The Nation Newspaper

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  • Let’s restructure now

    There must be those unconscionably benefiting from the crisis rocking our country, otherwise the federal executive council and the National Assembly ought to make restructuring the country an emergency project to stave a collapse. It is even strange that the acting President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, who as Attorney General of Lagos State, successfully fought many battles to restructure the lopsided quasi-federal system of government that the military bequeathed us, seems lethargic now that he is in the driver’s seat.

    Or is Prof not in charge as some pundits argue? If he is not, then I earnestly wish he is for he has the technical capacity to deliver a fairer, healthier and more humane country than the programmed-to-fail system we presently practice. The acting President recently reinforced my trust, when he noted that no amount of prayers and fasting would make Nigeria great unless there are dedicated hands steadily on the plough working out developmental strategies to make her great.

    As Attorney General of Lagos State, the distinguished Professor of Law, was a dedicated pundit of fiscal and political federalism. He fought battles to stave the federal government’s obtrusive control of local governments, going as far as the Supreme Court, to gain a judicial determination. He fought for a fairer distribution of the incomes and taxes accruing from states, between the federal government and the states. With his then principal, Governor Bola Tinubu, they designed fundamental developmental paradigms which are still guiding Lagos State, years after.

    So, if he had worked assiduously in the past and now pontificates soundly, what on earth is he waiting for to take a stand on restructuring even if he can’t have his way as acting President? If I may suggest, between not rocking the boat and allowing the country to be wrecked by incendiary elements, and putting his best foot to move the country forward, with the possibility of being accused of being too ambitious, I think, history will be kinder, if he makes a genuine attempt, than just tending a dying country.

    Granted that the present government has vowed to deal with the greatest symptom of our distress – corruption; but from Prof’s training, I bet he knows that it makes better sense, to attack the root causes of the unbridled corruption that is killing our country: the unproductive quasi-federal system we practice. I am sure that in his private capacity and as former attorney-general of Lagos State, the acting President must have come to the conclusion that power without responsibility is substantially what fuels corruption in Nigeria.

    Every month, federal and state governments gather in Abuja to share humongous resources that the various chief executives knew next to nothing, how the money accrued, and what responsibilities it portends. The ordinary folks who had no inkling how much was realised and who had no input in accumulating the resources simply see the chief executives as the owners of the resources, so they just become subservient, instead of asserting accountability.

    The chief executives, who have not laboured to gain such huge resources, simply allow the power it commands to go into their heads and they begin to act like emperors. That imperial attitude devolves down the ladder according to the position of authority one holds, from the minister or commissioner, to heads of agencies, down to the clerk, who if he cannot gain his own unlawful share from the windfall that comes in every month, will seek an alternative cut, from those who have businesses to do in the ministry.

    When the acting chairman of EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, noted last week that corruption is what is fuelling the insurgency in the North-east and BiafraExit in the South-east, I agreed with him to the extent that if the accrued resources that had been frittered away by the emperors over the years were put to good use, many of those who mobilize at short notice to cause havoc in the north or to show unbridled solidarity with Nnamdi Kanu’s IPOB would not be available, if they were in factories earning a decent wage. But he then went differently, with the boast that government will fight and fight to clean the mess.

    My legal and mediatory training and skills teaches me that instead of fighting and fighting for the rest of our life time, as should be evident even to Magu, the situation can be turned into a win-win situation with the country restructured to gain efficiency and the momentum for development. Such restructuring will allow dedicated persons work assiduously like the acting President wished. When Magu’s principal cannot get him a mere confirmation of appointment from a Senate of 109 persons, how come he believes he can mobilize the entire country as is to fight the debilitating corruption?

    Not likely. At least, not in one life time. As Magu himself would confirm, corruption and corrupt practices have not abated despite the scarecrow of President Muhammadu Buhari’s presidency. So much of that fact was confirmed by Prof Itse Sagay, the chief presidential adviser on anti-corruption, same last week. He confirmed that corruption is thriving in the banking sector. Before his latest pronouncement, he had spoken on corruption in the National Assembly and the judiciary, the very institutions that will make or mar the fight.

