The Nation Newspaper

Category: Opinion

  • Trump has imprisoned himself in the White House

    Trump has imprisoned himself in the White House

    By David A. Graham

    President Donald Trump is trapped inside the White House, as a tall and imposing wall is erected around him, and prison guards stand watch.

    The fencing is intended to keep other people out, of course, and to provide security for the White House. But walls don’t just keep people out—they keep people in too, a reality dramatized by the fact that some of those standing watch are officers of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Unlike a true prisoner, Trump can get out, but on Monday, a simple walk down the block from his house required a massive deployment of riot police and pepper balls.

    It makes sense that Trump, who won the presidency in part on his promise to build a wall at the southern United States border, would gravitate to the same solution for the White House. During the 2016 presidential campaign, he warned of chaos seeping into the country from Mexico; now he sees the chaos creeping toward his own lawn. (This sequence is not much of an endorsement of his claims to be a “law and order” president.)

    The administration has undertaken a contradictory dual strategy. On the one hand, as my colleague Anne Applebaum writes, the president wants to gin up fear among people far from the protests. On the other hand, he wants to show that he has matters under control. To that end, Attorney General William Barr has aimed to “flood the zone” in Washington, D.C. (Barr seems to be leading the effort in part because, while Pentagon leaders blanch at Trump’s attempts to send the military into the streets,

    Barr has a vast legion of law-enforcement officers at his command, and shares few of the compunctions of the military brass.)

    The first part of the strategy may or may not work; the second will probably not. No doubt this show of force will prove convincing for some Americans, especially Trump’s core supporters. Washington has been calmer the past couple of days, at the expense of being a de facto police state—although that may have more to do with the restraint of protesters and the reluctance of police to escalate than the show of force.

    But what’s happening in the capital is mostly being done to soothe a president terrified of protest. It’s another version of the security theater Americans have been treated to at their airports for the past two decades—but this performance is being put on for the sole benefit of the president. And as Trump tries to project strength, he instead appears weaker than ever.

    There’s a long history of American hostility to being fenced in, or fenced out. Colonists bristled at Westminster’s attempts to restrict westward expansion, one spark that helped ignite the American Revolution. President Andrew Jackson—whom Trump once named as a role model—famously threw open the White House to the public at his inauguration, albeit with messy results. In “This Land Is Your Land,” practically an alternative national anthem, Woody Guthrie sang of coming across a no trespassing sign: “But on the other side, it didn’t say nothing / That side was made for you and me.”

    Not everyone has gotten to enjoy this freedom, of course. Westward expansion of white settlements meant the expulsion and extermination of Native Americans, a process infamously accelerated by Jackson, who was also one of 12 presidents to own black slaves. (More than a century later, Guthrie would criticize the racism of Trump’s father, a New York landlord.) Yet like many other cherished national ideals, the antipathy to walls has become central to American identity in spite—or because—of the fact that it has not been extended to all. It’s no accident that Japanese American internees at the World War II Manzanar concentration camp loved to hear bands play “Don’t Fence Me In,” a song made famous by Roy Rogers, who himself laid claim to the mantle of the old Wild West cowboys.

    A high point for American anti-wall sentiment came in Ronald Reagan’s famous 1987 speech at the Brandenburg Gate, where he called on Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall. As Reagan understood, the barrier had been erected to starve free West Berlin; instead, it had become a prison for East Germans living under Communist rule, who risked (and often lost) their lives trying to escape, while their fellow Berliners to the west thrived. Tearing down that wall was a triumph of freedom.

    Read Also: ‘The Trump-Hilary conundrum’ revisited

    But as time has gone on, the people’s house has become walled off from the people. The grounds around the White House become more and more closed to the general public, a process that began in earnest after overseas terrorist attacks during the Reagan administration. After the Oklahoma City bombings, Pennsylvania Avenue was closed to traffic. After September 11, pedestrian traffic was banned too, though it was allowed again a few years later. Following several intrusions on the White House grounds, the Obama administration introduced plans to heighten the existing fence.

    Just as Trump is often more an accelerant of existing trends than an anomaly, he has turbocharged clearance of the land around the people’s house. Amid the current domestic crisis, Trump is not demanding that walls be torn down; instead, he’s erecting new ones. He’s also emulating the tactics of a former KGB agent stationed in East Germany: Russian

    President Vladimir Putin. Where Putin dispatched “little green men” to Ukraine, devoid of any markings or insignia, Trump and Barr have flooded the streets of the city with officers who refuse to even say what agency they work for and cover up their affiliations. The White House has erected temporary fencing and pushed back the public, and as Thursday dawned, more barriers were coming.

    The president’s security is no laughing matter. Though Trump likes to say that he is treated worse than any other holder of his office, four have been assassinated, and another shot and badly injured. The Secret Service rushed Trump to an underground bunker last week. There ought to be no shame in that—although amid mocking hashtags, Trump tried to deny it had happened, and claimed that he was just doing an “inspection” on the bunker.

    That risible denial is all the more peculiar when paired with Trump’s open militarization of the White House vicinity. Past presidents have resisted such dramatic steps during previous crises, in part because of optics: There are other ways to tighten security without complete closure. But in addition to walls, Trump has always favored vast displays of force and military parades.

    The president is now closed off on many sides. Polls pan his handling of both the protests of police brutality and the coronavirus pandemic. He’s facing unusual criticism from his former secretary of defense and a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as more muted but unmistakable pushback from the current holders of both positions. A series of recent polls shows him trailing presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden. Trump has never been especially open to outside or contradictory opinions, and he has fewer of those available, as his administration is composed largely of loyalists.

    Trump may believe the show of force in Lafayette Square makes him seem more powerful, but the more he closes up—physically and figuratively—the more isolated and smaller he becomes.

    • This article was first published in www.theatlantic.com
  • Ugwuanyi and the challenge of peace in Enugu

    Ugwuanyi and the challenge of peace in Enugu

    By Joseph Aneke

    On May 29, 2015, when His Excellency, Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Lawrence Ugwuanyi, was inaugurated as the third executive governor of Enugu State, he did not leave anybody in doubt as to his capacity to reinvent the state.

    Enugu people equally did not doubt his capacity to make the state the centre of attraction and the number one state as far as peace and security are concerned.

    As he mounted the podium at the Michael Okpara Square venue of the event, the people of Enugu State, friends and well-wishers, who had gathered to witness the epoch-making event, cheered him as he reeled out his promises for his people.

    One of the promises he made to the people of Enugu in his inaugural speech was to work assiduously to ensure peace and good governance in the state. He also promised to embark on aggressive infrastructural development across the state, particularly in the rural areas, where the majority of the people reside.

    Even though, these promises were made amidst looming recession which enveloped the country soon after he became governor, there was no modicum of doubt in the people’s mind that he would live up to the promises. This was due largely to the fact that Ugwuanyi, having spent 12 years in the House of Representatives, where he represented Igbo-Eze North/Udenu Federal Constituency, was very conversant with the socio-political, religious and economic problems confronting the state.

    Not long after he assumed office as governor, the people of Nimbo, in Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area of the state came under heavy attacks by some herdsmen, killing scores of people, and destroying property worth millions of Naira. The unprovoked attack on the innocent and peace loving people of Nimbo by the herdsmen challenged Ugwuanyi’s zeal to prove that he could protect his people and maintain peace in the state as he promised.

    And, he did not disappoint as he promptly rose to the occasion. He quickly set in motion machinery to reorganize and empower the existing local security outfit so as to complement the efforts of the police and other security agencies. Thus, the Enugu State Neighbourhood Watch was established even as the vigilance groups in various communities across the state were fully recognised by the state government. The governor, subsequently released over N100 million for their take off in all the 17 local government areas of the state. The money was meant to provide training logistics and operational gadgets to enable them respond to any security threat in the state.

    About 5,200 members of the Neighbourhood Watch drawn from all the local government areas in Enugu State have been actively complementing the efforts of the police to maintain peace in the state. These personnel are also on the payroll of Enugu State government.

    However, while people from the North-Central, South-south and Southwest, as well as some states in the Southeast, were complaining that herdsmen, kidnappers and other criminal elements have taken over their forests, Ugwuanyi’s foresight and proactive instinct led him into the formation of Enugu State Forest Guards. About 1700 men were employed to ensure the smooth and successful operation of the Forest Guards. Forest Guards, as a security outfit, were charged with the responsibility of ensuring that all the forests in the state are safe, secure and devoid of any kind of criminal activity. Kidnappers are known to have found the forest as a safe haven where they keep their victims after abduction until ransom has been paid. Herdsmen have also found the forest as a fertile ground where they commit all sorts of atrocities ranging from crop destruction to armed robbery, rape and outright killing, among others. Armed robbers are not left out among the criminal players in the forests. With the foregoing in mind and in order to live up to his promise of providing peace and security in the state, the governor established the Forest Guards Security outfit.

    Although the slogan, ‘Enugu is in the hands of God,’ has become a kind of signature tune in Enugu, Ugwuanyi would not leave anything to chance. He is a leader who believes that even though God watches over the affairs of the state, he would do what he ought to as the governor to ensure that peace and security reign in the state.

    Between the middle of last year up to March this year, there was increased crime in the Southeast, including Enugu, which unfortunately led to the kidnap of a Catholic priest in the coal city state. Ugwuanyi did not find that security breach funny and that led to the provision of more vehicles to all the security agencies in the state.

