The Nation Newspaper

Category: Wednesday

  • Imbibing the culture of collective security

    Imbibing the culture of collective security

    The way things currently stand in the country has clearly shown that there is an urgent need for Nigerians to become more security-conscious in their day-to-day life. If there is any time in our national history when we need to be very alert in terms of security, it is now. This is because all across the country, cases of kidnapping, pipeline vandalisation, theft, armed robbery and terrorist attacks stare us in the face on a regular basis. And the usual thing we do when we hear of such negative cases is to first heap blames on governments across the country. While it is true that government has the onerous responsibility of ensuring security across the country, it is equally not far from the truth that security is a collective responsibility.

    For instance, for a Mega city like Lagos, the Police-Personnel Population ratio of 1- 400, is considered a big security issue that must be the concern of well-meaning Nigerians. Hence, the Fashola administration in living up its billing, envisioned more highly trained men and women working with modern logistic support, with effective cooperation and collaboration with other stakeholders through the now popular Lagos State Security Trust Fund.

    In-spite of the state government laudable security initiatives such as the acquisition of two Bell EP helicopters, restriction of the activities of ‘okada’ riders on highways, opening of gated streets between 5am and 12 midnight, lighting up of the city at night, situating and naming of streets responders to get to crisis centres on time, sending those who live or trade under the various bridges in the state packing to get rid of unscrupulous elements hiding in such places to perpetrate evil, among others, it is still quite clear that government efforts alone cannot surmount security challenges. Consequently, it is important for Nigerians to become highly vigilant about happenings within their immediate environment.

    Since it is often said that all crimes are localized, criminals and perpetrators of evil deeds no doubt live within us and obtain the information about their victims through our carelessness. They are not spirits and do not have any magic to know our details. We, therefore, have a responsibility in our various neighbourhoods to observe basic security rules. We all have to take interest in strange characters, movements as well as conduct in our area and swiftly report same to the appropriate quarters for necessary action.

    We must identify people with funny tendencies in our various streets, estates and communities. This includes people with no clear cut source of livelihood who, nevertheless, live ‘big’. We need to constantly be on our guards at all times because the agents of evil are very cunning and smart. Religious houses are not excluded in this process of renewed security consciousness.

    The various mosques and churches must be extra watchful especially towards men who hide under the pretext of coming for spiritual counselling to perpetrate dastardly acts. These are unusual times that need extraordinary precautions. Sometime in the past, it is unthinkable that places of worship could become targets of evil men. But that seems to be the norm today. Parents also need to be more proactive in the way they handle security issues relating especially to their children. If the children must be at home, they must be left under the care of responsible and mature adults.

    It is risky to live children alone at home, especially during holidays. It is also important that children are taught basic security tips such as being extremely careful with strangers, playing within the confines of their compounds and ensuring that necessary domestic security measures are strictly adhered to. Similarly, children that have come of age ought to know the phone numbers and other personal details of their parents. Also, schools, especially private ones, should step up on security efforts within and outside their premises. Under no circumstances must unauthorized people be allowed to pick pupils from schools.

    Every school must have a fool proof means of bringing pupils to school from their respective homes and vice versa. It is equally advised that organisations should, as much as possible, discourage the idea of keeping huge amount of money within their premises. Efforts should be made to embrace current trend in cashless transactions to the letter so that people will desist from carrying huge cash around under whatever guise.

    Night crawling is another aspect of our social life that we should re-consider. Except for those that must really work at night, it is quite risky to move about at night. For people who love to hang around at drinking joints after work, it is safer to do less of it now especially since they could as well go home from office and ‘catch fun’ with their families. Indeed, considering the prevailing security situation in the country, this is the right thing to always do after a hard day’s work. One other area where people need to exercise serious restraints is in their conversations.

    Most often, without knowing, people make themselves easy targets of unscrupulous elements through the reckless conversations they make in open places such as restaurants, public buses, offices, among others. Examples abound of people who have fallen victims to the antics of underground men because they could not ‘control’ their mouths. Some go to the extent of boasting of their material possessions in open places and inadvertently arouse the attention of criminals. Also, those who do business must be careful with the kind of people they deal with.