    Just like the anti-corruption agencies, bogged down by over-centralized power intrigues, the judiciary is also wielded together as part of the dysfunctional quasi-federal structure bequeathed by the military and they all join to impede development. Instead of wasting talents to fight and fight, we should sit down and design a development-driven economy, which will starve the loose-lying humongous resources, such as those Magu recovered recently from the Ikoyi flat, the airport and the Bureau de Change shop.

    The acting President knows that unless the paradigm is changed, this administration and several others that will come after will spend their entire time in office fighting corruption, but also gifting the next regime, corrupt practices to fight. The recent allegations of corrupt enlistment in the State Security Services, where one state, got more officials enlisted, than six states in another part of the country, with the federal authority just wringing its hands in frustration is a confirmation beyond reasonable doubt that while you are fighting the ills of the past, more ills are in the making.

    While the official responsible for that apparent misconduct should have been reprimanded, it is also important to ask, what gave him the impetus to engage in such abuse of power, while serving a government which has vowed to crush corruption. The answer in my humble view, is that he knows that we don’t have a productive system, so, his relations must take their chance, while he has the opportunity. For this rapacious nation to survive, the acting President must lead the battle, to at least make an attempt, to restructure Nigeria, now.

     

  • John in wonderland

    Since assuming office in November 2015, Tanzania’s President John Magufuli has cut the image of a no-nonsense, waste-cutting, goal-getting, corruption-mauling populist leader who walks his talk. They don’t call him ‘The Bulldozer’ for nothing: he fiercely batters down privileged impediments to developmental goals he has set for his country. Evidence abounds also that he is achieving the desired results. And he is well loved for it by many Tanzanians. He is as well fondly regarded beyond his country’s shores as a Spartan role model on a continent plagued by indulgent leadership morass.

    Magufuli’s popularity among his people at some point reached an unprecedented high, with a poll late last year showing he had a 96 percent approval rating. An earlier poll by Tanzania’s independently owned Citizen newspaper to mark his 100 days in office had posted an overall 90.4 percent approval rating, with the demographics revealing a showing of 93.1 percent among women and 91.5 percent among rural dwellers. Even in Zanzibar, the semi-autonomous island that is regarded as Tanzania’s opposition stronghold, some 86.4 percent of respondents indicated satisfaction with his leadership.

    But the Tanzanian leader may have pushed his maverick luck beyond its elastic limit lately. He staked his political fortune on his austere principles and strong moral convictions, which actually accord with his country’s conservative legal regime. But that has now pitched him on collision course with population blocs that hitherto formed the bastion of his grassroots support, and the political cost for him waits to be seen.

    President Magufuli penultimate week barreled in on a standing moral code in Tanzania that bars girls who get pregnant from returning to school after they give birth. An extant law in that country passed in 2002 prescribes expulsion of pregnant schoolgirls. Women’s rights groups had been piling pressure on government to change that law, which stipulates that girls can be excluded from school for “offences against morality” and “wedlock.” But Magufuli, at a public rally early in the week, sternly warned schoolgirls against getting knocked up, saying: “After getting pregnant, you are done.”

    He argued that young mothers would be distracted if allowed back to school. “After calculating some few mathematics, she’d be asking the teacher in the classroom: ‘Let me go out and breastfeed my crying baby,’” the Tanzanian leader stated. But the repercussion, in his reckoning, shouldn’t be limited to affected girls. He advocated that men who impregnate schoolgirls should be imprisoned for 30 years, so they could “put the energy used to impregnate girls into farming while in jail.”

    Rights groups lit into Magufuli for his comments, and a pan-African women’s network was said to be mobilising towards getting him to apologise and retract. An online petition was also set up to force his contrition. But at the rally penultimate week, the president doubled down and tackled rights groups pressing government to reverse the existing law. He was reported saying: “These NGOs should go out and open their own schools for parents. But they should not force the government. I’m giving out free education for students who have really decided to go and study, and now you want me to educate parents?” He indeed threatened to delist any NGO that campaigns to change the law banning teenage mothers from returning to school.

