The Nation Newspaper

Category: Thursday

  • What manner of dialogue?

    What manner of dialogue?

    WHERE is National Security Adviser (NSA) Sambo Dasuki? The gentleman seems to be so quiet nowadays.

    When Col. Dasuki got onboard, he launched a bid for dialogue with the Jamaatul Ahlis Sunnah lidaawa wal Jihad, otherwise known as Boko Haram (Western education is a sin). The sect has been leading a bloody campaign against its perceived enemies. Thousands are dead; many are injured.

    With a brief lull in suicide bombings, we all thought that, indeed, dialogue was on. How wrong we have been! The eerie, spine-chilling sounds of flying bullets from booming guns are being heard again. Borno State Commissioner for Justice and Attorney-General Zanna Malam Gana was killed on Tuesday. Former Prisons boss Alhaji Ibrahim Jarma was shot on Monday. He died on Tuesday. The Acting chair of Maiha Local Government, Adamawa State, Lawan Datti, was shot dead on Monday by gunmen believed to be Boko Haram members.

    What kind of dialogue is going on? Dialogue of bullets, bombs and blood?

    But Nigerians, apparently, tired of it all, have resorted to sardonic jokes about the situation. A friend sent this to my mobile:

    “A man was arrested in Lagos by LASTMA officials for driving on the BRT lane. He was fined N50,000. Despite his begging, the officials refused to release the car.

    “Okay, may I know where you are towing my car to?” the man asked.

    “We’re taking it to Alausa,” replied one of the officials. “Ha-ha-ha-ha,” the Fulani laughed. The officials were surprised.

    The man brought out his phone and began to speak: “Abu Qaqa, Ina kwana?(Good morning in Hausa).

    “No sir! In less than 30 minutes, it will explode. The car has been arrested…

    “Only 20 out of those new bombs are inside the car…They are taking the car to Alausa! I am coming back to Yobe alive now. Thank you sir. Greet other faithful for me o.”

    He rounded off his imaginary call. When he looked back, there was no LASTMA official in sight. He entered his car and sped off, saying: “Shege! Dan borouba…Waka!”

  • 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.

     

     

     

  • National Conference, a must

    In recent times there has been call for “sovereign national conference”, “constitutional conference”, conference on “true federalism” and so on. Whatever name it is called, the time for a constitutional talk is now. From all indication it seems there is some kind of unhappiness with the state of the nation. There are two sides to the debate. There are those who feel there is nothing wrong with the present constitution. There are those who feel there will be no development unless we have a new constitution. I am on the side of the latter. Ab initio the present “military” constitution has made the centre too strong for a country whose founding fathers and their people opted for a federation as the best way of keeping our ethnically plural country together. On the march towards independence, Obafemi Awolowo and Ahmadu Bello representing the Western and Northern Nigeria respectively opted for federalism. While Nnamdi Azikiwe of the Eastern region wanted a unitary constitution. While Azikiwe once pleaded with Nigerians to forget their ethnic differences, Ahmadu Bello said we should not forget but understand them. Awolowo actually parroting Giuseppe Mazzini described Nigeria as a “geographical expression” and that there is no Nigerian as there are French, German or English people. He was absolutely right. It took the pogrom in the North in 1966 to convince Azikiwe and his cohorts that Awolowo and Ahmadu Bello were right and correct in their analysis of Nigerian politics.

    From the above follows the fact that the independence federal constitution of 1959 and 1964 should be the starting point of constitutional re-jig of the Nigerian state. These are the only constitutions that can begin with “we Nigerians solemnly bind ourselves by this fundamental basic law” any other constitution including our present one is a fraud imposed on us through the force of arms. Some may sneer that in 1959 there were only three regions. Yes I agree. It is either we go back to the grundnorm of 1959 or we apply the same principles to the present 36 states structure fraudulently imposed upon us by the military. The present state and local government structure is not only unsustainable but it is also wasteful. Even when we retain the present 36 state structure, there is nothing wrong in running the country as a federation.

    Switzerland is about the size of Lagos State, it has ethnically based cantons independent in almost all areas apart from common currency, customs and immigration. Belgium is also a small state with the French and Dutch speaking regions almost relating to each other in a confederal structure. There is some sense in those who suggest that the present six zones should be the federating units of this country. This will do for all the zones except the South-south which may have problems. Whatever we decide, the time is ripe to have a look at the structure of the country so that we can design the right kind of architecture. It is no use burying our head in the sand and thinking all will be well. An unhappy marriage sooner or later will collapse and to save an unhappy marriage one needs to find the course of unhappiness.

