bombed or having their throats slit.

    As a matter of fact, freedom or presidential pardon is one thing, showing remorse is another. Is there any guarantee that these mothers, suspects, wives and children have shown enough remorse for the deadly sins their husbands, nephews, uncles and relatives inflicted on the state? What kind indoctrination or radicalisation did they go through at the Boko Haram camps? And is this presidential pardon well thought out? Or is it just another jerky political gimmick aimed at consolidating towards 2015? Don’t get it twisted. This does not in any way suggest a radical position against playing politics with human face regardless of how scary some smiling faces can be. What should worry us is the hurried nature of the directive and the promptness with which it was carried out.

    Question is: how much of justice is this government willing to sacrifice on the altar of peace? In Martin Luther King’s words, peace is not the absence of war but the presence of justice. It is commendable that Jonathan has seriously taken exception to the plight of these persons after the raids on their camps and has swiftly moved to ‘rehabilitate’ them through the state governors. But, while at it, can he also spare a thought for the widows whose husbands were callously slaughtered by members of the sect; children who now have to grapple with the harsh realities of precarious living as their parents had become victims of a mindless carnage by the sect. There are countless widowers whose wives were bombed into layers of shredded meat at worship places and such other persons who have deadly imprimatur of terror etched on their psyche for ever? These persons also need the attention of the state as the quest for lasting peace continues at the war front.

    Knucklehead, still in the whining mood, read somewhere that respected Ijaw chieftain and President Goodluck Jonathan’s unrepentant apologist, Chief Edwin Clark, has posted a ‘No Vacancy’ sign on the gate of Aso Rock. Well, that is also okay too. It is jolly well that the 85-year-old has a good accomplice in another wily old fox and  Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party Board of Trustees, Chief Tony Anenih, who once made such a proclamation some two years into Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo’s first tenure as a democratically-elected president. Now that the two forces have coalesced to work for Madam Patience’ husband, we can only urge them to exercise some patience in ensuring that their ‘son’ continues in that seat after the conduct of a free, fair and credible election in 2015.

    Like the Catholic Bishops put it, those beating the war drums and threatening the final breakup of this fragile nationhood if their kinsman is not foisted on the rest of us for another four years should understand that the only way to avoid a cataclysm of bloodletting is the institution of an electoral process that is free of the shenanigans of the past. For Pa Clark and ex-policeman Anenih, did it not occur to them that the reality of oncoming general elections is indicative of a wide range of vacancies in government houses, including the one presently occupied by Jonathan? What we cannot quarrel with is the right of Jonathan to re-contest, subject to the people’s power. Surely, 2015 cannot be a Jonathan sole candidacy rant, neither is it that of any other candidate. One thing is clear: fragmented, callously raped and thoroughly battered as it is, Nigeria is just too big to be placed under the permutation of cavorting spin doctors. I whine!

    The other day, I stumbled on a news report quoting the spokesman of the Nigeria Police Force, DSP Frank Mba, as saying that “those making inciting statements about 2015 could only be arrested when they had carried out their threats.” The statement, I assume, was meant to hit the final nail on the declaration by the Director of Navy Information, Commodore Kabiru Aliyu, who recently explained away the security forces’ impotence at shutting up those threatening war over a Jonathan presidency thus: “We are in a democracy and so it is not easy to gag members of the public. If we do so, the media and the human rights community will complain about infringing on the fundamental rights of the citizenry. We must not be seen to be gagging members of the public.”

    So, Oga Mba and Aliyu, does it mean that any Nigerian, be it a knucklehead, dunderhead or even a yam head, can say anything for and against the system and walk free on our streets? You know, when these top security chiefs talk glibly about citizens’ rights, democracy and freedom of speech, I can’t help but giggle. Can Mba assure us that nothing, absolutely nothing, would be done to anybody that stands in front of Louis Edet House, shouting “I must bomb this police Headquarters someday. I must set this place ablaze!” Will the heavily armed police personnel ignore his rant and presume that since he had not carried out the threat, he should be allowed to ‘carry go?’ Or would the men of the Navy, SSS, Army, Air Force or even Civil Defence extend the same hand of fellowship to anyone making such potentially combustible comments at their gates in the name of democracy and free speech? Is it just a question of conforming to the ethos of democracy or kowtowing to the whim of those speaking in favour of the real Oga at the top for now? Yet, I whine.