    It is important that they are cautious with the kind of ‘deals’ they are involved in. Most often, cases involving assassinations and other such vices arise from consequences of secret deals that people engage in from time to time. Now, Nigerians should know that as much as government has the responsibility to protect them, an effective public security can only be obtained with the active involvement, participation and support of every segment of the society. This is because public security is the responsibility of all individuals, groups, communities, organisations and other units that constitute the state.

    Traditional rulers and religious leaders have a critical role to play and should motivate landlords and market associations to help report suspicious movements and persons. It is a known fact that despite the magnitude of government investment in public security, there are still Herculean challenges that government’s resources alone cannot tackle. In as much as everyone in a state pursues varied interests, the pursuit of public security should, nevertheless, be the common goal of all. The involvement and participation of individuals and non-governmental actors in the issue of public security is, therefore, a necessity for the actualisation of a secured society. God bless Nigeria!

    • Ibirogba is Lagos commissioner for information and strategy.

  • This committee needs ‘amnesty’

    This committee needs ‘amnesty’

    In its relentless efforts to end the Boko Haram insurgency, the Presidency has constituted a body, the Presidential Committee on Dialogue and Peaceful Resolution of Security Challenges in the North. The decision followed the consideration of the report of the technical committee commissioned by the government to review fresh ways of addressing security challenges in the North. The 26-member committee, headed by Kabiru Turaki, Minister of Special Duties, is saddled with the responsibility of engaging members of Boko Haram in dialogue and designing a framework for resolving the violence precipitated by them.

    Unfortunately, two members of the committee have declined their membership. They are Shehu Sani, social activist and the Executive Director of the Civil Rights Congress, and Datti Ahmed, the President of the Supreme Council for Sharia in Nigeria. Sani turned down his membership on the grounds that he was neither consulted nor informed by the Presidency before the announcement of his membership was made. On his own part, Ahmed, a medical doctor, said he rejected membership of the committee because of the bitter experience he had with the government in 2012, when he voluntarily tried to mediate between the authorities and members of the violent Islamic sect.

    Alleging insincerity on the part of the government, Ahmed said the composition of the amnesty committee was faulty. He argued that the chairman of the panel, as well as the secretary, who are nominees of the federal government would always tell the government what it wanted to hear and not the truth. “The minister and secretary will tell lies to the government and we would be left quarrelling with young Nigerians, young enough to be our children.”

    Datti said he previously made such moves twice and that it was not the government that asked him to do so. “We had reached a stage where, had the government agreed with what we resolved with the sect members, by now, we would have forgotten everything. Nigeria would have witnessed peace by now”, Ahmed said. “From past experience, the government was not sincere and it did everything to ensure that the earlier talk failed. It was just like we were going to have a peaceful resolution the next day, and what the government should have done was not something difficult. It was just for them to release their (Boko Haram members) wives, reduce tension in Yobe and Borno states, and stop persecuting the people there. The government said it was going to do that but it did not. It is the same government that wants to do that now.”

    Boko Haram had, in March 2012, picked Ahmed as a mediator between it and the federal government. At that time, it said his choice was based on the fact that its former leader, the late Mohammed Yusuf, served as a member that represented Borno State in the Council of Sharia in Nigeria. But a few days later, Ahmed pulled out of the process after details of the discussions appeared in the media.

    Though the government seems not to be perturbed about the two members’ withdrawals, I am quite sure the decline of Ahmed to serve in this committee has dealt it a ‘ballistic’ blow. The first is that although nobody is indispensable, Ahmed definitely wields a lot of influence both in the northern part of the country and Nigeria as a whole. In my days in TELL magazine, 1991-2004, he was a fearless critic of whatever he perceived to be wrong with the government of the day without mincing words. No wonder reporters naturally flock around him to extract words or interviews from him. He is widely respected and loved by his people.

    For such a man with high level of credibility and with whom a lot of trust is reposed, even by the Boko Haram sect, to have pulled out of the committee means that the 26-member committee has a long, difficult and tortuous road to travel in the discharge of its mandate. There is no doubt that there are still many members of the committee who are eminently qualified in their own right to be on board, but a person like Ahmed is very vital and may be key to an effective interface with the dreaded sect members. Don’t forget that he had earlier voluntarily interfaced with some members of the sect in the past. So, to me, it was like a right step in the right direction for government to have thought it wise enough to include him in the committee.

