The Nation Newspaper

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  • The coming of Ijaw National Academy

    When Governor Seriake Dickson assumed office on February 14, 2012, he declared a state of emergency in education. From massive infrastructure provision, building new schools across the state and equipping them, public schools are witnessing a quiet revolution in an era of free and compulsory education.

    For two days between the 14th and 15th of July, the historic community of Kaiama in Kolokuma/Opokuma Local Government Area played host to eminent Nigerians and friends of Bayelsa State to celebrate the inauguration of  the Ijaw National Academy, a first rate top, flight model college.

    “Although the roads and bridges are important (and we have actually done very many), in vain do we do all of these, if we do not first invest in the human mind. That’s the most important resource we have and why the government has embarked on this revolutionary approach to education”, Dickson declared at the commissioning ceremony performed by former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon (rtd). The Ijaw National Academy has capacity for 2000 students but for now 1000 students are in session, the governor informed his audience.

    According to him, 900 students from Bayelsa State were selected in a competitive process while the remaining 100 were drawn from across Ijaw communities in the Niger Delta, noting that the state, in effect, had to pioneer development of the Ijaw nation of which Bayelsa State is the “Jerusalem”.

    Chief Edwin Clark recollected that before 1968, there was only one secondary school in Bomadi covering the whole of the Ijawland but that when he became commissioner for education in the old Mid-Western State under the leadership of the late Gen. Samuel Ogbemudia (rtd), over 10 secondary schools were built before he left office.  Interestingly, one of them was the Government Secondary School, Toru-Ebeni, where Governor Dickson attended. Dickson has since helped to transform his alma mater into a boarding school, one of 13 such model boarding schools just as 25 other constituency secondary schools have also been built across the state. Hitherto, there was no single boarding school in the state.

    As with the Ijaw National Academy established for grooming future leaders in the state, all boarding schools are run as free education institutions covering tuition, lockers and beds, uniform, sandals, and feeding. There are also free public non-boarding but qualitative secondary schools throughout the state.

    Clark stressed that he was in agreement with those who said “there is no development without education”.

    Gen. Gowon who commissioned the school congratulated the governor for establishing the Ijaw National Academy. He further appreciated Dickson for what he said was the spirit behind the institution, “to improve education, to make education accessible to the people”, adding “I’m really impressed with what you’re doing in this area”.

    While Clark was confident that the academy, like those before it, will grow from strength to strength as one of the best high schools in the country, Dickson averred that the future development of the state must be anchored on human capacity-building as the most important investment anyone in leadership could make. He said the educational journey was still unfolding but  that the ground work towards actualising this noble goal must be well set in motion as the ‘Restoration administration’ had done in the state.

    A day after the commissioning of the Ijaw National Academy, Commissioner for Education Elder Markson Fefegha and the school Principal, Charles Hudson, a Briton, welcomed Nobel Laureate, Prof.  Wole Soyinka and some Ijaw literary icons notably Prof. John Pepper Clark-Bekederemo and Dr. Gabriel Okara, now 96 years old, as well as Professor Ebiegberi J. Alagoa, a renowned historian.

    They were assembled to interface with the students and to inspire them to greater achievements and to be the best they could be.

    Dickson set the tone of the conversation when he told the students who were also joined by students from similar institutions including the famous St. Jude’s Girls Secondary School, Amarata, Yenagoa, that he and others in his generation read the works of the eminent literary icons on parade and as such the students would do well by tapping inspiration from them.

    The governor further stated that the costly financial investment in the education sector, now put at N55b since 2012, derived from the burning desire to change the abysmal prevailing conditions and to give the state and indeed the Niger Delta the necessary conditions for growth and development. He sees education as a potent weapon to liberate the mind, free the people from ignorance, poverty and militancy and thereby changing the stereotype and misconstrued perception of the people about the Niger Delta as well as opening up opportunities for development.

    “The reason our people are marginalized, the reason they are not involved as much as they would like to be involved is because we, too, have not developed the critical mass of educated, skilled professionals. And it is more and more competitive now and so we have a duty to prepare the young ones for the more competitive society that awaits them”, he stressed.

    Dickson earlier presented a cheque of N100 million as part of the government’s commitment to funding the free education programme and said that the government’s Education Trust Fund was being funded by deduction of five per cent from the  state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) as he called on individuals, public spirited entities and corporate concerns to support the initiative. The commissioner of education, Elder Markson Fefegha, told the gathering that Ijaw National Academy alone gulps N25 million monthly to feed the students and meet other financial needs.

    The high point of the interactive session was when some select number of students actually had the opportunity to sit with Professor Wole Soyinka and the other literary icons on the high table and ask them personal questions about their lives and professional careers  to the applause of the audience. That moment, perhaps, was what Dickson really wanted to achieve as inspiration to the students who would one day recall that they once interacted with such mighty scholars and came away with the inspiration to pursue greatness.

    There was also poetry reading of some of Professor Wole Soyinka’s poems. His famous work, Abiku, a play, was also performed by the Bayelsa State Cultural Troupe.

    Ijaw National Academy, Kaiama, is situated on a massive, beautiful landscape with a total of 26 modern buildings comprising of bungalows as staff quarters, one and two storey buildings for boarding, classrooms, a massive ICT laboratory, health centre with doctors and nurses and other major facilities to promote the development of a good academic culture, reminiscent of a university campus. It is the largest model boarding secondary school in the country and may be the most modern and well-equipped. All through the events, the faces of the students were lighted up, their enthusiasm clearly palpable.

    The event was preceded by the commissioning of other landmark projects in the state by General Yakubu Gowon and at the  laying of wreath at the Ijaw Heroes Park and of course the commissioning of a new Government House which was described as “Iconic Governor’s Office Complex”.

    The new office, a befitting modern structure, with state of the art installations and equipment, has a ship architectural design, which the governor said was special because it was the beginning of the unveiling of a new Bayelsa to the rest of the world. “From now on, the new Bayelsa will be unveiled in all areas beginning from this governor’s office”.

    The improved security situation, which has since lowered incidents of crime especially from 2012, has made Bayelsa one of the safest states, according to the Special Adviser to the Governor on Security, Dr. Boma Spero-Jack.

     

    • Iworiso-Markson, Chief Press Secretary to Bayelsa State Governor.

  • Succession politics and limit of ignorance

    Osun West Senatorial bye-election has come and gone, not unexpectedly, with its twists and turns; sounds and bites. Victors have since July 8, been counting their blessings while losers have also been unrelenting in licking their wounds with threatening affection! On the whole, June 21, 2014 has again happened to the progressive camp in Osun State and one can only pray that appropriate lessons from whatever remains of its wacky outcome would not be wasted on the altar of ego and sycophancy. It is also believed that ingrates and renegades who have turned the misfortune brought upon the state by Isiaka Adeleke’s sudden death into a ‘Us’ versus ‘Them’ personality clash will ‘sheathe’ their swords for the good of the party and country.