    Magufuli could well be alone in his puritanical crusade. Because a few weeks earlier, Tanzania’s Vice-President Samia Suluhu had advocated for young mothers to be reabsorbed into school, saying they should not be denied their right to education. And so, it seems obvious that the president is open flanked in the line of fire. Last week, a coalition of 25 Tanzanian civil society organisations pressed him to change his stance because, for them, girls who get pregnant at school are neither immoral nor criminal, and it is the impregnator that really needs to be punished.

    If you were a moral purist, you would perhaps pick the vibes of Magufuli’s ethical code and where he was coming from. A recent report by the Human Rights Watch cited more than 8,000 Tanzanian girls dropping out of school every year due to pregnancy. And Magufuli had made free education up to secondary school a corner piece of his electioneering, which he is said to be committedly fulfilling. Official data showed that his government splashed 22.1 percent of the country’s total 2017 budget, excluding public debt service, on the education sector. Bland comparisons are sometimes misleading, but you only need to match that percentage outlay with the six percent that Nigeria voted for education in its 2017 budget to get a feel of Magufuli’s commitment.

    And it isn’t exactly that money comes easy for his presidency. Radical exploits by Magufuli to secure funds for development spending include his staunching lavish celebrations for Tanzania’s Independence Day since coming into office. Rather than deploy public funds on the December 9 yearly event, he has been ordering environmental cleanup in which he physically joined, and redirected the money that would have been spent into providing social services.

    The Tanzanian leader is famous for a tough and bruising fight against corruption. But that wasn’t where he stopped. He has also introduced severe austerity measures to aggressively drive his development agenda. Among other things, he has merged several government ministries, downsized his cabinet from 30 members to 19, consigned government ministers and other top officials to travelling strictly economy class by air, and ordered government meetings and conferences to be henceforth held in state buildings rather than high-end rented hotels. To the dismay of senior officials, he auctioned off their luxury cars and spared them only utility pick-ups. And he has banned overseas travel for local officials, directing that diplomats in Tanzania’s embassies abroad stand in for the country in any meeting requiring government representation.

    Despite the relatively minimal stature of his country in global affairs, Magufuli is widely regarded an African icon, such that #WhatWouldMagufuliDo now trends on social media as citizens of other countries measure the acts of their own leaders against potential responses of the Tanzanian president. And there is result to show for his iconoclasm: World Bank data indicated that Tanzania’s economy grew by 7.9 percent in the second quarter of 2016.

    Let me confess my personal affinity with the austere morality of the Tanzanian leader as regards schoolgirls and pregnancy. One ordinarily should have no business with the other, and I offer no apology for that stand. But there is a hardheaded consideration to factor in: the more dropouts from school there are in any society, the bigger the challenge of social misalignment. “Young girls face more challenges in accessing education than young boys, even without the question of expulsion for pregnancy. Most of these young girls have already suffered, denying them the right to continue with their education adds to their hardship,” the coalition of 25 Tanzanian civil society organisations said in their statement last week. Truth is, they were right on point; and that is the moral wonderland Magufuli needs to reconcile with.

  • Biafra: Mistake Ndigbo must not repeat

    it is understandable that Ndigbo were pushed into Biafra in 1967. But posterity shall not forgive them if in 2017 they now push themselves into Biafra.

    The first time was a disaster, and for a people fighting for survival in an unjustly cobbled-up republic where their adventurous and enterprising (misread as domineering) nature marked them out for persecution, the Biafran project, then, was more or less a historical necessity. But this second time would be a monumental failure because it finds itself in the ambient political milieu of a globalized world – with all its technological and socio-cultural appurtenances.

    A time when the same Ndigbo has virtually dominated their country’s socio-economic space; and with competent political leadership stands better chances of being the virtual super-tribe of the whole West African sub-region while leveraging on its placement within the Nigerian nation-state.

    It is also a time when the European Union speaks with one voice, after coming to terms with the reality that the European countries must overcome their sordid past of internecine conflicts. A time when a mortar fired in a Nigerian civil war would hit the economy of faraway Zambia and weigh down the stocks in the South African market.