    But now, the bubble has burst. How far can the committee go in establishing trust between the government and members of the sect before any meaningful modality towards a peaceful and amicable solution can be found to the lingering impasse which has claimed several innocent lives and property? It is only hoped that no other member drops out any longer. Otherwise, it may seem that this committee itself needs ‘amnesty’ to put it on a good footing.

    In my discussion with a friend in the United States last week in the wake of the announcement of the composition of the committee, my friend, a Nigerian professor, said that the membership list did not include anybody from the South-South geopolitical zone of the country. He pointed out that it was an unpardonable error. For one, amnesty has worked or seems to be working in that part of the country. It is believed that it is that workability of the amnesty programme in the Niger Delta that may have goaded people to start the clamour for amnesty for Boko Haram. Therefore, ignoring or the omission of such an integral part of the amnesty programme by the Presidency cannot by any yardstick be justified.

    It is only normal that people with experience on amnesty be included so as to give the committee a good boost. Now, not even a soul from either the South-South or anybody with background experience on the ongoing amnesty programme in the Niger Delta has been included in the 26-member list. It gives an impression that the President has no input in most of these committees except that people just cook up the lists and bring them to him for his assent from time to time. This is not good enough for the image of the President himself. Besides, many people also believe the membership is unwieldy. To them, perhaps, a seven, nine, 11 or 13- member committee would have just been it.

    There are several names in the South-South that could have conveniently made the list. There is Annkio Briggs, a known Niger Delta activist; Timi Alaibe, the immediate past Special Adviser to the President on Amnesty is there, so also is Kingsley Kuku, the incumbent Special Adviser to the President on Amnesty and Alaibe’s successor. There are also those who have been toiling day and night to make the Niger Delta amnesty programme work. One of them is Chibuzor Ugwoha, the immediate past managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC. He is an incurable believer in due process and the rule of law who has been passionately championing the process of human capacity development. The products of his human capacity crusades as the boss of the NDDC are there for everybody to see. The people whose lives he touched by his programmes while in office are proud of him and are able to raise their heads everywhere in the world today. Human capacity development is one sure way to right the perceived wrongs wrought on the North by successive northern governments.

    With the amnesty committee in place, the country seems to have moved towards enthroning peace in the North, which, by extension, should extend to every nook and cranny of the entire country where banditry now reigns supreme. One sure way to do this is by properly identifying the root cause or causes of the disaffection in all corners of the society. The fact remains that we cannot continue with all the plethora of crises – violent robbery, pipeline vandalism, Boko Haram, kidnapping for ransom, and all that.

     

  • A disintegration foretold

    A disintegration foretold

    When our super patriots want to reassure us that predictions of Nigeria’s demise are grossly exaggerated, they argue from the position that a shooting war between the constituent parts – something in the mould of the Biafran Civil War – is highly improbable.

    But if you reverse that to look at the disintegration scenario from the point of a badly constructed house collapsing in a heap, then it suddenly doesn’t look so farfetched. Before our very eyes the country is being transformed into a jungle where only the best armed can survive. From Bokostan in the North-East to the Niger-Delta creeks gunmen have overrun the place.

    To the north, Boko Haram have with their crude bombs bludgeoned the might of the Nigerian state into submission. It’s a measure of the triumph of terror that today we are chasing after the insurgents – begging them to accept a generous amnesty, when it should be the other way round.

    In Plateau State, the military Special Task Force (STF) is running around in circles trying to break the unending cycle of bloodletting. But for every attack they foil, there are five more cases of cold-blooded murder of hapless villagers – producing a grim and mounting toll in casualties, and widening the chasm between feuding tribes and communities.

    Last Monday in Lagos, unknown gunmen snatched Kehinde Bamgbetan, chairman of Ejigbo Local Council Development Area (LCDA), riddling his SUV with bullets in the process. As at the time of writing this he was still in the hands of captors who were demanding $1 million for his release.

