The Nation Newspaper

Category: Hardball

  • Lai’s own “soro-soke!”

    Lai’s own “soro-soke!”

    Soro soke, weere!” — speak out loud and clear, you looney — rang the imperious scream from the irate youth, with the others gathered brimming with righteous indignation, which nonetheless grabbed popular approval.

    It was the high noon of #EndSARS, when headless youths held their nation by the balls, for not an unjust cause; and reserved the right to lampoon anybody.

    Now, a citizen governor tried citizen tricks to placate citizen anger.  Poor bloke!   He only got his executive head badgered!

    “Soro soke, weere!”

    Pronto, “soro soke!” became the scream of the moment; the popular slogan of the youth derring-do; the chant to make the high and the mighty, the rich and the spoilt, and the tin gods in government bow and tremble!  Holy glory!

    All that went on from 8 October 2020 until it all miscarried from 20 October 2020, with cries of “massacre” ringing out from the Lekki toll gates; as the “youths” tried to bust a curfew imposed by the Lagos State government; and the military-protesters confrontation that decision provoked.

    With “Soro soke!” however, the hunter now has become the hunted.   Information and Culture Minister, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, nettled by umpteenth claim that the families of those allegedly “massacred” at the Lekki toll gate were too scared to come out and complain, charged them to “soro soke!”

    He didn’t quite say so in that exact fetching slogan.  But the principle was the same.  Those who lose ordinary goats, he argued, don’t sit back but hit the streets to search for their pets.  How much less then those that allegedly lost humans, yet more than a year later, still are claimed to be too scared to “soro soke!”?

    If indeed such are parents, then they are not fit to be called such, the minister declared.  To be sure, that was devastating but it’s the brutal truth.

    The minister was, of course, putting to the sword the leaked Lagos judicial panel report on the so-called “Lekki massacre”, which he declared “fake news” and “social media tales by the moonlight”, except the protagonists can come out with unassailable proof; and not just milk explosive emotions to come to a nefarious, predetermined end.

    Nation-wide, 57 citizens died; six soldiers and 37 policemen were all despatched to their graves, all as a result of insane anger that grew from a massacre claim, yet to be clinically supported more than one year after.

    Yet, those who mouth “massacre” never bother about the felling of these citizens because they refuse to admit that their “massacre” lies caused these needless deaths.  That’s neither honest nor noble.

    So, the minister’s call is hardly unfair: let those who claim “massacre” get all involved to prove it — or forever keep quiet!  Lying with citizens’ lives to milk cheap pity is an ignoble enterprise.  Soro soke!

  • Odd ban

    Odd ban

    As states troubled by unrelenting banditry continue to think of measures to tackle insecurity, Niger State Governor Abubakar Bello has come up with a ban on sale of motorcycles.

    Secretary to the Niger State government, Ahmed Matane, in a statement  explained that the ban covered the sale of “any motorcycle (Bajaj, Boxer, Qiujeng, Honda ACE, Jingchen) with engine capacity from 185 Cubic Centimetres (cc) and above.’’ He said the measure was to curb the activities of criminals, particularly bandits and kidnappers.

    “Government is aware of the inconveniences the measure would cause the people, but the decision was taken in the overall interest of the state,” Matane said, adding, “We appeal to dealers in motorcycles across the state to cooperate with the directive.”

    The government’s new move came after bandits struck in Zagzaga community in Munya local government area of the state, and abducted 10 more villagers. It was the third attack from bandits within a week, and brought the number of abductees to 83.  The bandits are said to have demanded N150 million for the release of the abductees.

    The government had earlier banned commercial motorcycle operators in Minna, the state capital, and its environs. An earlier restriction on the movement of all motorcycles from 6 pm to 6 am is still in force.

    These efforts to fight banditry and kidnapping reflect the degree of the state’s security challenges.  But it is unclear how well the measures are working.

    The latest move against the sale of motorcycles suggests that the state government may be running out of ideas. How will lack of access to new motorcycles prevent banditry? Are cases of banditry mounting because bandits can buy new motorcycles?  Are bandits the only ones who buy new motorcycles?