    The state government purchased 360 security patrol vehicles made up of 260 Siena vehicles and 100 Hilux vans, which were distributed to security agencies, vigilance groups and forest guards in the state. The 260 Siena vehicles were distributed to Neighbourhood Watch groups and Forest Guards in the 17 local government areas of the state, while the Hilux vans were given to the army, police and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).

    In 2015, Ugwuanyi equally embarked on a similar journey, when he distributed about 30 vehicles each to the army, police, NSCDC, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), and in fact, all the security outfits in Enugu, to be able to operate maximally and ensure that Enugu remained.

    In fact, Ugwuanyi has demonstrated capacity and commitment to the security of lives and property of the people of Enugu, especially with the establishment of the Forest Guards and recognition of vigilance groups as partners to rid the state of criminals and criminality and maintain peace and security.

    The fact that Enugu State currently tops other states when it comes to security is attributable to Ugwuanyi’s pragmatism and his understanding of the fact that peace is the number one panacea to all-round human development.

    As he clocks five years in this onerous task of ensuring that the existing peace and security in Enugu remain, I can only wish him well and pray that Enugu continues to be in the hands of God.

    • Aneke writes from Coal Camp, Enugu
  • Ekunsanmi’s quest for Irele development

    Ekunsanmi’s quest for Irele development

    By Olu Ayela

     

     

    IT was Plato who insisted that only a philosophical king should rule the polis (city). Even though his wish was for the Greek city states, examples from both our forebears and contemporary leadership indicate that his thesis subsists in all hues of leadership and kingdoms. Irele, the headquarters of Ode Irele Local Government Area in Ondo State, a serene township in Ondo State is one begging for such a leadership at the moment.

    The stool of the Olofun of Irele has been vacant for some time now due to litigations with regards to who the cap fits. A quick recap of the court rulings on the raging question of who should contest the stool showed a point blank declaration that Opetusin is the next family entitled under customary law to present a candidate to fill the vacant stool; that the branches of Oyenusi family holding the traditional chieftaincies of Oyenusi and Jomu of Irele respectively, are not entitled to contest the vacant stool of Olofun of Irele with the descendants of Opetusin; and that only the descendants of Opetusin – excluding the other members of the Oyenusi family – can aspire to reign as Olofun of Irele “in that Oyenusi only reigned as the Jomu of Irele, and not as Olofun of Irele.”

    The court declared further that neither the Governor of Ondo State nor any of its functionaries has the power to alter the customary law governing the Olofun of Irele chieftaincy as it affects the interest of the Opetusin family in the vacant stool of Olofun of Irele without taking cognisance of the extant customs and traditions of the Irele community. Besides, the court emphasised that the report of the Morgan Chieftaincy Review Commission and/or the White Paper issued thereon in 1982 do not constitute the making of a registered chieftaincy declaration under the Chiefs Law and that such purported declaration cannot be used or relied upon in filling the vacant stool of Olofun of Irele among other declarations.

    A review of the court case shows optimism that things would change for better for Irele. But no doubt, the town has remained more or less in an evil case without a king dignified enough to harness the resources of the land for the prosperity of the people. Irele today is an illustration of the children of Israel in captivity in Babylon, while visitors came and steal the treasures of Jerusalem, Nehemiah, a privileged son was abreast of the dilapidation in his land of nativity. He was not only concerned, but was made sick by reports of the situation in Jerusalem. Nehemiah did something. He started to fast and pray that God might give him mercy before the king. God answered and victory came for Jerusalem, and of course the Jews.

    The court has outstandingly demonstrated where the pendulum should swing, and one prominent prince many look up to is Dr.Bamidele Ekunsanmi. Prince Bamidele or Eddypolo, as popularly called by friends is an unassuming heir to the throne. He is not new to stardom or success. His was a valid case of preparations meet opportunity.  After his primary school at St. Pius Catholic school and a stint at St James’s , Anglican Secondary Modern School, Igbotako from where he proceeded to United Grammar School, Ode Irele, one of the four secondary schools in the Okitipupa Division of the former Ondo State.

    Prince Ekunsami was on top of his class and having come out with flying colours at his West African School Certificate, he proceeded to University of Benin College of Medical Science, Benin City. He did his internal medicine residency at Howard University, then Georgetown University programme for his post-graduate studies. He later bagged his Fellowship in Medical Oncology at Howard University, Washington D.C, United States of America.

    Your imagination may drift to what would a well learned medical director doing on the throne of his fathers? Very good question. First class graduate, Ekunsanmi would quickly refer you to eggheads on the throne and the development that they had engendered for their people. He is quick to point your attention to the landmark achievements of Professor Laz  Ekwueme in Oko, Lamido Sanusi II in Kano, Professor Adeyemi Adelanlege of Ota, Oba Dr.Adesimbo Victor Kiladejo, the Osemawe of Ondo and Onirisa Adeyeye Enitan  Ogunwusi, who were prominent and highly reputed individuals who are today, bringing development to their people.

    According to him, “the popular dictum, East or West, home is the best, better illustrates my passion for the development of my root. You may declare me a success story here, there and yonder, but see my people. Go to Irele and see what a city built on a hill has become! Irele, by my estimation ought to be the epicentre of development in Ondo State. We have the people, we have the resources, why is development eluding us?” He asked rhetorically.

    “We should eschew schism. I am enthused by the warm reports about what the Ooni of Ife is doing across the South West and even beyond. He has successfully deployed his expertise to solving problems all over the place. I do not want to be selfish by denying my people the benefit of my education and exposure. It is payback time and Irele must be turned a city flowing with milk and honey. It is my desire to stop the rural-urban drift by endearing those in places like Lagos and Port Harcourt to come back home and establish cottage industries.”

    Prince Bamidele insisted development is the goal for his interest in the stool. There has been no light for about thirteen years, cottage and small scale industriesare lacking, even when the raw materials abound all over the place. “Unemployment has deranged many of our youths to the end that many are even confused about the way out.”He appealed it was time to change the face of Ode Irele from that of a glorified village to that of a developed city. “No more war, development is the in-thing in this post COVID-19 paradigm. I want the youth to remain at home and develop the place. The Ondos have done it among their people, the Ifes are now leaving the erstwhile municipalities for home to set up cottage industries. What our people need is the right leadership and we are ready to give it.”

    Truth is, brave men, living and dead, have struggled and consecrated Irele far and above the current shenanigans that many of the gainsayers cannot add or detract from. Prince Ekunsanmi has presented himself and promised to be dedicated to the great task of rebuilding the town into a glorious city. His commitment to developing Irele is non pareil. He has resolved to give the last full measure of devotion within him thatIrele may have a new birth of freedom from the shackles of poverty, unemployment, youth restiveness and development in all spheres.

    He believes that a sense of the unique, specific and concrete circumstances of any situation is the first indispensable step to solving the problems posed by that situation. Liberating Irele from the shackles of poverty and wants had been his vision since his early days. As a successful medical icon and visionary, he believes he possesses the capacity to confidently mobilise the youths for all round development of the area that the labour of heroes and heroines past may not be in vain. His dream is to expand the frontiers for business and small scale industrial activities.

    Yet he is not underrating the severity of the challenges ahead, but he is relying on his network of well-wishers and industrialists who are more than willing to invest in both the youths and the kingdom if the environment is conducive for industrialisation. Upon this decision lies the development of Irele. Upon it depends whether our youngsters would continue to be hewers of wood and fetchers of water, while other kingdoms soar in liberation ethos and development gusto.

    Olu Ayela, Veteran Journalist, based in Lagos.

  • From Ebola to COVID-19, NCDC builds sinews to fight infectious diseases

    From Ebola to COVID-19, NCDC builds sinews to fight infectious diseases

     By Remi Adebayo 

     

    THREE months after the first case of coronavirus in Nigeria, the National Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, has become one of the better-known agencies of the Federal Government. It has earned its renown for the skilful management of the pandemic that shut down Nigeria and over 200 countries of the world.

    As of 31 May 2020, Nigeria had 10,162 confirmed cases of COVID-19 infections. The country managed to discharge 3,007 persons while recording 287 deaths. Nigeria recorded 553 new cases on Saturday 30 May 2020, the most significant number of cases in a single day.

    The global figure was 6,407,451 cases, 2,862, 610 recoveries and 377, 834 fatalities across 216 countries and territories.

    Public concern over the COVID-19 pandemic naturally turned the focus on NCDC. It was the first time most citizens would hear of the specialist public health institution.  But it played a significant role in the management of the Ebola epidemic of 2014. It led the efforts to contain any spread of the disease after Dr Stella Adadevoh and her team at First Consultants Hospital, Lagos forcefully stopped Liberian vector, Patrick Sawyer, from spreading the disease. Ebola took the lives of Sawyer, Adadevoh, and a nurse, Obi Justina Ejelonu.

    Indeed, NCDC earned commendations from the Federal Government and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control which acknowledged Nigeria’s decisive role in controlling the Ebola outbreak. The European Centre commended the Federal Ministry of Health and the staff of the Ebola Emergency Centre who coordinated the management of cases, containment of outbreaks and treatment protocols in Nigeria.