    That same week, the police paraded some sorry fellows who confessed to the kidnapping of the mother of Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. Among the suspects was a former servant in the palace. Those two were just a few of a litany of kidnapping stories that have become daily fare in newspapers.

    Where amnesty for Boko Haram or the exploits of daredevil kidnappers are not dominating the headlines, the latest exploits of our army of armed robbers fill the gap. A couple of weeks ago some of them laid siege to Nigeria’s highest profile gateway – Murtala Muhammed International Airport – killed a couple of policemen and bureau de change operators, and carted away millions in foreign currencies.

    In many cities, areas that used to be safe havens have now lost their innocence. In Lagos in recent weeks, robbers have roamed free along the Lekki corridor – paying courtesy calls at places like Victoria Garden City. At about the same period, a Briton was snatched as he stood outside his residence on Victoria Island.

    Increasingly, authorities at federal, state and local government levels are discovering that areas over which they can assert proper control are shrinking by the day.

    Large swathes of border territory between Nigeria and Cameroon, and the countryside up north, have become no-man’s land where Boko Haram militants roam free and kill at will.

    In this veritable Bokostan being a government official is no guarantee of security. Last year, the insurgents took potshots at a residence of Vice President Namadi Sambo. Not too long ago, the country home of the Adamawa State Deputy Governor, Bala James Ngilari, came under attack with fatal consequences.

    The one region over which the government loved to gloat that it had restored order – the Niger-Delta creeks – is stirring once again. Two weekends ago, some gunmen who may or may not be members of a resurrected Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), ambushed and killed 12 policemen in a contingent providing protection for a retired militant who had come to bury his mother.

    Until now, it was fashionable in analysing security challenges facing Goodluck Jonathan’s administration to blame it all – especially in Bokostan – on disaffected politicians who had vowed to make Nigeria ungovernable for the “interloper” president from the creeks. But to continue to credit what is unfolding across the country to this bunch is to ascribe to them powers that they don’t have.

    It is equally tempting to blame the crisis on poverty and the parlous state of the economy. But that again will not tell the whole story because for all the talk of the state of things, the Nigerian economy is much bigger and more muscular than it was 10 or 15 years ago.

    If poverty was really the issue here, then no one will be able to walk around because all those living below the poverty line will be carrying guns, knives, machetes and slingshots – robbing their neighbours.

    Again, poverty doesn’t explain the Boko Haram phenomenon. In fact, in all their grievances they never mention poverty, but rather speak of Sharia and avenging themselves against Christians over imaginary injuries.

    Poverty alone doesn’t explain the rash of kidnappings sweeping the land. These crimes are often executed by gangs who have been at it for a while and have developed a taste for easy millions and the good life. They may have been propelled initially by lack, but greed has since taken over as motivator.

    What we are seeing is the result of the relentless erosion of societal values which started in the 80s, and was encouraged by a succession of clueless military juntas and civilian administrations.

    We cast aside all the things that organised and stable societies everywhere value – hard work, thrift, honesty and modesty and replaced them with a celebration of vulgar wealth and ostentation. Politicians and persons in public office are only too glad to announce their arriviste status with obscene displays of opulence.

    While they are at it, universities remain shut for the better of a year on account of disputes over salaries. Pensioners who have served their nation for upwards of four decades are dropping dead on verification queues, while those who should care are taking care of themselves.

    By our actions we emphasise that the only thing that counts is cash and its ostentatious display. We send the wrong signals to young people and are aghast when they grab pistols to hasten their access to riches.

    We are raising a generation of kidnappers when all we feed them is a diet of games shows and reality TV that sell the fantasy that mind-boggling millions are just one dance step away. Moral instruction is a no-no; and history is just that – history – in many schools and homes.

    Our national football team wins a tournament and the president, governors and sundry moneybags go crazy doling out millions, lands and exotic cars. When last did someone in leadership honour the best student in mathematics or physics in Nigeria with millions, and choice land in Abuja? I cannot imagine the British Prime Minister opening the vault and handing out gold bars to footballers even if England wins the World Cup!

    The difference? The values we celebrate. The further we drift down this road, the more we cement our internal collapse. The answer is not in ephemeral solutions like state police or the creation of another security apparatus. It is for Nigeria to return to the basic values upon which decent societies are built. It requires leadership. The president and his team can take the lead if they have the will, and if they care.