    Nevertheless, the present call for Biafra is more sonorous than the one made five decades ago because it now has a deep-seated philosophical underpinning. The mystical backing is the pseudo-scientific sociological/anthropological proposition which proclaims Ndigbo as Jews – fellow descendants of Abraham with the Jewish nation. This belief is fast gaining ground in the South-east, yet it still is essentially a myth, not acknowledged by mainstream academia, or accepted by the mainstream Jewish community.

    Technically, it is a pseudoscience, as vague as the Aryan Race myth which undergirded Adolf Hitler’s proclamations about the superiority of Germans to other Caucasians and humans.

    On this, Nnamdi Kanu is a ‘prophet’ in the mould of Hitler. He is a genius with the rare gift of saying the exact things that resonate with the innermost yearnings of a whole ethnic group, at the subconscious level. It is an uncanny, almost spiritual phenomenon. Perhaps, that is why the IPOB leader has ascended the unspoken office of Biafran high priest, adorning himself with the regalia of the Jewish religious scholar.

    That was exactly what Hitler did. He raised Nazism to the pitch of faith, and the Swastika as its mystical symbol of divine presence.

    And this is not where his similarities to Kanu end; he was also put behind bars. And like Kanu, his incarceration period sealed his fate as the de facto “supreme leader” whose struggles becomes a sacramental consecration epitomizing the collective struggle of all his brothers and sisters throughout past and present generations. Hitler accordingly wrote his infamous “Mein Kampf” (my struggle) inside those prison walls that deified him.

    What is more? While constantly raising the genealogical credentials of the German people, Hitler vehemently repudiated the right of the Jewish race to exist as human beings. They were devils, animals, rodents nibbling and feeding off of the socio-economic heritage of the German people. There place was in hell or in the zoo with other vermin!

    Hitler’s hate speech was as vitriolic as it was venomous, and his fellow Germans took vicarious joy in visualizing with him a land free of Jews and a world ruled solely by German giants and their machines.

    Interestingly, this is also the stuff of Kanu’s emergence. He raised Biafranism to the tone of Superiority Anthem. He started his radio Biafra as a propaganda tool and soon endeared himself to embittered Igbo-Nigerians with his hate speech directed at the Nigerian nation – which he called a “zoo”. He hurled hate at Northern-Nigerians and warned Ndigbo to cut ties with “Yoruba (Pentecostal) churches”.

    Now, if majority of Ndigbo accepted Kanu, it is simply because he succeeded in invading their consciousness and channeling their hidden atavistic instincts, even without their realizing this.

    However, the problem is not Kanu’s movement. Nationalism laced with venom is as old as civilization. The problem is what Ndigbo would do with his message, as it has already awakened a people to become an overnight raging mob. The concern is that at the height of their exuberance, they could be blinded to the consequences of their rage-induced mass action.

    So, before the Biafran vanguard begins to vault over the frontiers in a prepaid aggression, they should pause and ask, what is really the best strategy to achieve Ndigbo’s agenda? Is Ndigbo better off outside Nigeria or inside a restructured Nigerian federation? Which one would best serve their enterprising spirit and globally minded youthful population?

    To the first question, I think Ndigbo are better served under a truly-federated republic of Nigeria, as it was before former military leaders centralized it in 1966, than as a stand-alone startup christened Biafra.

    To the second question, it is sensible that Ndigbo’s enterprising spirit would need a wider socio-political space to become a global player in today’s 21st Century world.

    Germany’s place in the European Union is an example. No doubt, Germany is a great country in its own right, yet it has understood the place of regional leverage in today’s world of goodwill and diplomatic consensus. It is a world where everybody understands that as human beings, we are wont to segregate, and are perennially haunted by the “me and mine” mentality.

    That, even within a homogeneous tribe, excuses and justifications would still emerge to justify sub-group dichotomy, bipolarization and mutual distrust.