    There is disquiet and unhappiness in the Northern part of Nigeria. Boko Haram may be a religious manifestation, but it is shrouded in political mystery. Professor Ango Abdullahi retired former Vice-Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello in an interview in the Guardian on Sunday a few weeks ago, let out the cat when he said this disquiet in the North is not unconnected with the disequilibrium in the allocation of resources from the federal distributable pool which favors the oil-producing states against those not producing oil. While I agree with him that the oil-producing states may not have the absorptive capacity for the kind of money they are getting and that accounts for the Ibori kind of phenomenon where governors run away with state exchequers, my antidote will be that some of these monies can be saved against when oil will run out in those states rather than outright denial. Ango Abdullahi in his views said very little about the non-performance of the northern governors and rampant corruption in the North as the cause of the neglect in the North occasioning Boko Haram. Some of the northern governors have in some cases 2000 special assistants and advisers!

    There is this feeling in the country that unless one’s ethnic group controls the federal government, one’s ethnic group has lost everything. Nothing can be far from the truth. What has the ordinary northern Nigerian gained from decades of northern monopoly of power? I do not know what the Yoruba people gained from the Obasanjo’s presidency and what the Izon are gaining from the Jonathan’s presidency. The predominance of this feeling is the more reason why we must talk to reduce the power of the centre and transfer the centre of activities to the zones and the states. As long as the centre remains this strong, this country will never have peace. There is no zone or part of the country that lacks resources. The South-south may have oil, so does the South-east and South-west or at least some parts of them. The agricultural wealth of this country is in the North and partly in the South-west, South-south and South-east. There is need to challenge different parts of this country to bring to the federal table the resources deposited by God in their different zones. I support resource control and I believe this is the only way to have peace and respect for one another in this country. Let us talk to design a commonly negotiated architecture that will ensure that each part of our country develops at its own pace and according to its own culture without any enforced homogeneity. California and Rhode Island are both states of the United States union. So also is West Virginia and Texas. They do not have the same resources and there is no even national level of development. There is no need for one. The fingers are not equal. Children in the same family are not expected to have uniform level of performance. One must be a beckon to others. But at the end of the day each person has his or her own unique and peculiar attributes which when taken together will enrich the whole. It is the same with states. We must find out and understand our differences and similarities and try to live with them in a new constitutional architecture.

     

  • Will Dana fly again?

    The rate of turn over of airlines in Nigeria is high.  In the past 10 or so years, no fewer than 20 airlines have come and gone. Many of them died after one or two crashes; others just went under, probably because of mismanagement. Airline business is not for everybody. It is not for the small fries, but for the super-rich, those who have the wherewithal to put in place all the things necessary for a smooth operation.

    What it entails to run a successful airline business are planes and those toys don’t come cheap. An aircraft good enough to service a route, whether domestic or international, must be in good condition.

    It must be a plane that has undergone all the necessary checks and has been certified fit to fly. Such planes must not be tokunbo as in those rickety jalopies that most of us drive on the highway. To fly in the air and to drive on the land are two different things.

    We cannot afford to take in the air any of the risks we take on the road by driving unserviced cars or those which engines are quarter to pack up. If we can risk driving cars without good headlamps or tyres, we cannot do the same when it comes to flying. Everything about an aircraft must be shipshape. This is why after an aircraft has flown for a certain number of years, it is no longer used. Its second hand value is not as high as that of a car.

    But because we are a nation that likes to cut corners in everything we do, we don’t seem to care about human lives in a business where priority should be given to safety of patrons. This is why airlines bring in all sorts of rubbish under the guise of aircraft and the regulatory agencies will look the other way until the worst happens. Then we will start to run helter-skelter as it was the case with the June 3 Dana plane crash in which 153 passengers died.

    We have heard all the things said about the airline since the crash. Despite the things said about Dana and the aviation industry generally, I can safely place a bet that nothing has changed. If we should look into the place today, we will be shocked by the amount of rot still there.

    Yet, the government has hastily returned the operating licence of Dana. For the airline to do what? To cause another havoc by flying people in an unfit aircraft? No matter what superlatives those in government may wish to dress Dana with, the people are not impressed. The government should not forget that in the recent past some airlines were so described, but how did they end?

    They ended up badly. I am not saying that Dana will go the same way, I am just drawing our attention to this, so that we should not be carried away by a so-called record, which has given some families anguish. How will those in government feel today, if any member of their families had been in the ill-fated Dana plane? Will they be talking the way they are now doing or behave like true human beings, who are bereaved?

    What has happened has happened, no doubt, but we need to learn a lesson to avoid a recurrence. This unfortunately, we have not done because those in power are more concerned about the business aspect of it all than the safety and security of the flying public.