    What will happen to others who need motorcycles for other purposes? Should innocent people be prevented from buying new motorcycles because the state government is fighting banditry?  What will happen to motorcycle dealers who depend on the business to take care of themselves, and possibly their families?

    It is unclear how long the new measure will be in force. Does the state government expect innocent people affected by the ban on sale of motorcycles to freeze their lives, and possibly the lives of their dependents, while the measure remains in force?

    Then there is the question of enforcement. How will the state government enforce the odd ban?  Can it enforce the ban?

    There is no doubt that tackling escalating insecurity needs new thinking and new approaches. But the thinking that produced this approach needs to be reviewed. The state government should rethink this thinking.

  • The ‘cannibal’ of Ebonyi

    The ‘cannibal’ of Ebonyi

    When you see some individuals go around in civilised human society, you’d never know sub-humanity in them is merely clothed over. And legendary William Shakespeare says there is no art by which one could read the heart’s construct on the face. It is, thus, inevitably the case that we have some semi-brutes posturing human civilisation until happenstance exposes them to be otherwise.

    That apparently was the case with a commercial driver in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital, who reportedly bit off and swallowed the finger of a member of the taskforce raised by the state’s Ministry of Capital City Development to enforce compliance with urban planning regulations. The said driver bit off the finger of the taskforce member named Iboko Kenneth, just so to evade arrest for traffic offence. The incident occurred at Onuebonyi junction in Abakaliki metropolis when the ministry and its taskforce officials were going round to ensure there were no illegal stop-overs to pick commuters within the capital city, the state government having earlier directed all commercial transport operators to relocate to a new central park provided for them in the state capital. But last Tuesday at Onuebonyi junction, some drivers were seen picking passengers. And when Kenneth attempted to arrest one of the defiant drivers, this driver reportedly grabbed one of his fingers, bit it off and swallowed. The assault left Kenneth in pains and his colleagues in shock, and before they could recover the driver fled the scene, leaving behind his vehicle that was impounded by the taskforce while the victim was taken to the emergency unit of Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki (AE-FUTHA) for treatment.

    Speaking with journalists in Abakaliki about the incident, Capital City Development Commissioner Onyekachi Nwebonyi said inter alia: “It is very unfortunate that a driver can attack a law officer who is trying to organise the state, to the point of chopping off his finger. This is terrible, unexpected and barbaric…I want to commend some of the transport operators for their cooperation that led to peaceful relocation of parks within the city to the central park known as Akubaraoha Abakaliki Central Park…But we have discovered with dismay that some drivers are bent on operating from the streets instead of doing the needful by joining their colleagues at the central park.”

    Some may want to argue that desperation for survival forced the Ebonyi driver onto the wild act. But, no. He exemplified the impunity of resistance by some city transport operators to regulations thrown up by respective authority to end urban defacement. In Lagos, for instance, commercial motorbike (‘Okada’) operators have on a number of occasions violently resisted the state government’s policy to restrict them from certain areas of the megacity, including gruesomely killing police personnel. It isn’t desperation for survival but impunity on steroids.

    The Ebonyi government must track down this ‘cannibal’ driver and treat him to the full wrath of law, if only to disincentivise like-minds.

  • Ghana-SA-Senegal triangle

    Ghana-SA-Senegal triangle

    In the just-concluded African preliminary qualifying series for the 2022 World Cup, you couldn’t just imagine a more enchanting deja vu, involving Ghana, South Africa and  Senegal.

    Now, the country of Nelson Mandela is scowling and screeching; and somehow hopes history would repeat itself; and it would somewhat snatch qualification, for the final home-and-away final knockout series, from the set jaws of Ghana.

    En route to Russia 2018 World Cup, South Africa had pipped Senegal 2-1 and thought it had qualification wrapped up; and was looking forward to a roll in Vladmir Putin’s vast country.  But not so fast!

    At the centre of that match was referee Joseph Lamptey, a Ghanaian.  After a Senegal protest, FIFA rebuked centre referee Lamptey to have clearly taken two wrong decisions to allegedly facilitate “a minimum number of goals to make certain bets successful.”