    Except we want to be economical with the truth, what played out on July 8 was the opposition’s way of telling Nigerians that, given the opportunity, it can still use the weapons of rice, money and other instruments of ‘stomach infrastructure’ to spring surprises on soft targets. Unfortunately, the ruling party’s inability to keep its house in order nationally, plus economic reforms that have, for want of a better expression, been struggling to put food on the table of the common man are rubbing off on the states and may affect the party’s fortunes in future elections if concrete steps are not taken to address the situation. All Progressives Congress (APC) needs to wake up from its slumber, cut off the pretence and carry out clearance operations before it is too late.

    Nigeria is in tough times and all eyes can see it. The political turf is heating up as we gradually approach another election year and it is as if those who never wished Muhammadu Buhari and his government well have now had their prayers answered. The economy is bleeding and it seems as if the national government is satisfied with snoring on a mattress overstuffed with excuses as a way out of the socio-economic logjam. In politics, little things count. Taking refuge in short-term measures, even when they are energy-sapping or funds-demanding, go a long way in addressing the nasty tragedies, extant confusions and conceptual impressions that have been threatening the fragility of the egg called Nigeria. Behaving as if 2018 is 1000 years away, or as if 2019 will never come, will not help a ruling party that is already being derided as ‘can do better as an opposition party.’

    At a time like this, Osun comes to mind. APC must do all it takes, lawfully, to remain in power so as to prevent a reversal of the gains of the last seven years. Osun cannot withstand a repeat of the disaster of the years eaten by the locust, when our common patrimony was used to cater to the needs of some selfish few. It is common knowledge that all the gratuitous attacks, barefaced lies and hare-brained fabrications against the Rauf Aregbesola-led government are mere samples of what to expect in next year’s governorship election. To be honest with ourselves, APC’s defeat in the last bye-election was facilitated from within by the Judas Iscariot who embraced coded languages to give performance a new meaning. The challenge of change, salary quagmire, even pensioners’ palaver played secondary roles.

    With regard to 2018, all I see for the progressive in Osun is victory; and Aregbesola’s outstanding performance in office is an indication that the battle has already been won! But this is not to say that there won’t be challenges on the road to this assured victory. In any case, that’s the beauty of democracy! Anything short of that is a recipe for chaos! For instance, while no government has ever done a quarter of what this administration has done for Osun since its creation, it is rather unfortunate that Aregbesola is seen out there more as a ‘salary unpaying’ government than one that has turned the state into ‘construction site’. Sadly, too, while issues surrounding the salary challenge point in the direction of a national crisis, that some ‘food-for-the-stomach’, false democrats are insisting that Osun’s should be treated as a case in isolation is a mystery for students of political history to unravel.

    So much has been said about democracy described by Abraham Lincoln as ”the government of the people, by the people, and for the people.” But if this system of government thrives in a society characterized by formal equality of rights and privileges, why do Nigerians continue to suffer, irresistibly, from what Pius Adesanmi once referred to as “acute malaria”? When, for instance, Kunle Ologundudu accused Kayode Fayemi of using state funds to build mansions as well as run a private university, why did the electorate gullibly subscribe to the untruth without raising a finger? Similarly, why has Osun suddenly become the rumour capital of Nigeria and what’s being done to present issues as they are? When has it become a crime to democratically avoid the resurrection of a deadly Wike/Amaechi crisis or the replication of a ‘Tarka-me-I-Daboh-you’ Kwankwanso/Ganduje face-off in Osun? Apart from other laudable programmes undertaken by this administration, have we forgotten its noble contributions to the triumph of no fewer than 50 of our medical students in Ukraine?

    More importantly, why have some quarters not appreciated Osun’s innovative means of alleviating the plight of its workers through its salary apportionment approach? With this regime in place, only a section of workers on grade level 12 and above (that is, about 20% of the state’s total workforce) have been receiving 50% of their gross salaries based on an agreement between the government and the labour union. ”Outside that, officers on levels 8-10 receive 75 percent of their salaries while officers on levels 7 and below who constitute about 65% of the workforce receive their full pay.” Good to note also that ”all workers in the state have received their salaries up to July in line with the agreement the government has with workers.” The fulfilment of its promise to pay the outstanding as soon as the financial fortunes of the state improve can be seen in the judicious disbursement of the second tranche of the Paris Club refunds.

    Let’s come to the issue of ”the same uniform”, a policy which, in more than a manner of speaking, elicits interesting ideas that should naturally tempt one into scrutinizing some important assumptions. Ignorantly or mischievously, Aregbesola’s traducers have not only forgotten the advantages that attended its implementation, they have also gone a step further to describe it as an ‘it can only happen in Osun’ affair. For the avoidance of doubt, ”the same uniform” policy has long been in existence in countries like Australia, Brazil, Cambodia, Chile, China, Indonesia and Malaysia.

    If the aforementioned countries are examples too far to cite, what of  Ghana and Benin Republic, our next-door neighbours?

     

    • Komolafe writes in from Ijebu-Jesa, Osun State,

  • Ambodeism: Lesson in leadership

    I seek the indulgence of readers in my coinage of the word Ambodeism, but one cannot completely explain the phenomenon called Akinwunmi Ambode, the Governor of Lagos State, until one examines him as a central theme or perspective, projected as strong feeling, combining a mix of economic, political, social, moral and spiritual principles. The concept brings inspiration to the public who, having received adequate communication of its values and empowered to participate effectively in governance, readily subscribed to the possibility of SMART City destiny of Lagos, through expression of determination, dedication, discipline and duty.

    The Governor Ambode, that I know, is a man of big dreams, with immense ambition, great characters and matching astuteness to achieve unprecedented milestones in all things he sets out to do. Lagosians have witnessed many of such seemingly impossible targets that were set and were met over the two-year period of Ambode’s administration. Internally-Generated Revenue (IGR) is over N30 billion a month; he has proposed N50 billion! Governor Ambode I know will realize this target soon!!

    From a big vision, Ambode pursues big plans, reduces and interprets in big pictures; but pursues the objectives in bits and pieces to produce fantastic and delightful impressions that create lasting images in the mind of the people. Little actions he takes bring appropriate results in multiplicity of beneficial impacts, culminating in fantastic rewards.  He does the right things for the right reasons. He follows carefully-prepared template for all his programmes and projects and monitors them to completion. Though sometimes he takes risk in practical ways, he does not believe in chances, but that you can create chances. He religiously mentors his followers.