    In 2020, NCDC became public property. It was on the lips of citizens daily as it coordinated the management of the pandemic in Nigeria, releasing figures of infections, deaths, and recoveries. Its mandate, as the country’s national public health gatekeeper, is to lead Nigeria’s preparedness, detection and response to infectious disease outbreaks and public health emergencies. Essential functions revolve around coordinating surveillance systems to collect, analyse, and interpret data on diseases of public health importance.

    Its task also includes supporting states in responding to small outbreaks and leading the response to large disease outbreaks. It develops and maintains a network of reference and specialised laboratories; conducting, collating, synthesising, and disseminating public health research to inform policy while leading Nigeria’s engagement with the international community on diseases of public health relevance.

    Before now, the NCDC had set a five-year mission – 2017-2021, targeted at protecting the health of Nigerians through evidence-based prevention, integrated disease surveillance and response activities, using a one health approach, guided by research and a skilled workforce.

    Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, a trained infectious disease epidemiologist of over 20 years’ experience, is the director general of the agency. It functions with 213 staff from its headquarters and the National Reference Laboratory in Abuja, as well as from the Central Public Health Laboratory in Yaba, Lagos. It has six directorates- the Public Health Laboratory Services, Prevention Programmes and Knowledge Management; Emergency Preparedness and Response; Surveillance and Epidemiology; Finance and Accounts as well as Administration and Human Resources.

    Although the NCDC commenced work in 2011 with the excision of some departments from the Federal Ministry of Health, it was not until 2018 that President Muhammadu Buhari signed an enabling Act establishing the critical agency. It inherited from the Federal Ministry of Health the Epidemiology Division, the Avian Influenza Project and its laboratories, as well as the Nigeria Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Programme.

    In addition to managing the Ebola epidemic, NCDC has been at the forefront against annual outbreaks of rodent-induced Lassa fever. Its website describes Lassa fever as an acute viral illness and a viral haemorrhagic fever with increased outbreaks reported annually in Nigeria.  Experts recognise Lassa fever as endemic in many parts of West Africa, including Nigeria, Benin, Ghana, Mali, and the Mano River region. It probably exists in other West African countries as well with estimated 400,000 cases and 5,000 related deaths annually in West Africa alone.

    As part of its response measures, NCDC activated the National multi-sectorial Lassa fever Emergency Operations Centre to coordinate response activities across the states. In contrast, states with confirmed cases have enabled state-level EOCs. National Rapid Response Teams were deployed from NCDC to support response activities in ten states, even as states activated public health emergency operations centres.

    Besides, five Lassa fever molecular laboratories in the NCDC network functioned at full capacity to conduct tests within the shortest time. The agency is also supporting states and embracing risk communications and community engagement activities using television, radio, print, social media, and other strategies.

    While COVID-19 has re-positioned NCDC as a strategic national agency, it now has an uphill task to scale up its services in readiness to tackle infectious diseases. At the last count, the country had 29 laboratories across to test samples for coronavirus. The target of the Presidential Task Force, PTF, on COVID-19 is to have at least a laboratory in every of the 36 states.

    Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, NCDC has provided professional and technical direction for managing many health concerns and medical response via detection, treatment, testing and prevention by mobilising fierce and strong therapeutic resistance working closely with states and all stakeholders.

    “When COVID-19 emerged a few months ago in China, we immediately started building up our laboratory capacity. In four months, we activated 12 labs across the country to bring testing closer to the people and to make sure we have at least one lab in every zone. We keep pushing to get one in every state.

    “We have achieved this mainly by leveraging on existing molecular laboratory capacity within our network and some centres within the country. We now can test 10,000 people per day across the network”, Ihekweazu said at one of the daily briefings by the PTF.

    With 29 testing laboratories and a shift in strategy by adopting a precision approach, the NCDC and the PTF have underscored the importance of aggressive containment of the disease through risks communication and community engagement.

    Against complaints of low test numbers across the country, NCDC has explained that it could not purchase and stock test kits in large quantities because of environmental conditions in Nigeria. It actually procures only limited units at a time but the agency has planned for two million test kits over three months.

    “Since the beginning of the outbreak, we have deployed our digital surveillance tools to link our labs, emergency operations centre and treatment centres all together in a single electronic web-based data connection platform. We continue sending PPE’s to states to support their response and to protect the health care workers in every state in Nigeria.

    “We have developed clinical guidance and public health guidance and we have trained over 25,000 health care workers in all the states in Nigeria. While we support the states, we continuously encourage them to take more ownership of their response because that is critical to the success of the national response strategy,” Ihekweazu emphasised.

     

    • Adebayo is an Abuja-based journalist

  • Idumuje- Ugboko crisis: Genesis, mindless terrorism and dangerous move to drag IUDU into a personal agenda

    Idumuje- Ugboko crisis: Genesis, mindless terrorism and dangerous move to drag IUDU into a personal agenda

    Zik Zulu Okafor

    If you know Hon. Prince Ned Nwoko, then one of the first things you are likely to notice is that he is incredibly calm and extremely meticulous.

    Like the Lawyer that he is, he puts practically every thought, every intention on the scale of law before he makes a decision.  And he is never in a hurry when he wants to subject anything he is doing to due process.

    The quest to acquire land for his STARS University and a Golf Course called for these idiosyncrasies to come aglow. And indeed they came handy.

    And so one of the very first persons that he called on phone to inform of  his plan for a proposed university to be sited on the rustic hills of Idumuje-Ugboko was his cousin, Prince Chukwunonso Justin Nwoko  the first son of the king.

    Nonso, as he is called, gave his unreserved approval and blessing. He even went further to advise Ned to visit the Owu farmers who then were cultivating the area mapped out by the village for developmental projects such as the university.

    Ned obeyed his cousin described as very unpredictable. But Ned would embark on detailed consultations before he finally commenced the quest to acquire the land. He is a man of uncommon patience, a lawyer by birth and by inclination. So, he took on the rigorous,  long but absolutely legitimate and reassuring process.

    After the approval of the project by the entire community, Honourable Prince Ned met with the farmers farming on the land in groups, then interacted individually with them.

    Having monetized their farms,  he paid each farmer a compensation not only enough to resettle elsewhere but to be able to comfortably continue his calling.

    But one old man would not accept the monetary offer. ” You can have my own land free of charge”, the old man said. ” Let it be my little  contribution to your school. You are bringing a good thing to our land. May your university bring us glory. May it offer opportunities to our children to get good education at affordable cost. I heard you paid school fees  for some poor children in this our  neglected village to go to school. God is not sleeping. He will reward you,” he concluded, his voice laden with emotion.

    Ned would later pay a visit to this old man, whose words to him were an emblem of honour and inspiration. Moved by the kind of house the old man lived, he built a brand new house for him. He would relate all these experiences to his dear cousin, Nonso, a man he refers to always as  his good cousin.  “It was not surprising that he used to call him his good cousin.  They were indeed good and sweet cousins,” a man named Michael Chukwuka enthused.

    “Ned loved Nonso and I thought Nonso loved him too because  he benefitted immensely from Ned’s large heart. It is sad that he is opposing Ned everywhere now because he is being misled by some few misguided people in this village. People like Dr Gabriel Ogbechie who can’t even sleep in their  houses in Ugboko because of their sins. I dont know how he became a Doctor that he now calls himself.  He has only a first degree. I read what he wrote in Vanguard, presenting himself as the saint of Idumuje-Ugboko. I was so angry and wished I could see him face to face to tell him he is a liar. I will tell him to go to that good man called Ned and apologise for his sins. But God will pay all of them one by one.

    He knows deep inside his heart that he owes Prince Ned an apology.  Some day, he will go to his house, confess his sins and tender an unreserved apology to him because he would have realised that he ganged up against an innocent man,” he said with a sardonic smile.

    “How could Nonso be the one fighting his brother over land that his late father and the entire village approved before he, Nonso, started fighting to be recognized as king,” Michael quipped.

    Indeed Princes Nonso and Ned are of the Royal Nwoko family of Idumuje-Ugboko,  a serene picturesque village in Aniocha North Local Government Area of Delta state.

    That a chasm seems to exist between them today provokes painful questions. How is it that the very  cousin he first mooted his plan to build a university is now fiercely opposed to the plan and demanding some conditions under which he could give approval. Knowing that the acquisition of the land for this tertiary institution passed through a meticulous, rigorous due process before it was approved and there are documents to buttress this assertion,  one cannot but wonder what Prince Nonso’s grouse really is.

    A close confidant of Prince Nonso,  in the palace stated that ” Prince Nonso’s problem with Ned started the very day Ned went to the Iyese, the traditional Prime Minister of our village and other high ranking chiefs to tell them about his plan to build a university.

    Nonso was so angry that he marched to our eldest uncle to speak with him. Our uncle however told him that “Ned was trying to follow our traditional way of doing it . That this tradition is over 100 years  and   it was the right thing to do. That made Nonso even more angry and he stormed out of the house saying our uncle was talking nonsense .  You can imagine. I know very well that he expected Ned to leave him to handle the entire process.  That way he could do some business because he wasn’t really earning money at that time and I say this with a lot of respect and without any attempt at all to ridicule  him. It is the obvious truth. But today I can tell you I see  blackmail somewhere,” he stated.

    Prince Nonso vowed there and  then that Ned would not build that university while he , Nonso, lives, the source revealed.