    That, there is the likelihood that once Biafra were achieved, a new minority would emerge and a new struggle erupt, just as we presently see in South Sudan, Eritrea and Somalia.

    This means that Ndigbo cannot afford to destroy what it has built from 1970 on the altar of a perceived El Dorado. The truth is that there is no paradise on the earth plane. Nations are sustained by continuous negotiations and compromise. Even families of same parentage can only live peacefully not because they are always happy with each other but because they have better things to gain by continuing to share in their brotherhood.

    Is it not ironical that the same Nnamdi Kanu who is pushing for a total exit from Nigeria, is also promising his followers that Biafra would be a “confederation” where Ijaws, Efiks, Ibibios, etc., would maintain their ethnic integrity within the Biafran nation? The question, if he can practice “confederation within Biafra” why can’t he practice “confederation within Nigeria”?

    The world of 2017 is a place of cooperation and compromise. Humanity has evolved better ways of living together as creatures of equal legacy. The world has come to agree that we all are co-travellers in the earthly journey; there is no superior race or tribe, and there is no better way to talk to each other than “talking”.

    The Igbo, a great progressive African tribe, should not allow the ethnic/nationalistic fever that was whipped up like a ghost in the night by some anti-earth elements to blaze off its ever innovative, adaptive, egalitarian, progressive faculties. When the chips are down, those foreigners and ethnic minority neighbours some misguided Ndigbo are counting on to help them actualize Biafra, would not hesitate to abandon the Biafran/Igbo dream for its own ethnic hopes, no matter how untenable.

  • The police is your friend… we are the friends of the police!

    The first time you saw the mounted signboard with the slogan – The Police Is Your Friend – I know exactly how you felt, yes (!!)  But for the Princess’ Files today, I will enjoin you to be friends to the police, with special reference to the officers I will mention here whose diligence, gallantry and self-sacrificing action sets them apart.

    I have always had special admiration for the professionalism of three notable policemen.

    (1)         Mr. Frank Odita for his deep love for people’s safety.  Even after retirement he has kept a long-running television program, teaching on how to remain safety conscious at all times.

    (2)         U. Usen of blessed memory, and the former Commandant of the Police Staff College Jos.  His rules were across board, no exceptions for anyone.  In his household, the latest time for his young sons to be out was 10.00p.m, he had one of his sons kept in the guardroom of the college overnight for flouting the cut-off time.  Another son is now a serving policeman!

    (3)         Mr. Mike Okiro.  A lover of peoples security, and a performer.  He was posted to Lagos as Police Commissioner when armed robbery there was at an all-time high.  On his arrival then, he announced that he would catch a certain, dreaded armed robber who had terrorized the entire city.  And in no time, Okirobecame a hero in Lagos when he caught the said young man and his gang – behold the man was the son of a retired policeman.  Okiro’s devotion to the job made him saw him rise to the position of Inspector-General of Police, and one of his sons is now a cop.

    Okiro is very concerned about the security of the populace, and his easy-to-read books on safety give readers practical tips on how to remain safe, vigilant and alert.

    Today though, I want to pay tribute to two gallant policemen, one in England, one in Nigeria, who have put the safety of the public first – without a thought to their own lives.

    This story in Part 1 is all about the bravery of one British Police Officer P.C. Wayne Marques, who, virtually unarmed, took on a dangerous set of terrorists:

    London is said to be one of the very few capitals in the world whose policemen are essentially unarmed.  One of their officers is Police Constable Wayne Marques, a British Transport Police.  His instant response to calls for help from the public on the night of Saturday, June 3, 2017 had him singlehandedly tackling around terrorists, just near the London Bridge terror scene, quite unexpectedly.

    Marques rushed to the scene armed only with the legendary baton of the British Police upon receiving reports of stabbings in Borough Market Area close to London Bridge.  Marques had no idea that the men he was tackling that night were terrorists.  Marques was one of the first on the scene, minutes after 10.00pm, and on witnessing two men stabbing one person, he used his baton and brought one of the attackers down.