    FIFA also charged Lamptey with awarding South Africa a phoney penalty, when replays clearly showed the ball hit Senegal’s Kalidou Koulibaly’s knee, not his hand.  To cut a long story short, FIFA ordered a replay after which Senegal trounced South Africa, 2-0.  Bye-bye Russia to Bafana-Bafana!

    But flip to the present.  Venue: Cape Coast, Ghana.  Ghana vs South Africa.  Final group match.  Centre referee: Maguette Ndiaye of Senegal!

    The last time, it was South Africa vs Senegal.  Ghana was centre referee.  Now, it was Ghana vs South Africa.  Senegal was centre referee!  Deja vu?

    Now, Tebogo Mothlante, South Africa Football Association (SAFA) chief executive, makes quite a row: we’ve been robbed!  He claimed the Senegalese referee awarded Ghana a dubious penalty kick.  Ghana’s Daniel Amartey took a dive, he alleged, with minimum contact from South Africa defender Rushine de Reuck, and that fatal blast cost South Africa qualification!

    Now, isn’t it all intriguing?  The last time, it was a Ghanaian referee gifting South Africa a controversial penalty, to secure a pyrrhic victory over Senegal.

    Now, it is a Senegalese referee awarding Ghana another controversial penalty, which earned Kwame Nkrumah’s descendants the minutest of advantages, to qualify them and push South Africa out!

    Will the Ghana win prove as fleeting as South Africa’s the last time round?  Tebogo Mothlante certainly hopes so!  So, he has fired a protest to FIFA — which FIFA has acknowledged — and hopes SA’s debacle the last time would turn glory this time.  Well, hope springs eternal!

    Still, one dark recurrence, in this Ghana-South Africa-Senegal triangle: referees making controversial calls.  The incomparable Pele famously called football “the beautiful game.”  No match official should turn it ugly.  Meanwhile we await, with bated breath, FIFA’s final call!

  • Structural absurdities

    Structural absurdities

    It is incomprehensible how a building allegedly designed to have six floors became a 21-storey tower. Hardball doesn’t need building engineering expertise to know that such a building, without appropriate intervention, is a disaster waiting to happen.

    It is alarming that the Nigerian Institution of Structural Engineers (NIStructE) observed structural absurdities regarding the tragic collapse of a high-rise under construction on Gerrard Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, on November 1.

    Tragically, at least 45 people, including the owner of the building, died in the crumbled tower.  Luckily, 15 others were pulled out alive from the rubble.  Predictably, the Lagos State government set up a panel to investigate the tragedy, and the public awaits the result of the probe.

    It is significant that the body of structural engineers released the outcome of its own “preliminary investigation,” which it believes “will give a general indication of what likely led to the unfortunate incident.”

    “The building that collapsed was initially designed for just six floors, and later to 12 floors, before this was further changed to 15 floors,” according to NIStructE president Kehinde Osifala.

    He said in a statement on November 16: “It could not yet be established the adequacy of any properly designed and documented further revision to the eventual (and tragically, final) 21 floors that was being implemented and which collapsed.”

    The professional body said the preliminary investigation “also revealed some evidence of structural inadequacy in the construction and that signs of some structural distress had already started to show within certain elements of the building.”

    Whatever measures the builders took to address the observed defects were futile, the body noted, because “the method of implementation of this was not in accordance with sound structural engineering practices.”

    This picture suggests that disregard for building standards, poor workmanship and materials, and a lack of official oversight were to blame. This further suggests that the disaster was avoidable.

    The tower had attracted attention in 2020 when it was reported that the owner had tried to prevent officials of the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA) from sealing off the building. The agency was said to have observed some “anomalies.” This may well corroborate the position of NIStructE.

    According to research, at least 152 buildings have collapsed in Lagos since 2005. It is unclear how many of the disasters were avoidable.  It remains to be seen whether the outcome of the state government’s probe of the Ikoyi disaster will help prevent avoidable building collapse.

  • De Klerk’s swan song

    South Africa’s last white minority president, Frederik Willem de Klerk, who negotiated the end to apartheid and ushered in black majority rule died last week at 85 years with a curious valedictory. He made a video recording before he died in which he offered his compatriots unqualified apology for the ills of apartheid. The video was issued on Thursday by the FW de Klerk Foundation, just hours after it announced his death, following a battle with cancer.