  • Countries that cease to exist

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    These were cities or provinces or empires that once existed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

     

  • Fighting the Boko Haram

    Fighting the Boko Haram

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

     

  • Between the devil and the deep blue sea

    Between the devil and the deep blue sea

    Until President Goodluck Jonathan buckled in spectacular fashion and surrendered to the amnesty lobby following a late night visit to Aso Rock by selected Northern elders, the growing impression was that the shadowy characters in Boko Haram-land were all falling over themselves to embrace peace and dialogue.

    Apologists for the terrorists suggested that the hardline positions adopted by many in the leadership of the security agencies was down to the fact that certain powerful persons were profiting financially from the continued conflict. We certainly cannot discount the fact that where there’s war, people will make money prosecuting it. But that clearly is not the entire story.

    Some reports even suggested intriguingly that when the Sultan of Sokoto came out strongly in support of the amnesty, Jonathan missed an opportunity to quicken the journey to peace and quiet by not inviting him for further discussions. Instead, he headed to Maiduguri to make his uncompromising speech about not doing business with ‘ghosts.’

    Those who created the impression the Sultan had the Boko Haram hierarchy on speed dial, as well as a clear sense of their thinking and mindset must surely now be cringing in embarrassment. Would the traditional ruler have stuck out his neck if he really knew the sect’s high command will pull the sort of stunt they just did? I doubt not.

    Now, the spine of the extremists for whom the amnesty is being sought has come out openly to throw the deal in the faces of their potential boosters.

    But rather being a tragedy, I take the position that Shekau and his goons did everyone a favour by spurning a government amnesty that is yet to be formally made. Their action will reduce pressure on Jonathan and help him retrace his steps to the right course in tackling the North-Eastern insurgency.

    I expect the government will continue with its wrong-headed amnesty process since it has committed itself in that direction. Ultimately, a declaration will be made that will draw in elements in the faction led by one Sheik Abu Mohammed Ibn Abdulazeez which has said they are fed up with the bloodletting and now want peace. What no one has told us is how many people this fellow has under his wings.

    You also have to factor in the Ansaru faction which claimed responsibility for the execution of seven foreign hostages a few weeks ago, and still shows no indication of wanting peace. With Shekau and his team still at large, the amnesty rejection means a large number of anarchists will still be out there bent on perpetrating mayhem.

    Again, we don’t know how dominant or large these forces are. But the government will have no option than to confront them because they will be outside the amnesty net – meaning a return to the military force option that many in the northern elite are increasingly leery of.

    Unfortunately, in our confusion we begin to get things muddled up. For instance, the greatest obstacle to dialogue and negotiations has always been the intransigence and unrealistic positions taken by the Islamists, not the reluctance of the Jonathan administration to do a quick deal. And let no one deceive themselves; these outlandish demands are not negotiating gambits – but clear statements of belief by a band of people dancing to a different beat.

    This is Shekau in his latest video spurning Jonathan’s hand of fellowship: “Surprisingly, the Nigerian government is talking about granting us amnesty. What wrong have we done? On the contrary, it is we that should grant you pardon.”

    This is coming from the leader of a sect that has killed over three thousand people in the last three years. Some of their victims were unarmed combatants worshipping in churches; some were travelers like those blown to bits at the Kano bus park not too long ago. With so much blood of the innocents on his hands, this fellow has the gall to ask ‘what wrong have we done?’ That statement couldn’t have been made by someone with a grip on reality.

    Negotiations and amnesties are not the sort of things you offer to the likes of Shekau. What will you give him in exchange for peace? A fistful of naira in order that he renounces his belief in jihad, or repudiates his demand for Sharia law in the land? Will Jonathan’s deal get sect members to disavow their belief that Western education is sinful? Will you get them to drop their visceral hatred of Christians because of the promise not to prosecute? Not likely! The demands of Boko Haram are non-negotiable.

    I can understand the fear and frustration up north, and appreciate how desperate people are for a return to normalcy. However, we need to address our minds to the reality that there begin to will be no pain-free way to deal with this problem. That is why those passing off the amnesty as a sure-fire cure are guilty of selling their people a badly-packaged brand of false hope.