    In a radio interview later, he said he then just swung his baton and brought down the second man whose knife was dangerously close. Then he felt a sensation in his eye before a seeming blackout – but kept telling himself – Don’t go Down.  By then, he had been stabbed in the face enough to temporarily stop his vision in one eye.

    Marques still did not surrender; he made to chase after the third terrorist, only to find that his life just would not move.  It was then he discovered that the first man had managed to get up and stab him in the leg in an attempt to bring the cop down.

    The three attackers stood and faced him shoulder to shoulder.  It was only then he realized they were terrorists as they started their now famous chant.  Marques was stabbed again, in the hand before the men turned and continued their killing spree, attacking other people around.  Then, minutes later, the terrorists, YoussefZaghba, KhuramBult and RachidRaduane were shot dead by police marksmen who arrived the scene.

    Sadly by then, the terrorists had killed eight innocent people and wounded several others.  Over in nearby London Bridge terrorists there have killed seven people and injured forty-eight others just minutes earlier.

    Mercifully now, after series of operations, Marques has regained sight in his right eye, but has lost feeling in the right side of his head where his nerves were severed.  For now he cannot walk unaided.  Marques, an instant hero, says he all he wanted to do was to save peoples’ lives.

    …Part 2 is the story of the Nigerian Mobile Policeman Sergeant ChukwudiIboko who lost his life bravely tackling the gang of bank robbers (of the trending CCTV footage).

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  • El-Rufai, Southern Kaduna and the Chibok hangover

    El-Rufai, Southern Kaduna and the Chibok hangover

    The volcanic uproar that greeted Governor Nasir El-Rufai’s disclosure of negotiations with Fulani herdsmen, and that he had indeed paid some form of monetary compensation to “Buy Peace” for the troubled Southern Kaduna, was like a thunderbolt.

    The uproar not only killed the “Buy Peace Programme”, but also fundamentally changed the relationship between the governor and most Southern Kaduna people. If it was a marriage, the court would have had no hesitation dissolving it, because it had irretrievably broken down. The couple are not on talking terms; only the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is holding them together.

    Following the killings and the invasion of some Southern Kaduna villages, by suspected Fulani herdsmen that had resulted in the destruction of crops farmlands, raping of women, killing and maiming of people, accused of being indifferent to their plight El -Rufai had entered into talks with the herdsmen.

    But rather than the positive reaction, understanding or commendations that he must have craved for, he got ton loads of abuses. The implication is that the El- Rufai has become “extremely cautious” on issues relating to Southern Kaduna.

    The deal – paying “murderous Fulani herdsmen” to stop the killings in Southern Kaduna – some of his aides confided in me was one of the most difficult decisions forced on him by circumstances beyond his control.

    “By his DNA, El-Rufai is a law and order man. Recall the swiftness with which he dealt with the Shiites’ matter. Which is why his opponents should have given him benefit of doubt. The deal was repulsive to him. But it was a testimony to his pragmatism that, caught between the devil and the deep sea “he was willing to travel that road” said his one of his aides. Kaduna State doesn’t have the money to throw around. Federation allocation is in the region of N2.4billion, out of which N2.2billion is spent on salaries

    Was El -Rufai guided by Louise Diamond words that “conflicts are a call to creative problem solving?” Because even the framers of the constitution aware that certain situations will threaten the general well -being of the state, gave the state some leeway in such circumstances to “close” its eyes to blue murder. To the extent that the state can declare a murder case, a homicide case.

    Why is the Attorney General and Minister of Justice granted the power to terminate trial – nolle prosequi? The case of Sergeant Barnabas Rogers, who confirmed killing Kudirat Abiola, is a case in point. To nail Major Hamza al-Mustapha the Lagos State government “wined and dined” with Rogers. To date Rogers hasn’t been prosecuted. That is the power of the state.

    Definitely there were issues that needed to be addressed pursuing the “Buy Peace” option. For instance, if El- Rufai had factored in compensation for victims into the deal, to enable people get back their life, if massive rehabilitation of the areas devastated was also part of what should be a comprehensive package and if only the governor kept quiet about it, maybe it would have survived.