    Why the haste in returning Dana’s licence? If the government knew it was going to let Dana off with a slap on the wrist, why then did it set up the Obakpolor committee? Or did the committee recommend the return of the licence? I don’t think the committee did that because, according to Aviation Minister Princess Stella Oduah, government took the action after being satisfied with the ‘’airworthiness of the airline after a rigorous technical, operational and financial audit.”

    If really Dana is that buoyant, why has it not paid the compensation due to the victims’ families? To some, the money is nothing, but what seriousness has the company shown in fulfilling its obligations to these people? Besides, what steps has the airline taken to show remorse over the tragedy? I am not against Dana returning to business after doing what is needful and necessary.

    There is nothing to show that it has been up and doing in the discharge of its obligations. Till today, many families, who lost loved ones in past crashes have not been fully compensated. We are talking about crashes, which happened over six years ago. Today, all those airlines are no longer in business, so who will compensate those families?

    Since that is the case, how are we sure that the return of Dana’s licence will facilitate the airline’s compensation of victims’ families? Does it have a time frame to do that? If it doesn’t, the government should give it a deadline to pay up, after, of course, the necessary verification. Dana cannot get back its licence on a platter without meeting its customers’ families at the point of their needs.

    Unfortunately, thegovernment too is not protecting customers. This may be why till today, airlines still treat passengers shabbily through unethical business practices. Is it the return of Dana’s licence that will make them sit up? Was Dana not one of them before the June 3 crash? I say this because of the statement credited to Princess Oduah that the airline’s licence should not have been suspended in the first place.

    She said Dana, after an audit, was found to be the best in the country. How do you suspend such a company? she asked rhetorically. Can Dana be better than ADC and Bellview in their heyday? I don’t think Dana can hold a candle to those two airlines when they were in business. So, what are we talking about being the best or not the best airline? Statements like these do not portray us as a serious nation. Such statements will also give the offending party, that is Dana, in this case, a sense of security that it can do anything and go away with it as long as its books are in order. We have turned ourselves into a cash and carry society.

    Perhaps, this is why the aviation sector is comatose. Those in the industry today are no better off than those there in the past and if care is not taken the sector may collapse. Presently, it is at the precipice and a little push, it will tip over. What do you make of a sector where the government is working hand in gloves with the operators to undermine the business in terms of providing the necessary infrastructural backbone? The only thing they know how to do is to fix fare and increase it arbitrarily. No business grows like that. Why are we blaming landlords for ripping off tenants, if we cannot stop airlines from charging passengers cut-throat fare?

    Despite all the money they made in the past, where are Intercontinental Airlines, Concord, ADC, Bellview, EAS, Slok, Sosoliso, Albarka, Okada, Savanna, Triax, Oriental, Air Mid West, Dasab, Fresh Air, Harco, Harka, Space World, Chachangi and Air Nigeria, among others today? It is a case of something built on nothing. What will happen? As the lawyers will tell you, ‘’it will fall’’. I pray that Dana learns from this or else, we shall be singing its nunc dimitis soon.

     

  • Edwin Clark’s blind fury

    Saro Wiwa the leader of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) who in a satirical piece “Africa kills her sun” (1989) predicted his eventual murder by Abacha, loved his native Ogoni land. But he loved Nigeria no less. He was a patriot who believed in one indivisible Nigeria. Saro Wiwa who with his broad humour, often forced his compatriots to applaud his celebration of the absurdities of our endowed nation when what he wanted was to make us dissolve into tears, had in a piece in The Guardian attributed the tragedy of Niger Delta to the conspiracy of the Yoruba and Igbo because of ‘the unbridled acquisitiveness of the latter and tribalism of the former. I had in a reaction titled “Saro Wiwa’s Misplaced Aggression’ published on August 28, 1990 argued that the problem of Niger Delta was as much that of the elite of the area including those who became administrator of Bonny and later federal commissioner in their twenties. The innuendo was not lost on him.

    A few days later, coming out of the office of Dr Olatunji Dare, the then chairman of The Guardian Editorial Board who also doubled as the company’s Corporate Affairs Director, he had stopped briefly by my office. With his characteristic biting humour, Wiwa, a man without malice against any tribe or any Nigerian including Abacha who murdered him, mournfully lamented ‘Jide you trivialise the Niger Delta problem because you have never been there’.

    Wiwa was right. The truth is that many of the northern governors who denounce the Niger Delta governors’ battle for 50% derivation and attribute their impoverisation of their own people through inept leadership, to the paltry Niger Delta’s 13% of the federation account have never been to the Niger Delta. They cannot appreciate the ‘denigrating poverty arising from economic strangulation and devastation of a richly endowed land’. All they read about is the blame- game between successive irresponsible federal governments that tried to exonerate Shell and other oil firms from criminal devastation of economic trees and drinking streams by blaming pollution on illegal bunkering, (oil theft done by hacking holes in pipelines and siphoning off crude, which is transferred to barges in the delta and later to ships off shore) as if such activities were carried out by ghosts.