    Based on documents available to this writer, there is no doubting the hard fact that Prince Ned took pain to ensure due process.  Not only did the King Albert Nwoko III, his Council and the four federating villages’

    representatives give approval,  the kingdom’s very sophisticated development union, Idumuje-Ugboko Development Union,  IUDU, also gave its nod after a strenuous interrogation of Ned on his proposed project.

    Indeed, the union in a letter dated November 23, 2015,  directed to the Executive Chairman,  Aniocha North Local Government Area, and signed by the President General, Bennet Odor, Engr Emma Okoh, the Secretary-General and Barr J.O Nwoye, Legal Adviser, the IUDU urged the  Chairman to give Ned every support.

    In their words, ” The National Executive Committee of the Idumuje-Ugboko Development Union is strongly in support of the university project as it will bring unfathomable development to our town, our Local Government Area and the state at large. It is on this premise that we humbly urge the local government council to give all the assistance that may be necessary for the actualisation and smooth take off of the project.”

    At the time of writing this letter, the land for the educational project had been allocated , the king was alive and  Prince Nonso had no record of any severe illness at this time  for one to assume he was unaware of this cardinal development. Indeed, he was visibly present at the IUDU historic meeting. With no bickering  or dissent of any hue to the project, the Council Chairman issued to Linas International Ltd and Prince Ned Nwoko a Certificate of Customary Right of Occupancy  on February 16, 2016 and July 20, 2016.

    It is against this background that this writer was quite staggered by the publication in  Vanguard on May 21, 2020 by an otherwise respected businessman and a scion  of Idumuje-Ugboko, Dr Gabriel Ogbechie. In the article titled ” The Quest for Peace in Idumuje-Ugboko: My Perspectives “, the articulate business magnate made assertions that quietly provoke embarassing questions.

    To be clear, the tone of his long epistle was peaceful in crystal terms. However, the palpable  critical issues he glossed over or treated with levity and the underlying essential themes he totally ignored made his breezy, seemingly matter-of-fact  piece sadly jaundiced and provocative. And to so explicitly present Prince Ned as the  antagonist and the  obstruction to the amicable resolution of the crisis in their homey village without a single documented evidence to buttress it, is not only acutely unfair, it sadly represents a worrisome example of a gall, a distorted and soured judgement in a blood fued and such piece as his,  could easily accentuate enmity. In concise terms,  Dr Ogbechie didn’t write like an impartial arbiter that he seems set out to be, despite his appeal for peace without recourse to justice . Indeed he seems to have passed his judgement and ‘convicted’ Ned long before he decided to write.

    Let us take some little parts of his perspectives in his hypothesis, to illuminate this subtle biases and mute indifference to salient sub-plots in this sizzling fued of the royalty in Idumuje-Ugboko.

    In one breath he said without any equivocation, ” I am in full support of the quest by my brother and friend,  Hon. Ned Nwoko, to build a University in Idumuje-Ugboko. I have always supported this project since he first mooted the idea to me”.

    Dr Ogbechie in another breath also asserted,  ” I am fully in support of our king, the Obi of  Idumuje-Ugboko,  His Royal Highness,  Obi Chukwunomso(sic ) Nwoko getting his Staff of Office. The issue at stake is when he shall receive his Staff of office and NOT who shall be the king”, he stated without any ambivalence.

    Linking his support for Princes Nonso and Ned, he  stated that both interests can and should co-exist. Hon. Ned Nwoko should build his University and HRH, Obi Chukwunomso Nwoko should get his Staff of Office. Advocating for the king to get his Staff of Office does not mean opposition to the construction of the University and vice-versa….”.

    The irony here is that Prince Ned has never really interfered in the kingship contest in Idumuje-Ugboko . His only issue with his cousin,  Nonso, is Nonso’s endless quests to deprive him of the land that was legitimately allotted to him after due process by the entire people of Idumuje-Ugboko for the building of his university and golf course. So, it is clear that there is a deliberate mischief in trying to link the land for the university and the kingship tussle.

    DR OGBECHIE’s CURIOUS OMISSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS THAT CLOG THE WHEEL OF JUSTICE

    While Dr Ogbechie affirmed that he fully supports both the University and the Obi getting his Staff of Office, he failed to tell his readers that it was the crisis in Ugboko was nursed , nurtured and triggered by Nonso and ghoulish sponsors that have blinded him from seeing the futility of his fight with his own blood.  This is so because despite the rigorous approval process Prince Ned underwent,  his cousin ,Nonso  woke up one morning and distributed some  strange letters all over the town, churches and markets.  The letter dated August 12, 2015 and purportedly written and signed by  Obi Albert Nwoko III repudiated the approval given to Ned , claiming he did not sign any document to that effect.

    It took an audacious Prince Walters Eziashi, a former  President-General of IUDU 2OO8-2012,  to petition the police  demanding  an investigation into the veracity of the letter. The police eventually discovered that the signature on the letter was forged. Princes Nonso, Richard Obiajulu Nwoko and Ejimofor Nwoko among others indicted in the petition were charged before the  Chief Magistrate Court 1, Asaba in a Suit No. SMC420C/2016.

    Is Dr Ogbechie aware of this development ? This question becomes necessary because he presented Nonso as one peaceful figure just quietly waiting for his staff of office and Ned the only obstacle. But Dr Ogbechie is a prominent son of Idumuje-Ugboko and one involved in the peace process even if clearly biased . So, how could such a serious legal misadventure by Nonso and his ilk  pass without his knowledge.  One can almost bet that there is nothing that happens at Ugboko that Dr Ogbechie doesn’t hear minutes later, not hours.

    And one is almost sure that Prince Nonso and Mbanefo Nwoko,  his brother must as a duty to a staunch supporter and alleged foremost financier call him to brief him on all major developments. And even seek  his advice about their legal quests which he would probably finance as he demonstrated in the presence of Ned. And of course he couldn’t call the Honourable Prince Ned in all of Prince Nonso’s attempts to stop his plan to build the University. One can only guess that it is simply because Dr Ogbechie had made up his mind who to stand with. Whether justice suffers or not by that decision didn’t  matter. Would Prince Nonso have continued his serial judicial misadventures if Dr Ogbechie had asked him to stop.

    Yet , Ned has never dragged Nonso his cousin to any court despite threats against his person and his property in Idumuje-Ugboko. He remains calm despite frivolous petitions by Nonso and Mbanefo his brother and others to the police against him for which he has consistently gone to see the police and left to return home because he remains undoubtedly innocent. He seems completely unmoved by their theatrics because he is infinitely assured that reason and truth will ultimately prevail.

    But Nonso was not done with his steely determination to stop the University.  His next move ?

    He dragged the Aniocha North Local Government Council,  Ned and Linas International Ltd to court in a Suit No. HCI/2/2016 claiming the process of the land allocation was false . The case which started in 2016 ended on June 18,2019 at the Agbor High Court. The judge ruled in favour of the defendants, Ned and Linas International Ltd and awarded costs against Nonso and his cohorts.

    Prince Chukwunonso Justin Nwoko continued with his tenacious quest to derail a noble cause. This time he made Samson Osakwe the spear head. Osakwe would file a suit at the Issele-Uku High Court, Delta state , once again, against Ned claiming that the defendant encroached into  his land and damaged his property and therefore seeking an order of the court restraining him from carrying out any activity on the land.

    However, after pre-hearing on Friday, February 10, 2017, the Claimant , seeing the handwriting on the wall, abandoned the case and disappeared.  The Judge consequently struck out the case on April 26, 2018.

    The stark failures of Nonso’s judicial adventures is  a testament to the granite-cast integrity of the process that approved the land for Honourable Prince Ned’s University and Golf Course projects. It also casts a huge shadow of doubt on the sincerity of Dr Ogbechie’s suggestion for Ned to abandon the land approved by the entire people of Idumuje-Ugboko kingdom for the one decreed by a controversial Prince Nonso who without a Staff of is not a bonafide king. With all the court cases that Nonso has dragged his cousin into, you just wonder why a man of Ogbechie’s stature in Idumuje-Ugboko could not come out to say ” enough, we need to resolve this issue once and for all”. So, it is safe to conclude that it is either a clear case of hidden complicity.  In other words, he was probably waiting to hear that Prince Ned lost one of those cases and then pop some Champagne to celebrate a seemingly tenacious Prince Nonso’s victory . Unfortunately it has turned out thus far a disastrous misadventure.

    So, you are tempted to quietly ask , “with what conscience was Dr Ogbechie writing in Vanguard”. It is almost easy to conclude, albeit sadly that the gentle business icon, a distinguished and accomplished son of Idumuje-Ugboko failed tragically to give himself an eminent place in history as far as the Ugboko crisis is the issue.

    There has been a lot of rumour that Nonso promised to make him the Iyese once he received his Staff of Office. Could this be the reason for  Dr Ogbechie’s unbridled drive and investment to actualise this Staff of Office project ? Is it worth a blemish that history may never erase?

    However, as Prince Nonso continues to lose every case in court, he got more and more desperate and perhaps more resolute to be the king of Idumuje-Ugboko by all means necessary and ultimately to stop his cousin, the very Honourable  Prince Ned . He was clearly being prodded by unseen forces. And it had become crystal clear that with continuous failure in court, diminishing followership and growing and overwhelming  support for the University project, Nonso was most likely to resort to self help. The unprecedented terror that engulfed Idumuje-Ugboko between May 18-25, 2017, is  allegedly Prince Nonso’s  last but unfortunate card.