    Here is a man who is not comfortable with failure; he puts his heart, health and soul into projects; he eats, sleeps and breaths work; he goes the extra mile to get results. He pushes you to persevere in assigned tasks. “One on the driver seat does not sleep”, he says, “Sacrifice and successes are Siamese twins.”  At the State House, every hour of the day, year round, is working hour. Ambode pursues details with fervour and with enviable transparency; and believes that if there is a will, a right passion, a right plan and right persons to drive your policies, there will always be a path to unprecedented accomplishments. To the governor, “attitude is king of character.” Probability of failure or probability of successes should not be the key to achieving programme objective, but having correct keys or plans always, will unlock the doors to successes. And when passion results in big triumph, he does not rush to the airwaves.

    Often he says: “succeeding or failing is what you choose. Create your own chances; if you wait for chances, you may have to wait for eternity. Leadership is about adding something, every minute, every hour, every day, every month and every year. If you cannot add to what you met, be better person than who you are and change the people for good at the end of each programme or project or tenure, you have betrayed the electorates who freely gave you their mandate. Confront challenges headlong; do not falter, do not fail, do not fall, and if you do, do not be frustrated by your failure; do not stay down, but stand firm in faith and continue to pursue your dream. “

    Ambode actually believes that a follower is capable of surmounting mountains (and should surmount) obstacles, if he can exert himself to bring out hidden strength and ability hitherto unexplored. He constantly searches for something good and strong in his followers and subjects. According to him, “a chain is as good as its weakest link”; he is a fantastic team player.

    While he agrees that it is more difficult to build on success than failure, he believes success becomes sustainable as you become stronger after surmounting blocks of gigantic proportion. He smiles, praises and pats you in the back, and says affectionately: “brother, you could have the ability do much more; next time let me know how you can accomplish more.” His Excellency is a man who builds on your strong points, making your weak points irrelevant.

    Goals, Results, Impacts and Outcomes achieved with Excellence and transparency, are central in Ambodeism.  Excellence, whatever it costs, must be pursued in the realization of strategic targets, for here is a man of habitual integrity. Ambode is motivated by outcomes that will bring the greatest joy to the greatest number of Lagosians; he fervently pursued lay down strategies with passionate love, expressed in such infectious ways that followers begin to believe that they can move mountain.

    Bringing me to the ban on sponsorship of pilgrims to the holy lands; occasionally some would express concern that many Lagosians would not be able to visit the holy lands henceforth. To this my answer, which was always well received, is that enough pilgrims from Lagos would always go to the holy lands at more affordable cost that only Lagos could offer, but many that had no reason to be there would not be there; moreover, money saved by the administration is adding better values in critical sectors, bringing benefits to many Lagosians.”

    Yes, the governor can be very firm.  When he is focusing on result, he puts his foot firmly on the ground. Yet, he is warm, loving, kind and considerate. He looks down on no one. He says: “If our practices do not favour the masses, we must find courage to voice them and abandon such practices.” He is humble enough to say, despite his numerous achievements, people owe him nothing, as he only serves them by the privilege they have conferred through the ballots, and will never take them for granted.

    Indeed Ambode is among the few leaders past or present, who command loyalty, obedience, love and respect of his cabinet and other arms of government. He is a fantastic role model, providing direction and inspiration, always pushing you to realize a potential you did not think you have and celebrating your fantastic success in the end. To Ambode, every man has a hidden gift to annex and exploit to benefit individual and society. He challenges you for more, and you are surprised that you can transmit all of his noble values to others in your workplace, and achieve so much more than you think possible to the benefit of the society at large.

    Over time, since the beginning of the Ambode’s administration, landmark results have been recorded, this is clear evidence that there is something right with the Ambodeism. Of recent, my ministry won seven out of eight awards for the state, in respect of 2016 Hajj pilgrimage, this unprecedented record in Nigeria, occurred during Ambode’s administration, a Christian.  I pray to Allah to achieve much more in this year pilgrimage, hoping on greater inspiration from Ambodeism.

    Strive constantly for the good purposes, and Allah will join in your effort. Your success is not measured by the amount of wealth you have, but by what you have bequeathed in advancement of humanity. That is your legacy. Ambodeism is a legacy that will endure.

     

    • Dr. AbdulLateef is Lagos State Commissioner for Home Affairs.

  • What is wrong with politics?

    Most mothers may still want their children to grow up to be president but don’t want them to become politicians on their way there. Many people view politics as grubby, shallow, and dirty, built on distasteful compromises and promises meant to be discarded. That is not the full story. At its heart and in its results, politics is the great moving expression of our democracy. There are knaves and fools in politics, but the arena is also filled with people motivated by high ideals and great causes who work with skill, integrity and honour”  – Karl Rove, Courage & Consequences

    The aforesaid quote typifies most folks’ approach to politics: they look forward to its positive results, good governance and prestigious offices (appointed or elected), but not the politics (heavy lifting) required. However, it is a full package: benefit and detriment. You cannot take one without the other. There cannot be good governance without good politicians and policies. Good policies are largely accepted as good politics. Essentially, without good people joining politics, you cannot have good policies. Without good policies, good governance is a mirage; a fantasy. Good people must stop complaining, they need to step up. According to Innocent Idibia (Tuface), “nobody wan die but they wan go heaven.”

    So, why is it so unfashionable to be a politician, when the only way to a better Nigeria is through good politics and policies? Can good people reform the system by staying out? This piece posits that the only way to a new and better Nigeria is through the participation of good people in politics: New generation of politicians committed to One Nigeria.

    Not a few share the anti-politics sentiments. However, some of us have realized that every time we point one finger at or blame politicians, three points back at us for doing nothing. We realized that we cannot simply wish bad governance away by closing our eyes and opening it later in a saintly Nigeria. It would not work.

    Truth be told, the arguments against partisan politics are not unfounded. We are all living witnesses to many political assassinations. Chief Bola Ige, SAN, was murdered in cold blood. Chief Harry Marshall, Chief A.K. Dokubo and Funso Williams were all brutally assassinated.  The systemic fraud does not provide comfort: aspirants being told to forget primary elections after paying for nomination forms, going through the screening process and campaigned to participate in the primary election at great cost. The financial barrier to participation is considerably prohibitive. The most expensive input, in my little experience, is time. Politics is time consuming. It takes a lot of time. Your business or professional career will suffer. The government may cripple your business. Ironically, politics requires first class organizational skill, temperament, tolerance and other interpersonal skills not usually required in the corporate world. Politics is accepted as a contact sport. A war to some and they would stop at nothing to have their way. It is a war where the opponent does not die: he or she will live after his or her defeat to fight you again. Full and unequivocal family support for politics is also often elusive. A political associate’s wife once warned her husband: “politicians will chew you up and spit you out”.  It is also a selfless and thankless pursuit, in the case of scrupulous politicians, where the masses look at you with cynicism and suspicion. Even worse, if you are young, you will be referred to as a front for different people that you have never met before. In a youth movement, most of the cynicism and attacks will come from fellow young Nigerians. A lot of service providers want to charge you more than the normal rates because they think you have a bottomless purse of money from looting the treasury. The challenges and arguments against politics are endless. But what do we do? Generally, life itself was not designed to be easy but we live and soldier on. So, it must be with politics. You may not change the world but you can and must contribute your quota to make it a better place.