    It is only by visiting that one will come to appreciate the scotched land left behind after oil spillage and pollution; appreciate the travails of those who spend four hours between Yenagoa and Oporoma in rickety boats even when proceeds from oil are being used to build bridges over land in Abuja. I saw children whose hair had turned brownish, a development doctors attribute to malnutrition. I saw a yam seller in Ugheli market cut a tuber of yam into five parts. Many cannot afford more than a portion. In the remote villages of the Niger Delta, poverty hits one on the face in the midst of plenty.

    But outside the devastated Ogoni land, I have equally seen the level of greed among local and national leaders who fraudulently claim to be fighting on behalf of the poor. I saw James Ibori promoting the candidacy of Yar’Adua with the federal allocations earmarked for development his state. We have been told by a British court the quantum of money taken from Delta State. I saw Alamieyeiseigha’s mansion near German town in Maryland, USA (recently confiscated by US government); we all witnessed the roles played by Dan Etete as Abacha oil minister. We have just been told how Diezani Alison-Madueke as oil minister, presided over theft of over N2trillion by vultures from all parts of the nation. We have in the last five years seen Jonathan as Vice president and President operating not differently from his immediate or distant predecessors who in the name of economic growth become captives of those Jonathan himself referred to as ‘oil cabals’

    And 22 years after the privileged encounter with Wiwa, one of the brightest ‘African sons’, I have never been more convinced that the Niger Delta problem is that of its political, economic, and intellectual elite. If we ignore their conspiracy in the first republic, we cannot ignore the rape of the people by indigenes Wiwa himself described as ‘vultures’ under the military, who has now integrated into their fold the erstwhile leaders of the armed insurgency. Neither can we ignore the mindless looting that has gone on for 13 years of PDP administration in the Niger Delta and at the federal level.

    The Niger Delta Development Commission was set up as a Federal Government agency by Olusegun Obasanjo in 2000 with the sole mandate of developing the Niger Delta and ameliorating the sufferingof the poor. In September 2008, President Umaru Yar’Adua created the Ministry of Niger Delta and retained NNDC as a parastatal. Both initiatives are managed by the elite of the area. Sadly, 12 years down the line, the fate of the poor of Niger Delta are not different from – to use Saro Wiwa’s phrase ‘those poor living in filthy tuberculosis infected environment in Ibadan or Kano’.

    There is no doubt Edwin Clark is eminently qualified to speak for his people. As Headmaster, Ofoni Southern Ijaw, 1954, Bomadi, 1955-57, Assistant Community Development officer, 1957-61, Director, Asaba Textile Mill 1967; Commissioner for Education, Mid-Western State, 1968-71; Commissioner for Finance and Establishment, Bendel State, 1972-75, Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1979-83. He has paid his dues. His whole world, besides the brief period he served as a federal commissioner in 1975 and Pro-Chancellor, University of Technology, Minna, 1983, revolves around his people.

    But the problem is that tribal irredentists, because of their egoistical tendencies, are dangerous in a multi ethnic society. There is no doubt Chief Clark, because of his blind fury against perceived enemies of Jonathan including the harmless noisy Pastor Tunde Bakare who led civil society groups that rescued Jonathan from Yar’Adua Mafia, led by a vicious Niger Delta ‘vulture’, has become a danger to everyone. ‘Who are they to tell us how we spend our money’? He recently angrily queried, in response to critics of official looting by custodians of Niger Delta commonwealth.

    Two weeks back, he successfully convened the South- South Peoples Assembly (SSPA) meeting attended by former governors, ministers, senators and other leaders of the geo-political zone. Tragically, instead of addressing those problems, the highlights of the outcome include the unanimous endorsement of President Goodluck Jonathan to run for a second term in 2015 and the resolve to sensitise his people for war with the North over ‘the ‘cash and carry’ offshore Act enacted by the National Assembly in spite of Supreme Court ruling and assented to by Obasanjo who needed the support of South-south governors in the 2003 election.

    Besides the half-hearted call for the convening of a national conference of all ethnic nationalities, a more divisive issue even within the zone, little effort was made to reach a consensus on regional agenda, without which the zone remains the weakest link in the quest for regionalism. Beyond the claim to ownership rights of onshore/offshore oil wells, the multi-ethnic and multi-lingual South-south has nothing in common.

    All this is overshadowed by unwarranted attack on the North by Clark, who Keita clamed was until recently their close ally, and his unfounded allegation of attempt to pull down the administration of ‘a minority God has chosen to rule’ by those who according to ACF spokesman, A.Z Sanni, control number 2, 3,4 and 5 positions in the same administration.