    “Let me today in this last message repeat: I, without qualification, apologise for the pain, the hurt and the indignity and the damage that apartheid has done to black, brown and Indians in South Africa,” a gaunt de Klerk said in the video. “It is true that in my younger years I defended separate development, as I never liked the word apartheid. I did so when I was a member of parliament and I did so as I became a member of Cabinet. Afterwards on many occasions I apologised for the pain and indignity that apartheid has brought to persons,” he added inter alia. The foundation had earlier issued a statement in which it said the former president died peacefully at his home earlier that morning following his struggle against “mesothelioma cancer.”

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    Upon becoming president in 1989, de Klerk allowed anti-apartheid protests, lifted the ban on some political movements including the African National Congress (ANC), and met with Nelson Mandela who had been in prison for 27 years on account of anti-apartheid struggles. In February 1990, he delivered a speech to parliament in which he announced that Mandela would be freed from Victor Verster prison. That speech marked the official end to the segregation policies of apartheid and the start of negotiations that led to constitutional democracy with equal rights for all South Africans, though de Klerk continued to head the white-minority government until 1994 when Mandela’s ANC swept to power in national elections. After the end of white-minority rule, de Klerk served as deputy president until 1996. He was awarded the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize jointly with Mandela for securing a smooth transition to democracy.

    What was curious about de Klerk’s posthumous apology was that it pointedly delivered what the former president for much of his life after the fall of apartheid fudged doing. He was perceived as reluctant to acknowledge the full horrors of the system and bring perpetrators to justice. This was underlined in a television interview last year in which quibbled about whether the crimes of apartheid should be seen as “crimes against humanity.” Also, following de Klerk’s appearance before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that probed the atrocities of the white-minority regime, Bishop Desmond Tutu who chaired the panel expressed “disappointment that the former president had not made a more wholesome apology on behalf of (then ruling) National Party to the nation for the evils of apartheid.”

    It was good de Klerk made peace with his conscience and nation from the grave. But he might well have done that while alive. No matter, he was a good man.

     

  • Tarzan thoughts

    Tarzan thoughts

    Bruce Fein, the US attorney that blundered on the Nnamdi Kanu trial and started shooting from the hips, must have read a lot of Tarzan tales as a child.

    Or spent too much of his adult time in the bubble of CNN, The Economist of London and sundry western media, with their skewed and paternalistic tales; and their avid penchant for pushing the predictable African hell in contrast to own utopia in the Western Hemisphere.

    True, some of these tales are fairly told.  Still, you couldn’t deny these media griots’ pleasurable embellishment; their predictable merry hyperbole, to make it all look like some eternal tale that never, ever changes.

    On the reception side is a sorry House Negro mindset — among the African elite, no matter how hyper-educated — ever ready to lap up the worst told about them and theirs; and their eager pride to re-broadcast that ruinous stuff, just to prove — sorry souls! — that they “belong”!

    Reggae great, Jimmy Cliff was right when he crooned: “Poor slave, they take the shackles off your body … Poor slave, they clamp the shackles on your mind …!

    That appeared the Bruce Fein abiding temper when he started blowing his tops, just because he wasn’t granted access into the trial courtroom: “I will petition the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in Geneva, the International Court of Justice in The Hague. I’ll be going to the United States Congress.  I urge that sanctions be considered against Nigeria for gross violations of fundamental humans rights.”

    Big deal! And what conceit!  And yet, more bluster: “It is clear that I am the target in particular.  That’s the reason why this proceeding did not transpire today.  I’m here to tell Nigerians and the international community that I’m taking this to the international tribunals.  It is clear that the Nigerian tribunals are compromised.”

    Now, who the hell is this bloke?  Because he is Nnamdi Kanu’s lawyer from America, the court should scramble at his feet and kiss his arrogant toes?  And what does Fein know about Nigerian courts to feign the all-knowing and declare “Nigerian tribunals are compromised”?  What combative ignorance!  What utter nonsense!