    The Yoruba have a saying that crying is no excuse to claim that one’s vision has been thoroughly impeded (“Bi a ba n sunkun, ko ni k’a ma riran”). Even in this private musing, I can see through their deceit. We know those who can sit atop Mt. Aso Rock and beat the war drums. We know those who have the effrontery to speak proudly about a negotiated presidential pardon as if they were doing the state a huge favour by accepting the gesture. And, like the Catholic Bishops noted, we ought to know when amnesty is being offered to repentant militants and when the state is surreptitiously appeasing criminals and their sponsors. We know when the rules are criminally trampled on to please some sacred fat cows. And we couldn’t have missed the message that there is a limit to this buzz about freedom of speech with the way and manner federal forces have been swooning on one Mr. Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi for daring to speak so ‘negatively’ on how the nation is sinking into the valley of a misbegotten governance. Why didn’t they wait for him to declare his intention to run in 2015 before asking that his head be made available on Oga’s menu? Or is the gander no longer qualified to take the sauce meant for the goose?

  • The conspiracy of the theory

    The unprecedented, horrific events of the Woolwich killings of a British soldier, James Rigby, in broad daylight on a London street last week forced a massive shock, not only in Britain but the rest of the world. The straw that broke the camel’s back (if you will) is the fact that both the suspects are of Nigerian descent and the dimension of the revelation further revealed that they are Nigerians from the southern part of the country. The fact that they are not Muslims from the northern part of Nigeria gives a more complex perspective to a phenomenon that would otherwise have been labeled by Nigerians especially as a Boko Haram terrorist activity. The overzealous and fascinatingly diverse conspiracy theories spun by Nigerians in the media, especially of southern descent, on dissipating the forensic evidence on the scene of the crime have been gigantean in nature. This is not the first of such unfortunate activity on an international platform of which a Nigerian has been involved. But in the first of such case, the media, especially those of southern descent, never expressed or entertained the possibility that the first case, which involved a northerner, could also lend itself to a conspiracy theory.

    Similarly, the recent preposterous outburst by the ridiculous Asari Dokubo, where he threatened fire and brimstone primarily targeting northerners drew anger from a wide spectrum of Northern leaders. While it goes without saying that Dokubo is nothing better than an ignorant and mad bumbling fool, who has directed his personal frustrations towards bigotry, the outrage of many northerners to the utterances of the ‘rabid dog’ has been as revealing as the complacency southerners treated his onslaught. But the truth is, even though the manner and approach adopted by Dokubo was, to say the least, crass and uncouth, several northerners have, in the not so distant past, made statements not so dissimilar to Dokubo’s. But when they did, northerners didn’t see fault in it and didn’t articulate outrage in the same way southerners haven’t reacted to Dokubo’s statements. The theory of this behavior, in each instance is that there is a conspiracy where all regions adopt the posture of victims whose existence and well being is threatened by some tribal covert grand design. And that in itself makes a conspiracy of the theory.

    The reactions to the Woolwich killings and Dokubos statements may not seem connected, but they are; in the most crucial manner. Assessing these diverse events and the reactions that have followed them, one can’t help but conclude the navigation of ethnic sensibilities. When such conspiracy theories came into the fold in Nigeria, one can bet that there is an assessment of tribe and our natural denial of anything that reflects negativity of anyone that comes from the same tribe as us. Instead of universally labeling inciting statements of both northerners and southerners wrong, instead of accepting that murdering extremists are nothing less than murdering extremists, we make excuses when our tribes are concerned; use conspiracy theories to rationalize bad behavior.

    When it comes to conspiracy theories, we here in Nigeria are the sharers out of nations. So dependent we are on story telling for our survival, especially in connection with tribal issues, we have lost the codes of rational reasoning and to properly and reasonably articulate our outrage.

    Don Delera, one of the most outstanding contemporary American writers, once said of conspiracy theories, “If we are on the outside, we assume a conspiracy is the perfect working of a scheme; silent nameless men with unadorned hearts. A conspiracy is everything that ordinary life is not. It’s the inside game, cold, sure, undistracted, forever closed off to us. We are the flawed ones, the innocents, trying to make some rough sense of the daily jostle. Conspirators have logic and a daring beyond our reach. All conspiracies are the same taut story of men who find coherence in some criminal act.”

    We do this to an art form in Nigeria. So easy is it to take refuge in the shadowy world of maybe or maybe nots. To blame all our failings on bogey men, on the ‘other’ tribes, on anyone except ourselves. It saves us the trouble of confronting reality. It saves us the trouble of having to take responsibility, of conserving our identity and our country; which we destroy so quickly and so shamelessly. It saves us from taking accountability for our actions and decisions and in the long run, we assassinate the potential of our young Nigeria in the span of one short lifetime. And it saves us from demanding better from our feckless rulers and depriving them of their overbearing and overwhelming power over us, especially when those rulers are the same tribe as us.

    It is becoming harder and harder to escape the sense that the narrow-minded idiosyncrasy we apply to the issue of tribe is the core threat to our development and existence. Being unable to assess issues objectively without giving it a tribal and ethnic dimension is disturbing and a further reinforcement that what we have got in Nigeria is a most disunited and leery order. As a people, our way of reasoning requires a stronger focus on inconvenient truths which are much too often swept under the carpet in exchange for an optical illusion that exonerates what we consider to be ‘our own kind.’