    However, most Nigerians are proud to state and flaunt their non-partisan status. But you have to be partisan to good or bad governance. You cannot sit on the fence. You either believe in small or big government; in taxing the rich to assist the people or believe everyone should be left to wholly eat what they kill by enjoying their wealth without any consideration for the poor.  The intelligentsia or elites prefer political appointment to elective political positions. This may be a waste of time because you are likely going to be shooting above the head of shallow politicians, who make the ultimate decision. There is nothing intellectual about abstaining from politics only to get appointment under people that you disdain and that may never get your point. Arguably, it is also unintellectual to think you can make far reaching and sustainable impact without political clout. The other intellectuals delving into partisan politics expect to be gifted the party ticket ‘a la carte’, without grassroots politicking or mobilization. They insist that they are not politicians even though they are contesting for elective public office. Even though their names are on posters pasted around town with their full authority!!

    They want a godfather to do the heavy lifting for them, with the effect of being in government but not in power. Invariably, they find it difficult to take far reaching decisions when in office or sustain their achievement after office.  There is a problem with this approach: how do you formulate effective policies with limited interaction with the electorates? How do you market good economic policies without reaching out to the masses? What is wrong with being a politician?

    Politics of other climes are populated by their intellectual elites. Singapore was driven from a third to first world country by a first class honours law graduate of Cambridge University, late President Lee Kuan Yew.  In Nigeria, Herbert Olayinka Macaulay, Chief Nnamdi Azikiwe, Sir Tafawa Balewa, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, S.A.N., Mallam Aminu Kano, Chief S.L. Akintola, Chief F.R.A. Williams, Q.C.,S.A.N., Chief Remi Fani-Kayode, Q.C.,S.A.N.(Cambridge graduate and best result in his bar finals in the whole British Commonwealth), Mr Ernest Ikoli, Chief H.O.Davies, S.A.N., Sir Kofo Abayomi, Sir Adeyemo Alakija, Chief T.O.S. Benson,S.A.N., Chief Kingsley Ozumba Mbadiwe, Oba Samuel Akisanya, and  Alhaji ‘Femi Okunnu, S.A.N.,C.O.N., and others were all accomplished professionals and intellectuals. The list is endless. They all contributed a lot to our independence, nation building and politics in their youth through the Nigerian Youth Movement. We need to encourage exceptionally gifted young Nigerians to join politics. We cannot move the country forward with our 10th team.

    Youth Party, a new generation political association with a centre-left ideology is committed to grooming and educating future political leaders on politics and policies through the following ideology:  Expansion of democratic space by adherence to the principles of internal democracy and open primaries; generational change in political leadership;  selfless public service(not personal, ethnic or religious); free market with independent regulation free from political interference; equal opportunity to quality  education, healthcare and social housing; reduction of wealth inequality between the rich and the poor through provision of social safety nets; social integration and mobility; one Nigeria devoid of ethnic and religious divisiveness and intolerance, and transparent political leadership and followership that eschews money politics, bribery, violence, rigging, repression and corruption.

    Not a few have informed us why our party will fail. They have told us all the reasons why they cannot be part of politics or our party. However, we take solace in the few reasons they said it may work. Most importantly, we do not want to be guilty of failure to act. We want to look at our children and grandchildren in the eye later in life and state unequivocally that we tried. No one can say that, if they were never part of the political process. They are simply one of the reasons politics remain full of undesirable politicians. In short, politics is a necessity.

     

    • Adiukwu is chairman, Youth Party.

  • Combating drug abuse through rehabilitation

    The decision of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) to construct a modern rehabilitation centre at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja and other parts of the country is laudable. This development was made known at the grand finale event marking the 2017 International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking with the theme; Listen First; Listening to Children and Youths is the First Step to Help them Grow Healthy and Safe. The move though long delayed is highly commendable and stakeholders are encouraged to be part of this great initiative.

    Rehabilitation is the process of medical or psychotherapeutic treatment for drug dependency on alcohol, cocaine, heroin and any other substance. It is a priceless intervention mechanism for reducing the growing threat of substance abuse. Drug use disorder is an equal opportunity infection cutting across the entire gamut of our society regardless of sex, age, religion and status. The negative effect of drug abuse is gradually taking its toll on citizens particularly the youths who are more vulnerable due to various predisposing factors. These factors range from ignorance, peer pressure, unemployment, availability of drugs, use of drugs by parents and desire to experiment with drugs among others.

    The addictive nature of drugs affects the brain and ultimately compels users to keep taking drugs to repeat the euphoric sensation derived from drugs. In all, family members are left to bear the brunt and agony when loved ones drop out of school or work on account of substance abuse. Others incur huge medical bills as a result of the debilitating health conditions arising from drug abuse. Some also die in the process from an overdose, damaged body organs, accidents, and violence associated with drug abuse. When a breadwinner in the family becomes unemployed or starts to experience dwindling income due to drug abuse, other family members are inadvertently forced into economic hardship.

    Over the years, several metric tonnes of narcotic drugs have been confiscated and numerous drug traffickers convicted yet the problem of substance abuse appears to be growing in an alarming proportion. The Chairman/Chief Executive of the NDLEA Col. Muhammad Mustapha Abdallah (retd) recently raised alarm on the growing obsession of youths with the use of psychotropic drugs and unconventional substances like lizard excreta, fumes from pit latrine, gasoline, tippex, and rubber solution. Others are nail polish cleaner, local concoctions called goskolo and a natural stimulant plant called zakami. These are bizarre habits that must be addressed with every sense of commitment.

    The gloomy picture of inordinate desire and craze for substance use has left many perplexed. It is important to understand the reason behind the strong desire and compulsion to use drugs despite negative consequences. What must be done to prevent this ugly situation and encourage drug dependent persons to seek medical care? How can they be treated and empowered to quit drug use to be useful to themselves, family and society are some of the difficulties that the proposed rehabilitation centre seeks to address. One of the features is that the centre shall be located within the town but isolated from NDLEA command offices making it a complete health care facility.

    This will go a long way in encouraging patronage by members of the public who are ignorant and reluctant to seek professional help. Understanding drug use disorders as a health problem like a headache, diabetes and any other ailment will further eliminate the problem of stigmatisation. Patients are empowered to confront drug dependence and discontinue drug use. Rehabilitation covers medication for depression and other disorders, anti-drug counselling by experts and sharing of experiences with other drug dependent persons.