    Ultimately, some form of talks will take place between the Islamists and the authorities, but that will only come after they have been significantly broken militarily. It will take time, and the traumatisation of local communities by the actions of both sides with continue, until the forces of law and order prevail.

    It happened in Algeria. Some estimates say between 70,000 and 150,000 lives were lost as the government battled Islamists in war that lasted between 1991 and 2002. No one is wishing that sort of calamity on Nigeria.

    What started with legitimate grievances following the annulment of elections which the Islamists looked set to win soon snowballed into something else. The terrorists launched a brutal campaign of bombings and indiscriminate slaughter not just against security forces, but against unarmed villagers in the countryside. Several presidents came and went while the war lasted. In the end, the commitment of the security forces led to the collapse of the insurgency, and the unilateral ceasefire by some of the more notorious bands of Islamist guerillas.

    Some form of amnesty was introduced towards the tail of the conflict, and it is credited with hastening the end of the violence, as the holdouts could easily be isolated for the security forces to deal with.

    And that is part of the problem with our so-called amnesty. In our indecent haste to buy peace at all costs we are offering deals to a group that still feels it is in a position to call the shots – a clear case of insult compounding our injuries.

  • Cutting MDAs; UNESCO’s 26%; ‘Amnesty’ for amputees? FRSC: the new police?

    Cutting MDAs; UNESCO’s 26%; ‘Amnesty’ for amputees? FRSC: the new police?

    Streamlining Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) is welcome if money saved improves infrastructure in education, health, security and power. To free its citizens from the financial demon of electricity power insufficiency and failure, Nigeria urgently needs 100,000Mw. We should meet UNESCO’s 26% of budget invested in education infrastructure. The MDA cuts needs similar cuts in obscene political ‘Salaries and Perks’ which are ‘SAPping’ Nigeria dry. How about part-time legislators?

    Amnesty is not just amnesty pay-outs to retired bombers. How about ‘Amnesty for Amputees’ with pay-outs for all bomb victims? Amnesty strategies should go with compensation and care for amputees and other victims.

    The North under-developed the South through federal manipulation and forgot to develop itself to catch up with the stunted South. Where is that money? If Ibori and Alams had billions what did other governors have? There are few saints, military or civilian, North or South of the Rivers Niger and Benue. Happily the North embraces the train after killing it for 30 years of road transport. Kano announced a 4-year Chinese construction of intra-city monorail. This will be a near-replica of Lagos State’s ‘Jakande-rail’ truncated by Buhari/Babangida at a cost of $183m for breach of contract 30 years ago. Forgive me if I do not clap for ‘progressive’ Kano. Better get Buhari’s permission. But perhaps being Kano, you do not need it, abi?

    Congratulations to government for the Ore-Benin road. Friends said they ‘did the road in an hour instead of the 5-24 hours last year’. Diezani Alison-Madueke, former Minister of Works, can take off her orange overalls and stop weeping on NTA. However with good roads come responsibility to drive safely, conscious of one’s cargo, passengers and other road users. The loss of between 45-80 precious Nigerian lives is a blood-stained testimony to the need for less haste and more speed control. Unmindful of tyres, obstacles or state of mind of the driver, high speed kills worldwide and inflammable cargo like petrol is begging to ignite. I have always dreaded passing through Ogere during those endless stand-till go-slows. How many of the thousands of us stuck there would be burnt in a holocaust if 1 or 1000 of those tankers had caught fire or been maliciously ignited to cover-up a petrol theft? Such a conflagration, funeral pyre, would have been seen by the cosmonauts in space just as the Ogere go-slow is a talking-point for pilots on the Lagos-Abuja and Lagos-London air route! The FRSC struggled for 30 years with Ogere before December. Can NISER calculate the cost of ‘Ogere Traffic Mismanagement’ in financial losses and the trillions of man-hours? It is only when, in two minutes, you drive through a nightmare like Ogere or a deadly pothole, where you spent countless hours of misery during 30 years, that you look back in anger at those who refused to make the road passable for 30 years. So as we clap today, we remember the suffering and death we have endured due to government and MDA maximum incompetence and a lack of love for Nigeria.