    A week of mindless terrorism in Idumuje- Ugboko

    If you visit Idumuje-Ugboko today, there is a loud cry that you hear from every corner of the village. It is a cry of anguish, of deep injury and harrowing pain.

    Their last hope they all say is to get justice in court and let the  demented and diabolical terrorists pay for the mayhem they committed in  Idumuje-Ugboko their once cool and cloudless community.

    The horror, the cause of these groaning voices was the naked and crude terrorism, a bloody havoc wreaked on Idumuje-Ugboko from the night of May 18 to 25, 2017, one week of unprecedented terror and horror.

    The terrorists mostly youthful thugs hired from perhaps nowhere but hell invaded Idumuje-Ugboko in the darkest hours of the night . Fully armed with guns, fear-inspiring matchets and dangerous weapons,  they first matched to the head of the vigilante group in the village, a man named Peter Bama, an otherwise well  respected man.

    In a subdued tone he confessed,  “let me thank God that I am alive today. I didn’t give myself a chance because they wanted to beat me to death. The only thing they didn’t  do was shoot me. But they stripped me naked, beat me black and blue and dragged me on the ground from one end of the village to another still beating me. I was treated like a slave,” he said, anguish written all over his face.

    Continuing his solemn narration he added, “I was drenched in my own blood .Then they asked me to take them to members of my vigilante group. And at every home we stopped, they beat, matchet my members and destroyed  their houses, setting some ablaze.  And what was our sin? We refused to support Prince Nonso and his brother,  Mbanefo’s gang   to take the land that the whole village gave to Prince Ned to build his University. Our vigilante group told them that we would not do a thing that would make our ancestors to bring atrocities on us. That is all my brother, ” he lamented.

    But Bama is a lucky man. Kennedy Nedu Illoh was not so lucky. His end was tragic. Nedu as he was fondly called was a principled man of uncommon character and bouncy spirit. He was the efficient and highly respected Secretary of the Land Allocation Committee and Chairman of the IUDU Task Force.

    He stood his ground, demonstrated a  courageous stance against what he called a satanic move to take the land duly allocated  to Prince Ned Nwoko.

    He knew what transpired before he got the land and would not mortgage his conscience for anything.

    The terrorists allegedly met him at home and unleashed their worst terror on him. He screamed and screamed that he only stood for truth and justice.  But that couldn’t save him.

    He was then abducted and allegedly dumped at the palace where he was further battered and humiliated in the presence of Prince Nonso  before he was released. He arrived his house and allegedly lapsed into coma. ” He eventually came round” , said a close source to his family.  “But the injuries inflicted on him were fatal,” said the source.

    He couldn’t recover from the barbarous attack. Nedu, the emblem of principle and integrity,  an Idumuje-Ugboko rare patriot  died from the fatal injuries inflicted on him by the marauding terrorists.

    Chief Chris Ogwu is another towering figure in Idumuje-Ugboko.  He is the Iyese, the Traditional Prime Minister,  next only to the king in trado ranking. He is reverred and adored. But not by these blood thirsty terrorists.

    Narrating his horror to this writer he said, ,” I was sitting in front of my house reading a newspaper when I heard sounds of clashing metals.  I raised my face and believe me I saw over 30 dreadful looking young people coming towards me menacingly.

    It was like death walking towards you. Before getting to me some of them descended on my cars, smashed and vandalised them. Then the rest attacked me violently. I was helpless. They had guns and matchets and other dangerous weapons. I was totally vulnerable.

    As they were attacking me, another older  group of about 15 to 20 men came. I thought they had come to rescue me but they only joined and intensified the brutality against me. Then they smashed the windows, doors of my house , ransacked everywhere,  took money and valuable items. As if that was not enough,  they frog matched me to the palace, dragging me on the ground.  It was right in front of the palace that they unleashed their worst fury while I lay flat on the ground as if to please our late king’s son, Prince Chukwunonso.  He took joy in seeing me tortured by children. I wept like a child. It was the worst humiliation and horror I’ve ever experienced in my whole life”, he lamented.

    The terrorists did not spare the Odogwu either. He is the Chief next in ranking to the Iyese. His name is Chief Sunday Edemodu. The dare devil terrorists besieged his house at night, looted his valuables  and unleashed on him a barbarous violence.

    His blood cascaded on the floor like a stormy rain as they used dangerous weapons against him with an alarming fury. Even when he was fainting they continued their monstrous quest for his tragic end. He couldn’t comprehend the intensity of their savagery. They left him thinking he was dead. But  Chief Edemodu  survived the debilitating terror attack. However they had done their worst.

    Today, their satanic, terrorist adventure to his house and the cruel barbarism have left him partially disabled as he battles severe health complications triggered by the brutish violence he suffered. Doctors allegedly have told him that his life may never be the same again. No thanks to the demented terrorists.

    There was the innocent Okada boy, a motor bike rider. Cyprian Kumiolu, a native of Bunue state had innocently dropped a passenger in Idumuje-Ugboko. Now returning  home he rode his bike past the front of the palace not suspecting anything.

    But passing by the palace turned out his only crime. And pronto  , a gun roared. It was from one of the satanic thugs now ever present at the palace and the surroundings.  And in fleeting seconds the young Cyprian, a hapless little boy was down in a pool of his own blood . Cold . Dequiet obnear the scene recalled how the hoodlums  rushed to Cyprian’s lifeless body and hurriedly used a wheelbarrow to carter it away from the front of the palace and till today his body has not been found.

    But there are lingering rumours that both his body and his motorcycle were burnt the same night he was brutally murdered so that the palace could erase any iota of evidence. And indeed in his perspectives of the crisis, a cultivated Dr Ogbechie, a most civilised gentleman sadly painted Cyprian’s death almost as a figment of the imagination.  Being a staunch Palace supporter and backbone,  his dismissal of the tragic and gruesome episode unwittingly lent credence to the rumours.

    At a recent  meeting  of the Obi of Owa Peace Committee at the palace of the Obi of Idumuje-Unor, the father of the brutally murdered Okada boy appeared . He was a charred remains of what used to be a robust man.

    The meeting was both a Fact- Finding and Meet-the Victims rendezvous.  Cyprian’s dad did not come to avenge his son’s death. He came to appeal to the royal fathers to help him beg the people of Idumuje-Ugboko  to release the corpse of his son so that he could give him a decent burial if only so that his spirit may find peace. Sadly till today, his hopes remain wishful thinking.

    With no resistance to the brigandage and wanton destruction,  the hoodlums went haywire visiting destruction on every house rumoured to be supporting Ned Nwoko’s quest to retain his land for his University project.  Young girls, ladies and mothers were allegedly not spared. Many of them reportedly dragged to the palace for Prince Nonso’s morbid satisfaction.

    All the victims of this one week of  mayhem were bound by one simple fact according to their testimonies–they refused to support Prince Nonso’sdesperation to stop hiscousin from building a University thatwould bring massiveinfrastructural developmentand  economic boom to Idumuje-Ugboko.

    By the time the investigatingpolice team, Nigerian Human RightsCommission, Human RightsWriters Association, HURIWA, and somother civil society organisations visited Ugboko, about 29 houses in that hamlet had been ravaged, torched and destroyed.  The impact was devastating.

    And that is why the victims are groaning today for the vengeance of the law and they seem unbending in their determination to get justice as some of the alleged terrorists and their sponsors are now in the dreaded theatre of  law, the court to give an account of their mortal roles.

    A lawyer of international repute, Dr Harry Ifediba, qualified the violence that scarred the soul of the village.

    Hear him: “The 2017 Ugboko terrorism was  an act of hate and wickedness,   what is required now is real leadership and it could only be achieved by addressing justice.

    Those in support of retrogression, hate and sadism celebrated the unspeakable display of terror unleashed on innocent indigenes. The barbarians used the most ominous weapons against the victims.

    What happened is reminiscent of The Beslan school siege also referred to as the Beslan school hostage crisis or Beslan massacre which started  and lasted for  three days. It involved the illegal imprisonment of over 1,100 people as hostages including 777 children, and ended with the death of 333 people including 186 children.

    The scale of arson and death may be widely different in comparison to the Idumuje-Ugboko terrorists’ real life gory theatre. But the two horrendous incidents  have something in common.  And that is that the perpetrators were sent by someone who is intoxicated by power, hate and sadism,” he narrated.

    He added “Unimaginable violence was deployed against members of the Idumuje-Ugboko community, particularly directed at those who supported the university project by Prince Ned Nwoko.

    The indigenes of Idumuje Ugboko experienced a sustained violent attacks and rage.

    Vicious and ominous weapons were wielded by the hate motivated sadistic hoodlums.

    The violence was sponsored by those who wanted to stymie the proposed University project through the terrorism attack.

    They believed the violent attack was their best chance of either derailing or styming the development and prosperity the university would bring to the community and other communities around the area and they didn’t want Prince Ned to take such credit. There was a tinge of vicious envy, monstrous and destructive ego at play”, he added.

    ” Without fear of contradiction, it is obvious that the atrocious attack was professionally organized for a particular mission, life changing injuries were inflicted on individuals, their houses were burnt, their properties were destroyed, ” . Concluding,  he stated rather  tersely,

    “The culprits of these heinous savagery and terror unleashed on women, children and innocent people in Idumuje Ugboko will have to face the music “.