    It honestly is a woeful decree in the assessment of Nigeria that, a century since our formation; we are still unable to shed the garb of suspicion, intolerance and disparity. Still, unable to see beyond ethnicity, religion and regional origin. We; the black race, the people of Africa, Nigerians far and wide want to be accepted and seen as equals by the Europeans, the Americans, by the Caucasians all over the world. We complain when the Westerners make documentaries depicting our nations decline. We curse and cry bias when they refuse to grant us visas to their countries and when fellow Africans label us parasites, criminals and 419ers. Who are we to accuse anybody else of prejudice against us? We have no right to claim discrimination when we fail to exhibit the equality and understanding that we yearn from outsiders to our own people and in our own home. Through actions and words, all ethnic and religious groups in Nigeria are equally as guilty as each other of promoting the disharmony that is now drowning us.

    The downfall of any multi ethnic country is usually enhanced through the flaw of reasoning, social dogma or ignorance. Unless we are able to overcome our flaw in reasoning and ignorance that accentuates our ethnic distinctions, then we will remain unable to address our troubles, because even though we clearly see the truth, as Don Delera says, it will “forever be closed off to us since we can only see ourselves as the innocents trying to find coherence in some criminal act.” Let’s wake up and recognize that; “the real theory of the conspiracies lies in the conspiracy of the theory,” and it has nothing to do with a real rationale but everything to do with our prejudiced tribal sensibilities and denials.

    So as we come to terms with the emergence of a converted Muslim extremist of southern descent, as we enrage about comparable inciting tribal statements from northern personalities and Niger-delta militants alike, we might just need to take a minute and look for fault from within, give the conspiracies a break, put tribal sensibilities aside and lay blame where blame is due…, even if it is on our doorstep. Then and only then will there be no conspiracy in our theories!

  • FCT gets community-based health insurance committee

    The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has established a technical committee on community-based health insurance scheme in order to ensure affordable access to healthcare services in rural communities in the territory.

    There are currently 861 communities in the six area councils of the FCT.

    Minister of State for the FCT, Oloye Olajumoke Akinjide, who inaugurated the committee in Abuja, said the scheme aimed at protecting the rural poor from the burden of paying for healthcare directly from their pockets.

    “The FCT Community-based Health Insurance Scheme aims at providing access to healthcare services for the rural poor. Each rural beneficiary becomes a CBHIS subscriber the moment he or she signs up to the programme by paying a token for rural health insurance scheme.

    “Families do not have to divert money that is supposed to be used for food and education to treat illnesses. They do not have to sell their household assets to pay for healthcare services for their family members,” said Akinjide, who was represented by the Executive Secretary, FCT Primary Healthcare Development Board, Dr. Rilwan Mohammed.

    The minister reiterated the commitment of the FCT Administration to create an enabling environment, develop a policy and legal framework, strengthen institutional arrangements and provide regular and sustained financial support through increased target coverage of health.

    She further explained that the technical committee was expected to come up with an institutional framework for the Community-based Health Insurance Scheme in the FCT.

    The committee, which is chaired by the FCT Minister of State, has as members the Emir of Jiwa, His Royal Highness (Dr.) Idris Musa; Director of Economic Planning, Research and Statistics, Alhaji Ari Isa Mohammed; Secretary of FCT Primary Healthcare Development Board, Dr. Rilwan Mohammed and Director of Primary Healthcare in Area Council Services Secretariat, Dr. Sani Muhammed.

    Other members are Special Assistant to the Permanent Secretary, Mr. David Gende; Dr. Hope Iloeaja of National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS); Dr. Hamza Aliyu of NHIS, and Dr. Ibrahim Abubakar of the Millennium Development Goals.

    The Director of the FCT Area Council Health Insurance Scheme serves as Secretary to the committee.

  • Beyond emergency rule

    Should President Goodluck Jonathan have declared a state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states in response to the protracted and horrendously bloody Boko Haram insurgency that had practically paralysed the north? The debate rages on fiercely despite obvious overwhelming nationwide public support for the measure. Yet, it is an exchange that is largely theoretical and can only generate more heat than light. I really think that the President had little option. The situation had degenerated almost irredeemably in the north and decisive action was called for. Indeed, irritated by the President’s inconsistent vacillation between tough talk and pacifying the mindless terrorists through the offer of amnesty, many had queried Jonathan’s leadership competence.

    They saw him as irresolute, weak, ineffectual and seemingly clueless. To worsen matters, the Boko Haram naturally perceived the reticence of the Federal Government as a sign of weakness. The extremist sect was thus encouraged to step up the tempo of its violence – seizing women and children, escalating its attacks on security agents and increasing the venom of its mostly irrational rhetoric. It surely would come to a point when any state worth its salt as the legitimate custodian of the monopoly of instruments and methods of coercion within a given territorial jurisdiction would be forced to defend its integrity and authority.