    Potholed roads injure Nigerians including Great Achebe and claim lives but so do smooth new roads. But at a point we blame the drivers not the road. Tanker and trailer drivers seem above the law with ‘might is right’, wrong lane driving, poor parking and overloaded axles. For the commercial vehicles driven with a death wish, NURTW has been more efficient at providing the fifth column army for violent party politicking than queuing, driving within speed limits and obeying the Highway Code. Infringements are more often ‘bribed’ and it seems ‘FRSC stop and search’ has crept into the vacuum left by cancelling the police checkpoint. The FRSC must reverse this public perception to further justify the recent award from NASS and international outreach plans.

    In Ibadan, just before the Secretariat junction coming from UCH, there is a daily 7am FRSC ‘Road Marshals checkpoint’. Perhaps they have the highest moral goals. But if I was a commercial driver, I would feel annoyed and destabilised at the delay of a methodical ‘particulars and vehicle inspection’. At that time ‘FRSC operation Keep Moving’ is better than FRSC ‘Go Slow’ particulars check. Are they authorised? The authorisation should be withdrawn as it is giving FRSC a bad name. I have been flagged down on the expressway for ‘particulars check’ on 10 occasions to fill ‘a quota of arrests’. Once, unsolved murdered late Uncle Bola Ige was my only passenger. As a foundation FRSC Road Marshal, I believe this is a misapplication of powers and responsibility of FRSC. FRSC cannot become the new police checkpoint and FRSC should not allow its staff, from boredom, lack of supervision, seeking financial gain, wickedness or ‘quota catching’ to take up checkpoint duty cancelled by IGP Abubakar! If they do that near Secretariat what happens in the hinterland? Keeping FRSC’s reputation clean is a glorious accolade for FRSC management. So far the NSCDC seems, in public perception, the cleanest organisation. There is room for more ‘My oga[s] at the top’ of the honesty tree. Forgive that man. At least he is honest. As roads improve, educating tanker, trailer and NURTW drivers, enforcing right hand driving, speed limits, parking off the road, axle weights, and holding waking/services for the dead road users in the motor park where the NURTW vehicle originated, will become more important than ‘particulars checks’ for cutting deaths!

     

  • NECO? Wait a minute!

    NECO? Wait a minute!

    It came like a bolt from the blue. That is how best I could describe the news of the Federal Government’s apparent resolve to scrap some of its agencies, which made headlines last week. The government is believed to have made up its mind to scrap the agencies in line with the white paper submitted by a committee set up last year to study the recommendations of the Stephen Oronsaye-led Presidential Committee on the Rationalisation and Restructuring of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies.

    In April 2011, the Oronsaye-led committee had recommended the abolition of 38 agencies, the merger of 52 and the reversion of 14 departments in the ministries, from which they were initially carved out. This move, the committee suggested, would save the nation more than N862 billion between 2012 and 2015. In addition, the committee said the recommendations were aimed at helping the government to effect a drastic reduction in the size of its bloated bureaucracy, eliminate duplication of functions and lower the cost of governance.

    Among the agencies which have now been placed under the government’s potential sledgehammer are the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), National Examination Council (NECO), Public Complaints Commission, National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP) and Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, among others. Nigerians seem to be focusing more attention on the fate that awaits NECO and UTME.

    It is expected that with the scrapping of the UTME, individual universities in the country would henceforth conduct their own admission examinations and admit students. The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, will only set standards and ensure compliance as it will now act as a mere clearing house. In the same vein, the West African Examination Council (WAEC) is expected to take over the functions and vast infrastructure of NECO. This means that WAEC would now conduct two external examinations in a year with one holding in January while the second would be conducted in November of every year.

    Expectedly, the move to tamper with NECO and UTME has attracted controversy across the land. While some people have applauded the government for attempting to tinker with the two bodies, others have vehemently kicked against the move. For instance, while some say the scrapping of NECO will check duplication of examination by secondary school leavers, others maintained that allowing the examination body to exist side by side with WAEC has broken the monopoly hitherto enjoyed by WAEC as well as provide an alternative for students. Their argument is that while WAEC is a regional examination body, NECO is a wholly indigenous and national body that is well positioned to assess students in Nigeria. Nigeria picks 54% of the bill for running WAEC.