    Despite all these acts of terror, Prince Ned Nwoko stands for peace but will always pray for justice to take the lead. He is ever open to all quests for amicable resolution of Idumuje-Ugboko disputes even when he had been betrayed in the past.

    But he will always add that in the process of achieving the peace, let no one suffer injustice.

    A dangerous move to drag IUDU into a personal agenda

    As a Nigeria Media Merit Award winning journalist,  the News Magazine Journalist of the Year 1992 and Crime Reporter of the Year 1992 Nominee, I have traversed the Nigerian state. I have investigated series of kingship tussles, chieftaincy title wars and fratricidal battles  of the royalty dimension like the current Idumuje-Ugboko impasse.

    In Anambra state for example, I saw bloody battles. Retired Judges, business magnates murdered , wives and husbands stabbed over 20 times each on the stomach in the eerie hours of the night, mortal attacks that erased some families.

    I was at the hilly bucolic town called Ukpor, the headquarters of Nnewi South Local Government Area in Anambra. From here hails Nigerians like Mbazulike Amechi, Nigeria’s first Minister of Information, late Senate President, writer and educationist,  Nwafor Orizu and a former Minister of Education , Obi Ezekwesili.

    I had been appointed in 1991 to investigate the kingship crises in the South East during the Ibrahim Babangida administration when government mandated the various communities and kingdoms to choose their kings.

    In Ukpor, the tussle was between two billionaires, Chief Joe Obi and Chief Ngozi Anapusim.

    For what would eventually last ten years, these two economic giants fought their royal battle with a grim rivalry. The smell of a grave bloody war was thick.  But unlike many other kingdoms in Anambra state, in spite of the ferocity of the animus and ill will, nobody was physically attacked.  And none was killed.

    The only reason for this sanity was the role played by Ukpor Improvement Union, UIU, which as a collective chose to stand on a moral high ground as an  impartial arbiter despite the personal biases of some of its members.

    Both Obi and Anapusim eventually passed on with none able to wear the crown.

    But in several local government areas, small communities, inordinate ambition and rapacious thirst for power overwhelmed the force of reason.  I witnessed court sessions, trials following cases of brutal murders, sponsoring of arson, mayhem and all that. And I saw young men sentenced to 10 years, 15 years in prison and three sentenced to death. Their sponsors were not spared. Some were jailed 15 years and some life-in-prison.

    It was both a chilling and a sobering experience.

    The reason for this impunity that drastically changed the cause of their lives for the worst was failure of dialogue and miscarriage of justice at the traditional level. It was a deadly failure to see the grim picture of the flip side of peace.

    The reason for my rather long tale here is the dreadful dimension that the Idumuje-Ugboko crisis is taking . Worse still the dangerous path, perhaps unknowingly, that IUDU is treading. I am in possession of a letter dated June 1, 2020  signed  by one Okey Ifejoku as President-General and Azuka Mukolu who is the Secretary-General.

    I have also sighted the contributions being made by various IUDU branches in different states. They have raised  a total sum of N13,900,000 with N20million their target . The purpose they wrote was to use this huge sum of money to hire a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, to defend those arrested on terrorism charges and now facing prosecution in Abuja.

    This writer is sincerely and deeply worried that a town union that should be the  irrepressible voice of justice and a generalissimo in the vanguard for peace has  adorned the garb of an antagonist to appropriate justice. There is no question that IUDU needs to embark on a journey of rare introspection.

    And the first and clear question the IUDU should ask itself and answer is whether Prince Ned Nwoko took all of them as a union  to court. If the candid answer is no, that means the International Lawyer probably took one of them to court or in their opinion is supporting someone that took a member of the union to court. And that is the iron-cast truth no matter the colouration anyone chose to give it.

    Another question then is, should the right move for a town union be to support one against the other, no matter how wrong one may be ? Why is it a town union ? A solid native union like the case of Ukpor must be an oasis of peace, oozing acoustics of hope even in the darkest moments,  no matter how dour the conflicts . It must consistently and strenuously mediate until a lasting peace is found.

    Contributing funds to defend one member or members against others is a crass and fatal failure of leadership.  And this indeed provokes critical questions. How does IUDU know that its President-General , Okey Ifejoku doesn’t have a personal agenda using IUDU as a carapace ? Has the IUDU investigated the rumour that Ifejoku is tenacious in the fight for Prince Nonso because he, Prince Nonso, has also promised to make him the Odogwu just as he was alleged to reserve the Iyese title and regalia for Dr Ogbechie.

    If in court tomorrow  a different drama plays out and Ifejoku and the other suspects are convicted of terrorism charges,  does it occur to IUDU that in an extreme situation,  anyone of them could easily be singled out for funding, aiding and abetting terrorism?

    Prince Ned has stated repeatedly that he is not fighting and cannot fight IUDU. So, how is it that the brotherly group could not mask its biases and what many termed vicious malice, to bend backwards for the peace of their village.  Today, Prince Nonso lives like a hermit because he is a fugitive whether IUDU glosses over this or not . The law ultimately will come for him and that is when the stark reality of the looming  legal catastrophe will dawn on everyone.

    The hard truth is that the price of peace is so cheap yet not many can afford it.

    The IUDU based on the experience of this writer is travelling a famished road littered with starvation and volcanic eruption. What will be the cost of peace ? Just a lowering of bloated egos.

    That’s all. But if this case is allowed to continue and any of those suspects is pronounced guilty tomorrow, it will be a major sun set for Idumuje-Ugboko.  It will be for the suspect a long walk through an abysmal wilderness. Even if IUDU raises N10billion it will be of no effect. And their lives will never, ever be the same again. And IUDU would have succeeded in digging the deepest gulf of enmity between families,  a gulf too deep to be filled again.

    So you ask, what development will IUDU subsequently bring to a bitter, divided community ?  What village has won genuine peace between brothers in a  court of  law.

    Time ticks truly for IUDU. It must seize the urgency of now to rethink and reconstruct its strategy before it is too late.

  • Rising cases of rape in Nigeria

    Rising cases of rape in Nigeria

    By Alao Abiodun

    The recent cases of rape in Nigeria is just a harsh reminder of the reality that nowhere is safe in the country; not even our religious spaces, and this is quite saddening and terrifying.

    Vera Uwaila Omozuwa was raped and murdered in the church. Barakat Bello got raped and murdered in her house. Jennifer also suffered the same unfortunate fate, and there are many more cases.

    Most rape incidents go unreported in Nigeria because of stigmatisation and the fact that the wheel of justice turns slowly.

    Also, in Nigeria, we don’t like to talk about rape issues, and when we do, it is done in whispers, and in private clusters. Every day, news outlets, churn out contents that chronicle this gruesome act on hapless and vulnerable victims.

    It is heart-breaking to know that children and even adults live with such terror. Some others do not even live to tell the sad tales because they were murdered. We need to understand that rape causes a lot of damage to women.

    The criminal and penal codes of 1990 are the laws guiding rape justice in Nigeria. The code is deficient in many ways.

    Read Also: Urchins gang-rape 17-year-old hawker in market

    There is need to beam the searchlight on some of the grey areas in the provision of the laws, loopholes in implementation and excesses of implementing agencies.

    Sadly, good number of perpetrators of rape move about freely on the streets after committing the heinous act due to poor investigation and inherent defects in the criminal justice system.

    Ignoring the issue will teach the younger generation that they can get away with such crimes. Victims should learn to speak up, as in so doing, the crime can be tackled.

    While the discussions on rape is such a delicate issue, there are so many slippery paths for the accusers, the accused, and including the commentators. It seems like a daunting task to unravel the causes of rape because we have men who are sexually demented.

    In Nigeria today, despite the laws, we have low convictions for crimes against women; a criminal who understands that the punishment for a particular offence is harsh will commit the crime only if he finds that there has been a poor rate of convictions for the crime.

    It is time for us as a nation to stand up against the crime. We need to do something about it now. Beyond the conversations, we need a highly deterrent law to curtail the act of rape; if not, it would continue and become a culture. Most importantly, we need to educate the male folks and increase the awareness against rape.

    • Alao Abiodun, Alaojoshua200@gmail.com
  • George Floyd’s death and racism in U.S.

    George Floyd’s death and racism in U.S.

    Felix Oladeji

     

    Sir: The United States, a once inspirational and desirable country, is now visible in its nakedness. The police of the world, exporter of democracy and imposer of human rights, is exposed.

    The immaculately manicured, intricately choreographed and elaborately deodorised image has been exposed as a façade.

    Racial and ethnic inequalities loom large in American society. People of colour face structural barriers when it comes to securing quality housing, healthcare, employment, and education.

    Racial disparities also permeate the criminal justice system in the United States and undermine its effectiveness.

    You have all seen the video by now. The assassination of George Floyd was televised. With his left hand in his pocket, the embodiment of evil and the fullest expression of inhumanity, who shall remain nameless, snuffed life out of a fellow human being.

    George Floyd begged for his life. He repeatedly stated, “I can’t breathe.” He called out for his mother. He was 46 years old. He joins a long lineage of African-American men and women murdered in cold blood by police officers.