    El-Rufai was forced to beat a retreat, largely because both sides – the governor and the people of Southern Kaduna, rather than communicating, are talking down on each other. So rather than retool the policy, it was totally shut down.

    Since it is now obvious that the Nigerian government is engaged in negotiations with Boko Haram, why shouldn’t Kaduna State negotiate with the herdsmen – especially as the Immigration, Customs and the entire security services has proven incapable of stopping them from entering into Nigeria and causing mayhem? And like they say, when two elephants fight, the grass suffers.

    The grass that have been suffering are the people, who can’t go to farm, who have had to endure curfews when the herdsmen strike and there is a threat to peace. Military operations, most times become part of the crisis, and the students whose educational pursuit has been adversely affected by the closure of the Kafanchan Campus of the Kaduna State University and the College of Education, Gidan Waya, also suffer.

    Considering the state of relationship between the governor and the Southern Kaduna people, the last disaster El – Rufai needs is the kidnap of students – real or stage managed. If this happens he would be politically finished.

    He doesn’t need a soothsayer to know this. He is one of the All Progressives Congress (APC) leaders that gave Goodluck Jonathan hell. So he has firsthand experience of what the former president went through. That experience will be an everlasting lesson to politicians. Oyo State Governor Abiola Ajimobi, is still battling image problems arising from his encounter with students of the closed Ladoke Akintola University. His other name quickly became “Constituted Authority”.

    To date there are those, who believe that the Chibok girls kidnap was stage managed, to help defeat Jonathan, especially as the school had before the attack been closed for more than four weeks, due to the security situation. It was to be reopened, in spite of obvious threats and warnings by the exam body to the state government to move them to a safer environment for their final exams in physics.

    In hire wire politics nothing matters – not even life. The poor students were kidnapped and they have become pawns in the hands of politicians and their captors. Their parents with the support of the opposition made a huge noise about the Jonathan’s government’s perceived lack of interest and inadequate response.

    To show that it will always be politics, the Bring Back Our Girls movement has equally clashed with the Buhari administration for its lackadaisical attitude to the problem. The conspiracy theory has remained unabated especially as some of the recently released girls seemed to be well fed and not distressed. The kidnap caused local and international outrage more against the Goodluck administration, than the Boko Haram insurgents.

    What makes the situation dicey, is that Southern Kaduna, like Chibok, is a Christian-dominated area. And there has been also sorts of conspiracy theories of planned Islamization, of forced takeover of land due to the arable nature of land in the Middle-Belt area.

    These are issues that can’t be ignored and why El -Rufai in my view, hasn’t risked re- opening the schools. The other reason is that the governor, believes that nothing is beyond the opposition- within the state and outside the state.

    When El – Rufai, sees Femi Fani Kayode and Southern Kaduna People’s Union (SOKAPU) leaders meeting, he knows it will never be towards making life easy for him. He can also comfortably justify the continued closure with the claims of genocide by SOKAPU. So are the Southern Kaduna people caught up in their alarms? By asking that the schools be reopened are they affirming that the security situation has improved?

    The governor, considering the facts available to him as Chief Security Officer of the state, must carry key stakeholders along. If he won’t talk to SOKAPU, because he sees them as partisan, then he must talk to the main stakeholders – the students and their parents.

    The meeting between some of the Student Union officials and the government should be expanded to include class representatives and departmental bodies. He has a duty to disabuse the minds of the people of the Southern Kaduna, including those of his supporters that he is not inflicting unnecessary pain on the people.

    SOKAPU sees the continued closure of the schools as “educational genocide”. For them, the government’s argument that the schools have remained closed, due to insecurity holds no water considering that some private and government schools – including the School of Nursing and the Kafanchan campus of the College of Education, have remained open without any disruption to academic activities.

    My take moving forward, SOKAPU and others clamoring that the schools be opened, can push El- Rufai to the wall by promising to provide extra security. They should be able to play hardball with the governor and go beyond talk and threats, which haven’t worked in the past and is not likely to work now. Play hard politics with El-Rufai.