    To be clear: Justice Binta Nyako, who is handling the case, made the rules very clear: if you want to observe her court proceedings as Fein craves, you must do a formal, written application, to which the judge is at liberty to accept or reject.  If Fein wants to observe, he knows what to do.  All that empty posturing and media theatrics just won’t wash.

    And if Fein would just climb down his haughty high horse, he would know that even in his America, Nigerians out there hold better college, first degree and advanced degree credentials than even White Americans.  So, what makes Fein think he could come down here, in the homeland, and talk down on people?

    And that crap about reporting Nigeria to the US Congress — is Nigeria now the 51st state of the United States?  What unvarnished arrogance!

    Justice Nyako’s court should please help purge Bruce Fein of his Tarzan delusions.  Nigeria is neither some jungle where Tarzan held court swinging from tree to tree; nor some banana republic where some American lawyer would feel free to run his mouth on sacred institutions.

    If Fein must observe a court proceeding in Nigeria, he must first respect the Nigerian judicial institution.  That should have been common sense — except that common sense is not always common!

     

     

     

     

     

  • Denial of reality

    Denial of reality

    Information supplied this week by Senator Ibrahim Gobir, on the floor of the Senate, contradicted Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed who said last month that bandits could not be said to be in control of certain areas of the country because they had allegedly imposed levies on the locals.

    Mohammed had told journalists in Abuja that “In many of our cities, they carve out their own territory. So, it is not indicative of the bandits taking over.” That was his reaction to an article that appeared in The Economist magazine titled ‘Insurgency, secessionism and banditry threaten Nigeria.’

    He added that the Nigerian media “does itself a great disservice by turning itself into an echo chamber of the foreign media. When The Economist reported its patently wrong and badly researched story, it was immediately amplified by the local media, without even interrogating its content. This is totally unconscionable!”

    It is noteworthy that the same Nigerian media criticised by the minister reported the senator’s remarks on the floor of the Red Chamber. In this case, the local media cannot be said to have echoed foreign media, which was the minister’s accusation against them in the case concerning the London-based magazine.

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    Senator Gobir, representing Sokoto East, in Sokoto State, on November 9, drew the Senate’s attention to some alarming developments.  “The terrorists are now installing their village heads in some areas of Sabin-Girin local government,” he said.  “In Gangara, they replaced the village head with Dan Bakkolo, the next in command to a known terrorist called Turji. In Makwaruwa, they installed Dan Karami (a terrorist) as Maigari.”

    He added that in some villages in some local government areas of the state, they forced residents to pay levies ranging from N1m to N20m. He named the villages: Kwarangamba, Garki, Danadua, Katuma, Kurawa and Dama.

    He also said they had killed more than 120 people at the Gorony Market in the state. “The terrorists came to the market and started shooting every person they saw,” he lamented.

    It is unclear if those involved in the criminal activities mentioned by the senator are bandits or terrorists, though he calls them terrorists.  The two are not the same, but they are similar because they terrorise the people.

    The minister has not responded to the information supplied by the senator. It would be interesting to know his position on the senator’s information. The point is that reality is reality, whether the picture of reality is painted by foreign media or local observers.  The truth is that these particular bandits or terrorists have taken over the affected communities.

    The minister is living in denial. Perhaps he can afford to do so. But the victims of these bandits or terrorists know and feel the hell of insecurity.  The minister needs to wake up to reality.

  • (Dis)honourables at work

    (Dis)honourables at work

    Impeachment as a legislative weapon is one that ideally should be deployed with restraint and only as a last resort for redress. That must be why the 1999 Nigerian Constitution, as amended prescribes a high threshold of participation to make the action valid, namely “not less than two-thirds majority of the members” of respective legislative chamber according to section 50, subsection 2(c) in respect of the National Assembly, and section 92, subsection 2(c) regarding state assemblies. However, impeachment appears to be a default option in many state legislatures for members to wage petty personality squabbles. Shame!