    There are different behavioural therapies to successfully assist patients in recovery. Cognitive behavioural therapy helps clients to recognise situations that make them to relapse and avoid them. Some clients after a successful rehabilitation do relapse due to lack of effective follow-up by family members. A multi-dimensional family therapy is designed to support patients in managing their success. Besides, motivational interviewing and incentives increase a patient’s motivation to embrace behavioural change and encourage abstinence from addictive substances. Another key strategy is peer support, where individuals in recovery use their experiences in helping others in speedy recuperation.

    Provision of employment and educational support is equally a component of rehabilitation. Counsellors and case managers assist clients in acquiring skills to be gainfully employed and establish their small scale businesses. Others are encouraged to study and acquire degrees certificates in fulfilment of their academic dreams through scholarship schemes.  These are enduring support services designed to positively engage clients towards self-sufficiency.

    Official statistics by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in the 2017 World Drug report states that availability and access to treatment for people with drug use disorders remain limited at the global level as one out of six people are provided with the requisite treatment each year.  The situation is not different in Nigeria. Expectedly, the proposed rehabilitation centre by NDLEA is a project that must be supported by every stakeholder in changing the narrative of drug control. Government at all levels, local and international donor agencies, civil society groups, individuals and much more are expected to play an active role.

    The Honourable Minister of the FCT, Muhammad Musa Bello has taken a noble step by providing a parcel of land for the construction of a pilot centre in Abuja. Stakeholders can support this public health project by building a rehabilitation centre. Individuals or groups can provide drugs, food, scholarship grants and funding to enable clients who have acquired skills establish their small scale businesses. Let’s give this lofty project the breath of life by contributing our quota individually and collectively towards making it a huge success.

     

    • Mitchell is Head Public Affairs of the NDLEA.

  • Buratai’s order and the ghost of Shekau

    Let us tell ourselves the home truth.  The North-east is gradually relapsing into another critical phase of insecurity occasioning high casualties after the initial gains recorded by the Nigerian military.  It is not better in other parts of the country as the spate of armed robbery, kidnapping and blood thirsty cultists have turned life into a big nightmare.  Worried about the situation in the North-east, the Chief of Army Staff has given a marching order to his tactical commanders and troops on the field a 40-day ultimatum to capture or kill the notorious gangster and factional leader of the Boko Haram sect, Abubakar Shekau.  Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai the current army chief has a typical military mien.  He is not given to too much talking or being loquacious in any particular way to attract undue attention although not taciturn either but gives his orders, loud and clear.  The fight against the insurgents has festered for so long and Nigerians have been told time and again that Shekau has been killed many times over.  So which Shekau has now gotten the fatwa of the Chief of Army Staff?  Why are the bombs and explosives vests going off and killing scores almost on daily basis outside Maiduguri metropolis?

    What do the fighting troops against the insurgents know about Shekau?   What bio data do the Nigerian security and intelligence agencies have on Shekau that has been shared with the fighting force and tactical commanders?  Was there any DNA confirmation of the true identity of the Shekaus that have been killed?  How will the elimination of Shekau bring an end to terrorism in the North-east and Nigeria?  Conservatively, the Nigerian military has been engaged in a full-blown war against the Boko Haram insurgents in the North-east for well over five years now. In the war against the insurgents, can we in all honesty say that the military has acquitted itself to demonstrate a capacity for protection of the territorial integrity of our country or shown enough appetite to fight and defeat the insurgents?

    The battle against the insurgents appears to have been fought more intensely through propaganda than through sustained fire fight in the battle field.  In all the territory that we have been told had been retaken, the insurgents still appear to dominate the grounds as government presence has not been seen to be restored.   All the victories and gains therefore are more surreal than real. The need to get the Nigerian public informed about what is happening is not the same as to feed the gullible public with garbage of lies.  It was a shame to know that no sooner had the insurgent swooped on officials on the Lake Chad Basin killing over 50 of them including about 19 soldiers than the military spokesman went on air to tell the world that the entire party had been rescued by the military whereas this was blatant lies. The military appears to be very economical with the truth of the situation in the combat zone, giving conflicting and contradictory information.  These falsehoods had happened several times before, diminishing the image and reputation of the army.

    A good military should earn the respect, confidence and integrity of the people by unquestionable honesty.  Before the military sends out operational information, it must have been processed and verified before going to the press.  One of the determinants of the relevance of a country in the comity of nation is by the strength of its military industrial complex and a standing army that is feared by its foes and respected by friends.  As patriots, we should be concerned about the ability of our military in the face of the current security challenges that we face across the country not just against the insurgents in the North-east.  Procuring and enlisting untrained local hunters (the Civilian Joint Task Force) to fight alongside a regular army is not a very ennobling reputation for our military. When the battles are over, they would have picked up enough military manoeuvres and tactics that they certainly would pose a potential security threat.

    It is also worrisome that some people are rooting for Odua People’s Congress (OPC) to help tackle insecurity in the South-west while other states and regions are depending more on vigilante groups to secure life and property.  It is our hope and belief that those at the strategic level have weighed and thought through this before succumbing to the lure by the reverses suffered by troops to invite these elements to shore up the military.  It is an unusual military strategy which should not be allowed to continue.  At best, the government should activate a compulsory military service scheme where there is shortage of manpower or recruit and give military training to young able bodied men before they are allowed to bear arm and fight along regular soldiers.  We are in agreement that our fighting force and troops must be well equipped and motivated.  Combat is only for the trained and disciplined force with temperament to face challenges at the risk of their personal safety for the greater good of the country.

    The Boko Haram sect is deeply rooted like their minimal pairs, Al Shabab in their Horn of Africa and Taliban in Afghanistan. Terrorism as a 21st  century phenomenon is a by-product of political and leadership failures across the globe that cannot be defeated overnight by setting an unachievable time line. Fully fledged terrorism berthed on our soil in 1999 shortly after the inauguration of the 4th Republic as a result of political schism which later took the coloration of extremist religious fundamentalism.  Apart from perhaps Maiduguri metropolis, the insurgents have noticeable presence in virtually all the locations from which they were hitherto dislodged from without necessarily dominating grounds.   What this means is that the people cannot go about their normal activities to earn their living as before.

    The death of scores of people last week including combat troops that were providing security to officials engaged in prospecting for oil in the Lake Chad basin in an alleged ambush by the insurgents is a wakeup call to the realisation that the insurgents are far from being defeated. It is time for soul searching by the Ministry of Defence and Defence Headquarters to look for ways to reposition the armed forces for effective combat operation. What is on ground in the North-east is not what the Military High Command is telling Nigerians.  We cannot tell a lie a thousand times and hope that it will become the truth as in the world of Goebel, the Nazis’ Propaganda Minister. It took the Nigerian Armed Forces three years to end the Nigerian Civil War and here we are, after about six years we cannot say with certainty the progress we have made in reining in the Boko Haram insurgents.  We may kill Shekau and hunt his ghost, if we do not have a discipline and combat ready armed forces that is well equipped and motivated, the fight against insecurity would just be a mirage.