    The toil and blood of enslaved Africans built critical elements of the United States. Their blood continues to flow on the streets.

    Some were killed in their own homes in fatal mistaken identities and policing thuggery. Mainstream American society, until now, has shown little concern about these.

    Soon, the U.S. Department of State will produce the 2020 annual country reports on human rights practices. However, physician, heal thyself. Lift up yourself from the cesspool of racism.

    From the U.K. to France, many people around the world are sickened and disgusted by the assassination of George Floyd and other senseless killings in the U.S. Governments of sub-Saharan African states have been too internally troubled, rudderless and powerless to attempt any serious diplomatic intervention in the constellation of killings of people of African origins. We sold their ancestors into slavery.

    The underdevelopment of our continent continues to cheapen their lives. African-Americans are regularly told, “go back to Africa if you don’t like it here”. The statement is generally meant and apprehended as an insult.

    Read Also: George Floyd death: Trump threatens to send in army to end unrest

     

    The video of Floyd’s death is horrific but not surprising; terrible but not unusual, depicting a kind of incident that is periodically reenacted in the United States. It’s both necessary and, at this point, pedestrian to observe that policing in this country is mediated by race.

    The investigation into Floyd’s death also exists in the context of an ongoing investigation into the death of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old African-American who was shot in southeast Georgia when two men attempted to enact a citizen’s arrest while a third recorded a video of the incident.

    There is yet another investigation of fatal police force in Louisville, Kentucky, where Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old African-American was shot to death in her apartment by officers who were conducting a drug raid at what her family said was the wrong address.

    There is more to be said about the burgeoning genre of videos capturing the deaths of black Americans, and the complex combination of revulsion and compulsion that accompanies their viewing.

    They are the macabre documentary of current events, but the question remains about whether they do more to humanize or to objectify the unwilling figures at the centre of their narratives.

    Death is too intimate a phenomenon to not be distorted by a mass audience. Yesterday, very few of us knew who George Floyd was, what he cared about, how he lived his life. Today, we know him no better save for the grim way in which that life met its end.

    However, the U.S government need policymakers and politicians that will reflect basic fairness to all of their citizens equally.

    Not leaders that stoke hatred and violence as if the idea of shooting looters could ever be anything less than a racial dog whistle.

     

    • Felix Oladeji, Lagos.
  • Re: Kano’s abandoned palliatives

    Re: Kano’s abandoned palliatives

    Muhammed Garba

     

    Sir: I read with a feeling of shock, a piece published in The Nation newspaper on page three of May 31 edition written by Tunji Adegboyega.

    The piece, attempted to give a debauched impression and credibility to a report alleging that a lot of food items sent to Kano state by the federal government as palliatives were left in an open space on the premises of the warehouse of Kano State Agricultural Supply Company (KASCO) to rot away.

    To say that food materials, which are grains, carefully stored for the welfare of the people are already rotten just a few days of their being received from the federal government speaks volume of this writer’s basic instinct.

    What his piece indicates that he doesn’t know Kano; a cosmopolitan city of nearly 20 million people. When one intends to undertake sharing of items, you have to work out the logistics for the exercise which the writer is faulting as ‘’nebulous concepts usually used in government parlance to cover up for incompetence or inefficiency.’’

    Where was writer when the first phase of the state-procured palliative was shared to about 50,000 households in the 484 political wards in the 44 local governments in the state? Of course, the same experience is being brought to bear on that assignment which is ongoing.

    If the previous exercise by the state government had failed, it would have been in the media. Ask around, Kano enjoys the freest environment for the expression of opinion in the media.

    For the avoidance of any iota of doubt, Prof. Muhammad Yahuza Bello, whom the governor assigned the responsibility of chairing the COVID-19 Fundraising Committee, together with other members, are doing their best to carry out this onerous task and there has been effective communication between the state and the federal government, which even informed the committee’s decision to take proper care of the palliatives sent.

    Maybe Adegboyega is not aware that KASCO has been producing and keeping hundreds of thousands of tonnes of its products within the same premises of the warehouse at Farm Centre.

    No one has ever complained or made a report on the state-owned company’s abandonment of its stock in the rain or under a scorching sun. But here, politics is involved and the media is out there to reap something out of it.

    While attempting to cast aspersion on the ability of Governor Abdullahi Ganduje to sail the state through the prevailing scourge of COVID-19, the writer equally brings forward his lack of knowledge on what is going on in Kano.

    Even before Kano recorded its first index case, the Ganduje administration has been taking proactive measures to tackle the problem.

    First, the government mapped out three-point agenda for fighting the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic which are Preventive, Curative and Palliative, all of which are being pursued with vigour.

    After the official index case appeared, the measures translate to setting up of a State Taskforce on COVID-19, Fund Raising Committee for Palliatives (which involved the distribution of palliatives to 50,000 households of poorest of the poor across the 44 Local Government Areas of the state), provision of isolation centres to  Kwanar Dawaki Isolation Centre for patients with critical condition, such as those in need of ventilators; Mohammad Buhari Specialist Hospital Giginyu, Abubakar Imam Urology Centre set up by the state government in collaboration with Aliko Dangote Foundation and the isolation centre at Daula Hotel.

    Isolation centers that are currently being constructed are 231-bed Sani Abacha Stadium Isolation Centre, 200-bed capacity at Karfi Sports Institute Isolation Centre and Tofa Cottage Hospital Isolation Centre) and community mobilization through the media to challenge attitudinal and behavioural changes that need to be overcome in the fight against the novel coronavirus.

    For obvious reasons, Lagos has more isolation centres than Kano but it has nothing to do with the number of deaths recorded which were yet to be confirmed whether the death had to do with coronavirus or not.

    And while Lagos still remains the epicentre of the dreaded disease, Kano is second to Lagos in terms of effort to combat the contagion.

    By the content of his fabricated write-up, Adegboyega is subtly advocating civil unrest in Kano by indirectly calling on hungry people, as it happens in some other climes, to take to streets protests.

    I believe it has never been part of a journalists’ responsibility to either take side or instigate a revolt.

    But unfortunately for him, the people of Kano know their rights and the way to fight for it. Violence has never been their choice.

     

    • Muhammed Garba, Commissioner for Information, Kano State. 

     

  • Towards eradication of idle land in Lagos

    Towards eradication of idle land in Lagos

    Abiodun Akinyemi

     

    BEFORE the global insecurity fostered by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has redirected people’s work habits, curtailed working hours, and redefined social relations, there was this matter, which needs the attention of the Lagos State government and all good people in the land.

    It should rank uppermost in their hearts once we tide over the Covid-19 challenge. It has to do with another form of insecurity, which the underutilization of land has been breeding in Lagos with potentially dangerous consequences for all. Across all the 52 local government areas in Lagos, parcels of fallow land dot everywhere, overlooked by government, courted by speculators, and utilized occasionally by some persons with less than noble intentions for the state.

    Some are bare land begging to be cultivated for food for internal consumption and external trade. Some are subjects of disputes by landowning families who are yet to resolve their internal contradictions. Some are in prime locations, awaiting the right time to sell them at attractive prices. Some are forgotten bequeaths. Some previously hosted properties which have been pulled down for grander projects that remain in the realm of imagination. What is common to them all is that they remain underutilized in a place that has a limited land area of 3, 577 square kilometres with a burgeoning population of 24.5 million people that need to be deployed optimally for accelerated growth.

    Land should not remain fallow in a state that requires urban regeneration to ensure the environment is fit for human habitation and rejuvenation. To leave these lands fallow will only foster insecurity in several facets of life. When lands are idle, there is a shortage of food production. Where the people cannot feed themselves, they become dependent on external forces with embarrassing consequences to their self-worth; they also squander needed capital for internal development on buying food from external sources. When the lands are idle for a prolonged time, they will eventually fall into wrong hands, thereby causing speculation and corruption in the use of land, and gravely distorting economic projections.  I invite us to look at land as money. When you leave money idle in banks, it is under-traded; it does not work for the owner to its optimal capacity. But when it is put to productive ventures such as manufacturing, farming, or trading, it brings multiple blessings to the land such as boosting employment, stimulating other ancillary businesses, and attracting tax income to the government to address other vital areas of the economy. Overall, it boosts confidence in the economy, raises hope in the citizenry, and contributes to internal security.

    Land, in this case, should go beyond its definition in the Land Use Act to include all mineral resources in and on it. The control of the mineral resources should not be under the Federal Government but individual states, which will pay appropriate taxes to the former. To restore the much-needed pride of place to lands, it is my view that the state should begin with a mapping of all existing idle lands on local government basis, ascertain their ownership, determine the ends they can best serve, and embark on an aggressive campaign to foster a partnership between organised groups and individuals on rental basis on how to optimally utilize these lands for the common good. I do not canvas state acquisition of the land, but a rental partnership for a fixed tenure in the first instance to put land to identified ends that can enhance the productive capacity of the economy, stimulate social cohesion, and encourage security. It is akin to the government giving a seal of approval to a private deal designed to aid economic prosperity and social stability along well enunciated socio-economic goals by government. When the tenure ends, ownership reverts to the lessors unless a new agreement is drawn. This drive can only complement the accelerated development of Lagos State envisioned by successive administrations. It takes cognizance of the reality that Lagos has a limited land space of just 0.4% of Nigeria’s landmass of 923, 773 sq. km, which needs to be carefully harnessed to meet up with its projected development.