    As the President rightly put it in his well- written even if intemperately delivered address to the nation, the insurgents had virtually declared war on the Nigerian state. He thus had the constitutional and moral responsibility to restore normalcy, protect lives and property and maintain the cohesion of the nation. It is, of course, plausible as has been argued with considerable force in some quarters that the President could have taken all the actions in the three states without formally proclaiming emergency rule. However, I guess his military strategists wanted to score a massive psychological advantage over the insurgents by maximum show of force.

    Again, by its very nature, the envisaged scale of military operations in the affected areas would necessarily involve the curtailment of some basic rights which would only be tenable under emergency rule- a departure from normality. It is also not impossible that in the run up to the 2015 election, and President Jonathan’s undisguised ambition for a second term, the strategy in opting for emergency rule in the three states was to seize the opportunity to emphatically assert his authority and showcase the immense powers of Nigeria’s imperial presidency to overawe potential opposition.This seems to be a throwback to the regressive era of the Obasanjo presidency and a sad commentary on the state of democratic development in contemporary Nigeria. However, this does not obviate the fact that deployment of massive force had become imperative to rein in the insurgents and restore normalcy in the North. There must first of all be peace and security before democratic structures and processes can function for the benefit of the people.

    However, to argue that the tough measures that President Jonathan has taken to contain the Boko Haram insurgency are necessary does not mean that this entire situation could not have been avoided if the country had been steered in a completely different direction over the last 14 years of civilian rule. In other words the degeneration to emergency rule in parts of the north is a culmination of the failure of the Peoples Democratic Party to guide Nigeria aright since 1999. This is not just a failure of the Jonathan presidency. It is a result of the incompetence and lack of vision of successive governments in control of power at the centre since the inception of this democratic dispensation. The inevitability of emergency rule almost one and a half decades after the exit of the military is clear evidence that Nigeria’s malformed federal structure has virtually broken down under the watch of the PDP and there is the urgent need for the country to try leaders and parties with alternative ideas at the centre in the next polls. In the last election, many Nigerians claimed that they voted for President Jonathan and not the PDP. Now, it is obvious that the difference between the two is that between six and half a dozen. Both have sorely failed the nation as the sheer anarchy across the country today demonstrates.

    Now the people of the North East are forced to live with all the negative consequences of emergency rule including abridgement of human rights, possible military excesses and the conversion of democratic structures into nothing but hollow shells in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa. The large scale military action attendant on emergency rule will further affect the economy of the region negatively. Innocent lives will almost inevitably be lost and thousands of people displaced. The situation in the north further reinforces Nigeria’s unflattering negative image as an insecure entity headed dangerously in the direction of state failure. Surely, those responsible for the deterioration of affairs in the country to this extent must be made to pay the electoral price for their incompetence and irresponsibility. They must not be allowed to beat their chests heroically and claim the imposition of emergency rule as an achievement when their actions and inactions are responsible, in the first place, for the deplorable security and socio-economic situation in the country that fuelled the insurgency.

    For instance, is there any excuse why we have maintained the archaic and ineffective security architecture that has rendered most of our communities vulnerable to sundry criminal elements including religious extremists, cultists, armed robbers and kidnappers? Why do we still maintain a system where state governors are Chief Security Officers only nominally and lack the capacity to effectively secure lives and property within their respective jurisdictions? If we had more effective, decentralised policing at state level, couldn’t many of these criminal gangs have been nipped in the bud before they became veritable monsters? Why haven’t we since 1999 been able to organize a national conference to enable the component parts of the country re-negotiate a more acceptable pact for our mutual and more harmonious co-existence? Why have we not fundamentally restructured a federal system that, for instance, prevents the northern states from developing their rich solid mineral endowment for the benefit of their people?

    Why have we continued to implement the same ineffectual economic policies that promote growth without development, under-develop agriculture, undermine manufacturing and breed the mass youth unemployment that fuels criminality? How do we explain our inability since 1999 to generate up to 5000MW of electricity despite the colossal amounts that have been hurled at the power sector and the negative implications of this for the economy? Of course we can go on and on raising pertinent questions about the total mismanagement of Nigeria that is at the root of insurgency and the current unfortunate but inevitable state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states. Emergency rule will most likely restore law, order and stability to the affected states in the North. The massive deployment of irresistible force may ‘persuade’ the terrorists to be more amenable to dialogue. However, emergency rule or all the force in the world cannot lead Nigeria in the direction of fundamental, positive change that can liberate her potentials and result in rapid development, peace and stability. If Nigeria continues to be run the way she is currently administered, we will only be postponing the evil day of a more virulent, more insidious insurgency that will be even more difficult to contain.