     

    • Kebonkwu Esq is an Abuja-based attorney.

  • EFCC, Obono-Obla and anti-corruption war

    One of the constitutional amendments that Nigerians have been clamouring for is the separation of the office of attorney-general from the position of minister of justice. For many citizens, the continuous lumping together of the portfolio of attorney general with the minister of justice, a politician, will never improve the administration of justice in the land, strip it of all political encumbrances and in the end and make justice delivery truly blind.

    Typically, the 8th Senate, a parliament that has earned the notoriety of representing the people only by nomenclature, spectacularly failed the people yet again by voting against that item. Anyway, who expects a Senate that draws a sizable portion of its membership from politicians running from justice to pass such a fundamental law? Yes, this Senate has been reduced to a safe sanctuary for allegedly corrupt former governors, and some ‘crooked’ politicians and businessmen that can only make the day in court for any professional attorney general, not a politician appointed as minister of justice!

    In no other place has the tenuous relationship and contradictions inherent in the continuous merging of the office of the attorney general with a politically biased minister of justice inhibiting the administration of justice than the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. Naturally, the EFCC as a commission reports to the Attorney General and Minister of Justice. The history of the relationship between the EFCC and its supervisory authority has not been what was envisaged by its founders.

    Instead, this relationship has been characterized by power play, intrigues and clash of interests. Except for the pioneer chairman, Nuhu Ribadu, no other chairman of EFCC, has enjoyed the relative independence of the commission, devoid of the hot breath of the supervisory authority down its shoulders. Even in his wee hours as chairman – when the government that appointed him left office – Ribadu was being subjected to the daily scrutiny of the attorney general who was pursuing his own political interests. Ask Ibrahim Lamorde and Mrs. Farida Waziri, they probably would not have nice things to say about their working relationship with Mohammed Adoke and Michael Aondoakaa, respectively.

    This background is perhaps necessary to locate the trajectory of the Special Assistant to the President on Prosecution, Okoi Obono-Obla. The previous week, Obono-Obla, as reported in the media accused the acting chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, and the ICPC chairman, Ekpo Nta, of insubordination. Specifically, he alleged that the two heads of anti-corruption agencies had refused to submit to the attorney general (or is it his National Committee on Prosecution), the case files of more than 35 high profile former governors and senators under their investigation.

    Obono-Obla who clearly came across as a proxy of the attorney general not only suggested reporting the EFCC and ICPC chairmen to the Presidency but equally threatened sanctions against them. Even more troubling is the introduction of subtle blackmail in Obono-Obla’s tone by suggesting that the non-submission of the files by the ant-corruption agencies “caused a setback to the anti-graft campaign of the federal government” and had led to the loss of some high-profile cases in court recently.

    It is reassuring that Obono-Obla, being a critical stakeholder, is worried about the flagging of the anti-corruption war of the Buhari government. Obono-Obla was appointed by a President who wants his fight against corruption to succeed perhaps more than any other policy. The President rightly or wrongly sees the EFCC as presently constituted perfectly suited to lead the onslaught against corruption. That is why despite the rejection of Ibrahim Magu by the Senate on two occasions, President Buhari insisted that the EFCC chairman remains his only choice to head the anti-corruption agency.

    The earlier, aides of President Buhari understand this position and work towards cooperating rather than weakening the choice of the President at EFCC, the better for all of us in terms of winning this war against a well-fortified enemy. It is interesting to note that the week Obono-Obla, on behalf of the attorney general, lashed out at Magu requesting for more than 35 files from the EFCC, was the same week the Senate voted against splitting the office of the attorney general from the minister of justice; it was the same week that the Senate within a record one week passed the National Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) Act into law seeking to remove it from the EFCC.

    More than anything else, the dirty politics within the executive arm apparently to force Ibrahim Magu out of the EFCC, for whatever reason, is responsible for the loss of steam in the fight against corruption. While it is all too easy to blame the Senate for truncating Magu’s confirmation, the Department of State Security, (DSS) provided the fuel with which the Senate used in lynching him.

    Now, the attorney general, using Obono-Obla as a proxy, is literally asking for the keys to the EFFC building because that is what submitting the requested files means. Yes, EFCC must report to the attorney general and seek clarifications where there are doubts but this whole idea of requesting for the files of high profile politicians under investigation triggers something quite ominous in the land. The last attorney general who made similar demands on the EFCC was Michael Aondoakaa under the presidency of Umar Musa Yar’Adua.

    By the time Aondoakaa finished with his abracadabra, Chief James Ibori, the former governor of Delta State, had escaped justice in Nigeria only to be convicted in a foreign country to the shame of our judiciary and the EFCC. Granted, the attorney general and Obono-Obla may have noble reasons for requesting EFCC to hand over files of high profile politicians under investigation for prosecution, but can they vouch for everyone in their team including their own staff that information will not be traded this time around? And mind you, in two years’ time, another general election is due and politicians are getting ever so desperate.

    There is no doubt that Obono-Obla is passionate about fighting corruption and wants successful prosecution of suspects in court. Indeed, he publicly speaks forcefully about this. Yet sometimes without knowing it, we sabotage the very projects we pursue with our own hands. Obono-Obla has been here and everywhere throwing his weight around; he is constantly getting on the nerves of his colleague lawyers who disagree with his viewpoint; he goes about castigating judges for taking sides with ‘corrupt people’ in explaining some of the losses the government has suffered in the courts. If he thinks this attitude helps in the anti-corruption war, he is dead wrong.

    What will help though is to use his committee to strengthen the EFCC; not by making himself a willing tool in an orchestrated plan that may end up undermining EFCC operations.

     

    • Ugboajah, a policy analyst, writes from Abuja.

     

  • NASS falters

    The failed attempts so far, by the 8th National Assembly to amend the 1999 constitution to devolve powers to the states as clamoured by many Nigerians have shown that majority of the legislators do not appreciate the gravity of challenges facing our country. Considering that the current constitution centralized subsidiary economic and political powers in contravention to the federalism it professes, members of the current National Assembly have a chance to help save our stalemated country.

    Even though they are not a constituent assembly elected to draw a new constitution, section 9 of the 1999 constitution gives them power to alter the constitution, and they should wear their thinking cap. All the amendments they have passed so far will be inconsequential if the states are not given economic life-lines through the delisting of some items in the exclusive legislative list contained in part 1 of the 2nd schedule to the constitution.

    The leadership of the northern part of our country should weigh in to impress on their legislators to read a bit of history even if they have to make bullet points of the historical milestones leading to independence and what led to the crisis that eventually led to military intervention and then the civil war. Perhaps an appreciation of that will help them realise that a multi-ethnic and multi-religious nation-state like Nigeria can only make progress under a federal system of government.