    The Imo State House of Assembly on Monday, this week, impeached Paul Emeziem as speaker, with just six out of the 27-member assembly taking that stand though on the basis of a petition purportedly signed by 19 members. The group that removed Emeziem was led by Amara Iwuanyanwu, who himself was kicked out as deputy speaker by some members of the assembly on Tuesday, last week. The squad elected another member, Kennedy Ibeh, who is one of six lawmakers suspended on 8th July  by Emeziem for “unparliamentary conduct” as new speaker. Before the impeachment was announced Monday, the assembly complex was barricaded by security operatives after the rebel group managed to gain entry and held a session that lasted barely 15 minutes. Reports said when Emeziem got wind of the meeting, he raced to the House but was stopped from getting into the complex. “Amara Iwuanyanwu can’t convene a plenary because he was properly impeached. If there should be any plenary, I am the one empowered by law to call for it. (And) today is not our plenary day,” the embattled speaker protested.

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    Iwuanyanwu’s displacement as deputy speaker six days earlier was based on a petition purportedly by 18 House members, but some of the purported signatories subsequently disowned it, saying their signatures were forged. The lawmaker is an ally of Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma, and his removal was perceived as a slap on the governor, who accordingly didn’t welcome the decision read out by Emeziem at the Tuesday plenary. Emeziem’s subsequent removal was apparently a payback, and possibly with tacit nod from the governor.

    The crisis in Imo legislature was against the backdrop of similar manoeuvres in the Plateau House of Assembly by which Abok Ayuba was displaced from speakership allegedly at the behest of State Governor Simon Lalong. A handful out of the 24 members of the Plateau assembly met at dawn on 28th October and voice-voted to remove Ayuba, who had been at odds with Lalong over the security situation in Plateau State that he perceived the governor not doing enough to address. When lawmakers, who should constitute an independent arm of government, fight proxy wars for the executive arm and wage petty squabbles with impeachment among themselves, they not only discount the legislative arm, they are lawmakers turned sheer lawbreakers.

  • Scary statistics

    Scary statistics

    Figures published last week by the Kaduna State Government lent credence to fears that a ruinous subterranean war is being waged by bandits and other criminals on the Northwest state. It was made known that no fewer than 222 persons were killed between April and June, this year, in the blight of insecurity that bedevils the state. Some 774 persons more were kidnapped in the same quarter, according to official figures published by the state’s Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs Samuel Aruwan. We should place on record that in reality, the valid figures of victims may be far higher considering it is notorious that official figures tend to understate negative casualties.

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    The new security report implied that at least 545 people were killed and 1,723 kidnapped between January and June 2021 in that state alone. Aruwan had earlier on, this year, reported that 323 people were killed and 949 kidnapped between January and March. The report for the second quarter presented on Tuesday, 13th July, said the figures were of victims of banditry attacks, communal clashes and reprisals that took place across the troubled state, with a total of 266 persons more injured. Aruwan also reported that at least 20 people were raped in the three months under review, stating that council areas of Kaduna most affected by the wave of violence include Birnin Gwari, Chikun, Kajuru, Giwa and Igabi. Lamenting the impact of the violence on state residents, he said local economy in frontline areas was near-collapse, as the activities of bandits had “dispossessed residents of their foremost means of sustenance and disrupted the operation of the usually dynamic weekly markets. Besides the rustling of cattle, the targeting of farmers by armed bandits has generally eroded the economic viability of rural communities, in addition to precipitating a food crisis.”

    Receiving the security report, Governor Nasir el-Rufai regretted that government efforts had not sufficed to safeguard lives and property. He said his administration had made considerable investments on security, but there was need for structural changes in the entire architecture to make the desired impact. The Kaduna governor urged the Federal Government to bolster the state’s efforts and, if necessary, deploy unconventional means to better protect communities.

    El-Rufai’s administration stands apart in proactively reporting on the trend of insecurity in its jurisdiction, namely Kaduna, but the reported figures reflect what goes on in other states as well. Insecurity has made life nasty, brutish and short in many areas, and there is sense to the recommendation by the Kaduna governor that the Federal Government launch simultaneous security operations across all seven states of the Northwest zone and Niger State where insecurity is most pronounced. Nigeria is at war with bandits and citizens are falling casualty. People now almost routinely pay ransom for kidnapped relations, while others less lucky lose lives to exploits by the criminals. Government must rise to its constitutional obligation of protecting lives, whatever it takes to do that.