    To this end, the time may have come to start working towards getting a bill passed that would seek the Total Eradication of Idle Lands in Lagos State, capture the essence of this new partnership, and position Lagos as the path-charting state that its manifest destiny has assigned to it. And that is an assignment to consider once we have a better grasp of the challenge of this Covid-19 pandemic.

     

    • Akinyemi is a former Permanent Secretary, (Lands) in Lagos State

  • Strategy for post-COVID-19 agriculture financing in Nigeria

    Strategy for post-COVID-19 agriculture financing in Nigeria

    By Nantim Joseph

    Like other sectors of the economy, agriculture is being profoundly and negatively impacted by the Coronavirus. In many countries, the disruption of supply of goods and services globally has resulted in the loss of revenue from agribusiness, reduced productivity of farms and food processors, large scale waste of perishable farm produce, and many other challenges that have far-reaching effects on the global population.

    For example, the United Nations says Coronavirus disruptions could double the number of people globally without reliable access to nutritious food, to 265 million. The projections are especially grim for regions that were already grappling with food security before the pandemic. This includes Sub-Saharan Africa which the World Bank says could be moving from a health crisis to a food security crisis.

    The World Economic Forum puts it bluntly: “COVID-19 is set to radically exacerbate food insecurity in Africa”. The continent’s challenges are complicated by some negative developments which the pandemic has brought on: lockdown measures imposed by governments across the continent have disrupted agricultural supply chains and nations dependent on food exports are severely impacted by the reluctance of developed countries to allow food export at previous levels.

    The prognosis from the Food and Agricultural Organisation is no less grim: “We expect disruptions in the food supply chains. For example, restrictions of movement, as well as basic aversion behaviour by workers, may impede farmers from farming and food processors – who handle the vast majority of agricultural products – from processing. Shortage of fertilisers, veterinary medicines and other input could affect agricultural production. Closures of restaurants and less frequent grocery shopping diminish demand for fresh produce and fisheries products, affecting producers and suppliers. Sectors in agriculture, fisheries and aquaculture are particularly affected by restrictions on tourism, closure of restaurants and café and school meals suspension”.

    With regard to Nigeria, Ayodeji Balogun, CEO of AFEX Commodity Exchange Limited, Nigeria’s first private-sector commodity exchange firm recently identified some of the challenges that face Nigerian agriculture in the wake of the pandemic and subsequent lockdown. They include price spikes, labour shortages, logistics challenges, shortage of fertilisers and other inputs and limited access to markets.

    There have also been reports of Nigerian farmers complaining about crops rotting in the fields or at the depots waiting for trucks that never arrive. Other farmers also say the lockdowns are hindering farm inspections by banks, putting their financing at risk. This results in difficulty hiring tractors and other equipment which are crucial to many farming operations.

    These developments and forecasts have prompted urgent action by major players in agribusiness including the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL Plc), a non-bank financial institution, itself a wholly-owned and incorporated entity of the CBN, established to de-risk agriculture finance and facilitate agribusiness across entire agricultural commodity value chains.

    Even in normal times, NIRSAL’s role in agribusiness is crucial, being the intervention agency that provides guarantees and other incentives to encourage the financial sector to lend to agriculture. So, it comes as no surprise that the team at NIRSAL is thinking outside the box during the present crisis. As the range of its initiatives and activities demonstrate, innovation is part of NIRSAL’s DNA.

    One of the most important in this range of strategic initiatives is the NIRSAL AgroGeoCooperative system of organising, structuring, risk-managing, financing and controlling smallholder-based primary production agriculture otherwise called Farming. This is an innovation that NIRSAL introduced in 2019 and which it has updated as a smart strategy to mitigate the harsh impact of the covid19 pandemic on agricultural productivity and food security at this challenging time for the nation as well formally introducing the model at scale in order to mainstream millions of smallholder farmers to formal finance and formal markets.

    Crucially, the innovative model focuses on the most critical aspect of agriculture especially in a developing country like Nigeria: primary production. The central relevance of this focus is underscored by the Food and Agriculture Organisation: “Smallholder farmers represent the biggest employment sector in rural areas of the developing world, and they are also the most important contributors to global food production. More than 90% of the farms in the world are family farms; they produce 80% of the food and they operate 75% of the farmland”.

    The AgroGeoCoop-based farming model is a unique system that groups adjoining farmlands in geographical areas that have been identified as being suited for specific commodities. It is an improvement on the suboptimal practice of smallholder farming on small, unconnected parcels of land. Its unique Geo or farmLand-based cooperative approach facilitates the agglomeration of large parcels of farmlands which makes it possible to introduce Precision Agriculture tools (Remote Sensing, Deployment of Unmanned Aerial Systems, satellite-based Global Positioning Systems etc) resulting in the optimisation of results.

    The Agro Geo-Cooperative model is anchored on the fundamental theory that it is the farmland that makes the farmer, not the other way round. A basic feature of the AgroGeoCoop is the GPS-enabled Geo-tagging of each farmer to his land. This has solved the problem of identity and accountability which is a major risk element in smallholder agriculture finance around the world and particularly sub-Sahara Africa, Nigeria inclusive.

    Accordingly, the model groups farmers based on the contiguity of their farmlands, with each farmer retaining what is originally theirs and becoming partakers in large, structured farming projects. The bigger and more contiguous a GeoCooperative is, the faster and easier for it to have access to structured finance, quality inputs and structured markets through NIRSAL’s facilitation.

    To ensure improved outcomes, NIRSAL has invested in significant technical and technological capabilities to support and monitor this system of structured primary production. This is because understanding smallholder farmer data management requires defining from whom data is captured and the methodology of the data capture, the analytics and ultimately its distribution and usage as intelligence, information or as a decision support system This has led NIRSAL to acquire and deploy geospatial tools and platforms to enable field-mapping activities such as Know Your Leader (KYL), Know Your Customer (KYC), Know Your Farm (KYF) and Know Your Neighbour (KYN) which are critical elements in profiling the human and the geographic elements of the AgroGeoCoops.

    The array of field-ready equipment includes GPS devices, drones, mobiles, GIS-enabled tablets and BVN Enrolment/Verification Machines all linked by GSM Networks, satellite and Cloud synchronisation capabilities for back-end data collection, validation and rendition. To complement and strengthen the value of these tools and platforms, NIRSAL is also leveraging its partnerships with institutions such as NiMET and Microsoft which provide both Agrometeorological and embedded data capture capabilities for decision support to further enhance farm operations.

    The bottom line: through such technology-enabled, risk-controlled systems, farmers enrolled in NIRSAL’s AgroGeoCoops have higher chances of success in access to structured finance, quality inputs, extension monitoring, weather information, aggregation services, access to markets and other timely support.

    AgroGeoCoops, the source of primary production, are also the centrepiece of NIRSAL’s Mapping-to-Markets strategy (M2M), an end-to-end approach to agriculture finance whereby NIRSAL ensures that all segments of agricultural value chains are linked in a logical sequence to their immediate markets, with near-zero cash transactions amongst the value chain actors.

    This is feasible because of the guaranteed trade relationships that would be established between the NIRSAL AgroGeoCoops on the one hand and identified off-takers on the other hand coupled with the strategic trade linkages that would feed off the ecosystem for inputs, mechanisation, research and adaptive technologies, value-added processing and logistics services. Thus the NIRSAL AgroGeoCoop ecosystem will bring clarity, structure and cash-flow visibility and tracking to banks, investors other financiers that will enable them to lend with confidence from their balance sheets and hugely complementing government intervention financing efforts in agriculture.

    Already, NIRSAL has set for itself a clear and measurable target of creating 16,000 Agro Geo-Cooperatives on 4 million hectares of farmland and enrolling about 8 million farmers across Nigeria expected to produce about 12 million metric tonnes of Grain Product Equivalent (GPE) annually, over the medium to the long-term time horizons.

    To ensure the success of this massive project, NIRSAL has trained and primed its Project Monitoring, Reporting and Remediation Officers (PMROs) in the 36 States of the Federation and the FCT to assist farmers, farmer leaders, aggregators and other interested participants to meet the pre-qualification requirements.

    The PMROs are on hand nationwide to guide participating farmers through the enrolment processes which include identifying their farm’s geographical coordinates and size, electing Agro Geo-Cooperative leaders as well as the free registration which can be done online or offline.

    In order to open up the Agro Geo-Cooperatives project to the thousands of eligible farmers, NIRSAL is reaching out to all relevant stakeholders, including community leaders, individuals, enterprises, corporate bodies, graduates, N-POWER Beneficiaries, active and retired leaders and farmers in The ADP programme, World Bank FADAMA Programme, USAID MARKETS Programme, IFAD Value Chain Development Programme, The World Bank Climate Adaptation and Business Support Programme, AfDB Agric Programmes, the DFID’s Propcom Maikarfi Programme, the SASSAKAWA Global 2000 Programme and others.

    The GeoCooperative model for smallholder farming has two broad components. The first is a rigorous and well-thought-out structuring of primary agricultural production based on a deep but practical understanding of historical and current trends and practices. The second is the maximisation of appropriate technologies. Together, these two elements have the potential to have a game-changing impact on Nigerian agriculture in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic and beyond.

    • Joseph is a public policy analyst