    A reflection thereafter will show that to practice a unitary or quasi-unitary system as we currently have in Nigeria, will require the dominant sub-unit or units to hold the rest of the sub-national units with the force of arms. Unless that is their intention, Nigeria as presently configured will continue to totter on the brink of crisis, unless we federalize. The Nigerian conundrum is made worse because the foundation of the crisis is substantially economic.

    And considering that the oil resources that the nation depends on, is situated in a minority section of the country, the use of force to pacify that part of the country will be like using a hammer to kill a tsetse fly perching on the scrotum. That explains the use of carrot and stick since the military government of General Yakubu Gowon through an obnoxious decree appropriated the oil resources of the Niger Delta.

    Of course, the rest of the country is paying a hug price for that legislative coup. While a few elite are the ones really benefiting from the oil resources that that ‘economic unification decree’ spurred, the ordinary folks are sold the dummy that the decree further consolidated as item no 39, in the exclusive legislative list, is in the best interest of non-oil bearing states. To justify this strange anomaly under a federal system, many other items had to be put in the exclusive legislative list to justify the humongous resources that the federal authorities has used legislation to appropriate to itself.

    It is the strangulating effect of the forced exclusive legislative list that the current National Assembly has been called upon to modify, if not completely, at least enough to give the states some breather to survive. Whether members of the 8th National Assembly can live up to the expectation is another matter.  Imagine 21st century legislators needing two working days to learn how to use electronic voting machine, being asked to research and study historical comparisons of the practice of federalism!

    Worse still, imagine asking such mentally lazy legislators to engage in philosophical introspection like the American constitution makers who gathered in Philadelphia to hammer out the much appreciated federal constitution that catapulted a British colonial settlement into the foremost advanced country in the world in less than 200 years. Imagine expecting any of our legislators to author the kind of seminal papers that has engaged scholarly minds centuries after.

    Nigerians know that most of the leaders of the National Assembly would prefer to spend their time plotting ascendancy to higher offices when common sense should be warning them that this edifice called Nigeria will collapse unless structural adjustments are made to the faulty foundations. To show how incongruous our federation is, just as the lawmakers were busy creating new power centres and bureaucracies, instead of granting states the constitutional power to be productive, the governors were busy working out how far the Paris Club refund could go in paying the arrears of wages and salaries owed state workers.

    It didn’t occur to our federal law makers that the solution to our economic challenges does not lie in giving doles to states as Sanya Oni succinctly argued on his Policy page recently. The representatives of states at the National Assembly, who see themselves more as power contenders with officials of their respective states, failed to realise that very soon there will be nothing left to refund the states, and the states will fall back into debts with piles of arrears of wages and salaries.

    If the National Assembly wants to prove our imaginations wrong and live up to their onerous responsibilities, the National Assembly bureaucracy should be ordered before the next voting opportunity to deliver to each members’ pigeon hole, an analysis of the import of the revolutionary determination of European super-powers to ban cars that use fuel and diesel from their roads, some as early as 2030 and others by 2040.

    Perhaps that will set off an alarm that it is foolhardy and silly to allow the smell of foreign exchange from oil to completely obfuscate common sense in the National Assembly and deny the legislators a historic opportunity to be of real value to our country. If the National Assembly doesn’t remedy the failures of last week, when they resume from recess, then the last ditch peaceful option left for Nigeria is the convoke a constituent assembly to draft a new constitution or to fall back on the recent National Conference.

    That should be treated with a sense of urgency by the National Assembly. Those who naïvely think that the fire can only start from other parts of the country, not their own, are indeed poor students of history, even our recent national history. Between, 1962-66, many Nigerians believed that it was the Western Nigeria that needed pacification because of the political crisis that engulfed the region.

    The Tafawa Balewa-led federal government and its officials would have spent time planning how to contain the wild-wild west.  But in a twist of fate, the country witnessed two quick bloody coups and then descended into a civil war to stop the East from exiting Nigeria. As they say in Igbo, onye bialu igbo-ogu, bulu onu nme (the person who came to separate the fight got the bleeding mouth).

    With our nation turning to a failed state arising from political and economic challenges, the 8th National Assembly has the opportunity to lead the charge to save our hobbled country.

  • Turkey’s Erdogan and July 15 coup

    Just few days ago, a chilling   footage in one of the international television stations brought to the fore the ugly memories of the July 15, 2016, aborted coup in Turkey.  It was during the one year’s commemoration of the coup, which saw to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowing to “rip the heads off” of terror groups and plotters who tried to put an end to his more than a decade-long dictatorial rule.

    More than 250 innocent Turks paid with their lives to ensure that Erdogan rule was not truncated by the coup plotters on that fateful July 15, 2016, while the President hibernated and disappeared into an unknown destination.

    Like many autocratic leaders, Erdogan was quick to blame members of opposition and  sympathizers of Gulen Movement  for the coup attempt. He particularly singled out the United States-based Turkish cleric, Fethullah Gulen as the mastermind of the coup, even when it is on record that the highly-respected cleric publicly condemned the coup when it was still on.

    Though the July 15 failed coup was not the first in that country, the many conspiratorial theories and the Turkish government heightened brutality aftermath of the coup has continued to tilt my belief that the coup was just a well-crafted master script which was activated by Erdogan to silence critics and any finger of opposition in Turkey. Yes, many leaders in the past have used phantom coups to consolidate their grip on power by jailing perceived political enemies and sometimes send them to the hang’s man noose.

    During the dark days of military regime in Nigeria in the mid-1990s, many influential figures  like General Olusegun Obasanjo, who later became President, General Shehu Yar’Adua, and a host of other critics of government were all sent to jail over a coup that was believed to be designed to topple the government of late General Sani Abacha. Hence, the recent revelation by Sweden-based Stockholm Centre for Freedom (SCF) in on the Turkey’s coup has further cemented my belief that some power-drunk leaders can go to any length to perpetrate themselves in office.

    According to the international Centre, last year’s failed coup attempt in Turkey is nothing but a false flag orchestrated by Turkey’s autocratic President Recep Tayip Erdogan and his henchmen to create a pretext for a mass persecution of critics and opponents in a state of perpetual emergency.

    The centre in a new detailed study titled ‘July 15:Erdogan’s Coup, said from  available data, the coup indictments, testimonials in court trials, private interviews, reviews of military expert opinions and other evidence collected by researchers, it is fairly confident that this attempt did not even qualify a coup bid in any sense of military mobilization which was unusually limited in numbers, confined in few cities, poorly managed, defied the established practices, tradition, rules of engagement and standard operating procedures in Turkish military.

    “This was a continuation of a series of false flags that were uncovered in the last couple of years under the authoritarian rule of Erdogan regime and it was certainly the bloodiest one,” the centre said.

    “Erdogan appears to have tapped on widely circulated coup rumours in Turkish capital and staged own show to steal wind and set up his opposition for a persecution,” the President of SCF, Abdullah Bozkurt, was quoted to have said.