    Some people have also been quick to go into history. Their argument is that NECO was established in April 1999 when Nigerian students were suffering untold hardship in the hands of WAEC. The establishment, they argue, was in line with decisions reached at the 49th meeting of the National Council of Education. The establishment of the Council at that time, they noted, was in response to the outcry of Nigerian students over the problems they were encountering with the examinations being conducted by WAEC in the country, especially the Senior Secondary Certificate Examination and the General Certificate Examinations.

    With its massive infrastructure and permanent site located on the outskirts of Minna, the Niger State capital, NECO has recorded many successes. But like every other successful venture, the body also had its own teething problems at inception. It was initially confronted with several daunting challenges that sought to undermine its examinations. Most of these challenges have been surmounted. Unfortunately, in the last few years, Nigerian students have successively recorded woeful results, especially in English Language and Mathematics in both WAEC and NECO examinations.

    These results have attracted a lot of public reaction and discourse. Commentators seem to agree that the results reflect the current state of Nigeria’s educational system and that something urgent needs to be done. Public discourse has also been engendered at various seminars, workshops, and conferences on how to proffer solutions to the inadequacies that affect students, teachers, educational administrators and policy makers in the country.

    However, the problem of mass failure in school certificate examinations, though not limited to NECO, is believed to have arisen because due diligence may not have been carried out at the marking venue by the examiners marking the examination papers. There’s no doubt that the provision of a valid and reliable assessment of students’ performance is the only way to ensure that stakeholders in education could begin to see examinations as a means of restructuring and reviving the moribund educational system in the country. This will ensure the credibility of examinations taken by candidates in Nigeria, as well as engender global trust in results issued on them.

    The idea that one examination body is better or preferable in Nigeria has been there all along. But what I think should engage the attention of our policy makers is the increasing number of candidates who could not obtain the mandatory pass marks in both English and Mathematics – a prerequisite for admission into the university – in the last few years. Many of the candidates could not also secure the mandatory credit-level pass mark in five subjects needed for admission into tertiary institutions. This has created a big problem in the education sector.

    In my opinion, it is the standard of education that has fallen to unimaginable level and not the standard of the examination bodies. In that case, NECO cannot simply be scrapped because WAEC is there standing by. If at all the government has identified any problem with NECO, it should put necessary mechanisms in place to strengthen it rather than scrap it. Like the Yoruba say, “Ori bibe ko ni ogun ori fifo”, literally translated to: “Cutting off the head is not a cure for headache”.

    Besides, it is clear that with the infrastructure it has put in place in the country, NECO seems to be better positioned to conduct final examination for Nigerian candidates than WAEC. Now, how do you ask a Tilapia to attempt to swallow a whale? Absolutely impossible. With about 37 offices located in the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, it is obvious that WAEC has no capacity to take over and manage the assets and or liability of NECO.

    Besides, about 5,000 people are said to be employed by the body. In a country where unemployment has soared to high heavens, how will government manage the high unemployment figure that may arise from scrapping NECO? This is because there is no way WAEC can immediately absorb even a quarter of that number. This will surely increase the number of unemployed Nigerians roaming the streets and who would likely be easy prey to criminal activities and criminality which the security agents are already suffused with.

    At any rate, rather than take hasty actions that will further compound the problems in the education sector, it is imperative to overhaul the country’s educational system through appropriate and dynamic learning skills for pupils and effective teaching methods for the teachers. We should properly monitor the students from the kindergarten through the primary school, the junior secondary school and the senior secondary school levels. This way, any fundamental error in their growth process could be quickly redressed.

    Above all, there is the need to make sure that we have qualified teachers to teach such compulsory subjects as English Language and Mathematics. The current situation where a whole school with SSS1 and SSS3 student population of about 1500 students may just have only one teacher tutoring students in the subjects does not augur well for good education standard. It all boils down to channeling adequate funds to education through provision of necessary infrastructure and teaching aids as well as constant training and retraining of the teachers.

    The government may tinker with NECO for the purpose of enhancing productivity and efficiency but certainly, there is no justifiable reason to scrap it. So let it be!