    Judging by Erdogan antecedents on how he  had blatantly used the term ‘parallel state’ to badmouth and demonise sympathisers of the Gulen movement  in Turkey but without getting the desired result of suppressing them, the coup could as well be the best bet and the smokescreen of his  government to silence the group and other opposition elements. This was what played out during the referendum in Turkey which was carried out under the emergency power of the president.  Erdogan won big time by securing imperial presidency, consolidating his gains, stifling the opposition and even launching cross border military incursion into Syria for which he had been itching for too long.

    The Turkish president, who appear to have unquenchable penchant for brutalising and detaining those who dare have a different political orientation from the one shares by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), reportedly called the July 15, 2016 coup attempt as “a gift from God, as he now wields absolute power to do and undo anything he wishes to the detriment of the freedom of the Turkish people.

    Today in Turkey, most media organisations and private schools have been shut down, thousands of public servants kicked out from government service,  thousands of judges, teachers, doctors, military officers all thrown out from work. Many more who are not so lucky, including journalists, members of opposition, among others are now in detention without trial for allegedly taking part in the coup with no any iota of concrete evidence linking them to it.

    Erdogan may have succeeded in silencing his opponents by carefully reaping the political capital of the July 15 coup attempt, but surely, he cannot come clean of involvement in the coup no matter how black he would paint those he accused of being behind it.

     

    • Sani, a social commentator, wrote in from Kano.

  • Martial mania

    ow many regimental formations does a country need to kit up for peace and security? This question rankles, as Nigeria seems hooked with the jackboot syndrome.

    The Senate, last week, gave its definitive nod to a bill formulated to brew the Nigerian Peace Corps into a government para-military agency. The corps had operated as a voluntary civil outfit since 1998 and was registered as a non-governmental organisation in 2005, according to its promoters. But now it is being provided statutory muscle to function as a quasi-military squad.

    Last week’s affirmation by the Senate wasn’t its first tryst with the enabling bill. The red chamber had in November, last year, passed the Peace Corps bill sponsored by former Senate Leader Ali Ndume (APC, Borno), but eased up last May on account of members’ beef with a version harmonised with the House of Representatives’, which had passed the bill in June, last year.

    Going by the enabling bill, the agency aims to facilitate peace volunteerism, community service, neighbourhood watch and nation building among others. It also seeks to train youths to promote peace, conflict mediation and resolution among warring groups. A report by the Senate Committee on Interior last year indicated the head of the corps would be known by the martial title of Commandant-General, to be supported by six Deputy Commandants appointed from the six geopolitical zones of the country. And even ahead of its impending statutory mutation, the corps’ personnel have adopted beige khaki gear and beret to show up its jackboot disposition.

    In giving legislative stamp to the Peace Corps bill last week, the Senate touted its potential to empower the youth and provide them with gainful employment. And that ordinarily recommends the desired statutory backing for the corps – just like any other agency with the same potential. The catch is that the legislative exertion dating back to the Representatives’ vote was loudly mute on how the bills of the corps’ operations would be picked. Also, the ‘distinguished’ and ‘honourable’ members of NASS omitted to explain why the agency’s employment potential could be maximised only by its paramilitary orientation.

    Besides, if there was one outfit with enormous dose of controversy in its background, this particular corps was it. Ignore the legislative tack whereby the Senate plenary waved aside apparent wise counsel by one of its committees – namely that the major objective of the Peace Corps bill to provide youths with employment could as well be achieved by strengthening existing agencies – to deliver last week’s endorsement; to say the modus operandi of the corps over the years was highly contentious could severely understate existing records.

    Recall for instance that the Police on repeated occasions faced off with the corps over its operations. In February, this year, it slammed the lid on a training camp run by the corps in Offa council area (Kwara State) that it dubbed illegal. The camp was conducting paramilitary training for some 5,000 persons, which the Police claimed it had no notification of. And though the corps disputed that claim, you could ask what the paramilitary rigour was all about when the law yet deems it a civil outfit. And in March, the Police – quite crudely – sequestered the Peace Corps National Commandant, Dickson Akoh, along with 48 members of his group on charges of fleecing youths seeking enlistment with the squad.

    The Police also had issues with the corps’ procedure for recruiting members to its ranks. Speaking at a training event for senior police personnel in March, Police Inspector-General Ibrahim Idris red flagged this procedure, saying: “Nigeria is not a lawless country. You can’t just wake up overnight and establish a security organisation, there are processes…We have so many challenges in this country and we don’t want people of questionable character to enter our security services and constitute a threat to the security of this country. And that is what the peace corps is doing. You don’t just go on the streets and be picking people by the virtue of the fact that they gave you money.”

    Following the arrest and detention of Akoh and company in March, the Federal Attorney-General and the Department of State Security (DSS) pitched in with the Police to argue in court that the corps was legally registered but was engaged in illicit operations. Akoh, for his part, filed a counter-suit seeking compensation from the Police and some other government organs for alleged illegal detention.

    It is uncertain whether those litigations have run their full courses in the courts. But if you wanted some morally soothing narrative for the Senate’s approval of the Peace Corps bill, what you would get was a report by its committee articulating Akoh’s thesis that his squad ran into storm with security agencies because the Presidency extended it a formal invitation to attend the last Armed Forces Remembrance Day. As for the N40,000 apiece said to have been appropriated from applicants, Akoh reportedly explained the money was for provision of uniforms, medical care and one-month accommodation for the duration of training, training manual, honorarium for guest speakers, certificate of training as well as Identity card for enlisters.

    While it is a toss the President would give assent to the Peace Corps bill, considering reservations expressed by security and judicial lynchpins of the Executive arm, legislative support for the agency’s paramilitary mutation is so strong that House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara once hinted the Legislature could override a presidential veto. He also argued the Police and other security agencies were acting as they did with the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) before its adoption by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration. “That was the same argument when the Civil Defence Bill was before the House – that it could not be funded, that they were divulging some of the powers of the Police to the Civil Defence, that it would never work. At the end of the day, all these were surmounted and now we have the Civil Defence that, in some cases, citizens have said they are more dependable than the conventional police,” he was reported saying.

    There is no clear indication, as far as I see, that NASS did thorough due diligence on stated concerns over personnel integrity of the peace corps and its funding modality – even with its leader having acknowledged that money was raised from applicants for whatever compelling reasons. Worse is: there is no convincing explanation why this corps must be paramilitary, with the martial implications for the polity. Other than the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) that is tenured for one year and is constantly replenished, there is no paramilitary agency in Nigeria today that is not bearing arms or seeking to do so, even though they started out as non-arms bearing formations. The Civil Defence that Dogara cited and the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) are ready cases in point.

    With its brazen martial zeal even ahead of the law enabling its mutation, the peace corps is an enforcer squad waiting to be unleashed.