    Another argument that has been advanced to buttress why El – Rufai should reopen the schools is that University of Maiduguri in spite of the security situation of Borno State, has remained open. So why not the schools in Southern Kaduna?

    But as I write the University of Maiduguri is just recovering from another deadly bomb attack. As I write the kidnapped students of the Senior Secondary School students of Lagos state Model College, Igbonla, Epe, are still being held, even after their parents had paid N10 million ransom fee.

    Unfortunately Kaduna is not Borno. When it boils it literally affects the entire country. Kaduna has a terrible “image”, going by the number of crises it had witnessed in the past, even though some of them had to do with issues that were foreign, like the United States bombing of Afghanistan, the publication of an offensive article by Thisday Newspaper on Prophet Mohammed.

    These were not local problems, but they both led to total breakdown of peace, which has adversely affected the interpersonal relationships, the economy of the state and has also given Kaduna the horrible reputation of a “killer state”, where at the slightest provocation people are at each other’s throat.

    No doubt, there have also been local issues – Sharia riots, religious and communal clashes etc. The bottom line is that Kaduna State has always been in the news, but for all the wrong reasons. If fifth columnists attack these schools, what will be the fate of Kaduna State – the usual circle of retaliatory and counter killings? These are factors that are all out there.

    For IPOB the killing of one Ibo man will be presenting to them on a platter of gold, a weapon of blackmail to intensify its agitation for Republic of Biafra. Previous indiscriminate killings especially of Ibos, had triggered a chain of counter killings in the South-East, and to some extent in the South -West, North – Central and the South -South zones.

    I know for a fact that in 1992,after the Zangon Kataf  riots, the Federal Government stopped people from taking corpses out of Kaduna and Kano States ,because the sight of corpses being taken back to states like Abia ,Delta ,Adamawa , Lagos ,Bauchi ,Rivers , Anambra  would definitely trigger retaliatory killings on behalf  of their “people”  and there will be retaliatory strikes again in the North. And the cycle will continue, until the military steps in. That is how bad things are with our country.

    Moving forward the governor and the Southern Kaduna people, must open a channel of communication. Both sides must talk to each other. We have the example of South Africa, where ultimately it was the old man Nelson Mandela, though in prison, that negotiated the deal that led to an independent rainbow South Africa.

    The youths of Soweto did their bit, like the youths of Southern Kaduna- they have protested and the world has heard them. But after the shots, there will always be talks. Where are the Yakowas, the Balats? Who can lead the South through this challenging chapter of its history? Presently the government spends billions on security and this hasn’t really been effective. And while we can put amount to such efforts, we can never quantify human life in monetary terms, nor the long term damages to relationships. Nigeria today is dangerously divided.

  • Ajimobi’s six years of building enduring legacies

    During the electioneering for the 2011 governorship election, nearly all the political parties and their candidates jostling for the coveted office in Oyo State employed the usual refrain to worm themselves into the hearts of the electorate. As they mounted the rostrum, all you hear then was ‘we will build roads; low-cost houses will be yours for the asking; it will be life in abundance for citizens and sojourners…’ In fact, some chose to revile past holders of the office or frontline opponents in the war of attrition. Like Jesus Christ, in one of his parables to the Pharisees in John, Chapter 10, some of these politicians, who could hardly win in their polling units, would say, “All who came before me were thieves and robbers…The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they (you) may have life and have it in all its fullness.” Rather than malign his predecessors or adopt vainglory approach, Senator Abiola Ajimobi chose a different path. He would always tell his teeming supporters that “if I will not make a remarkable difference as governor, may God abort this ambition. But, if my becoming governor will turn around the fortunes of this state may God assist me to surmount every obstacle towards realizing my ambition.” He did not only win in 2011, but broke the second term jinx in 2015 with the support of the appreciative citizens of the state.

    In retrospect, it is on record that the Oyo State Ajimobi inherited in 2011 was an entity in complete tumult. Murder, brigandage, rape, arson and other forms of violence qualified Oyo then as a Hobbesian state where life was short and brutish. Motor Park czars and political jobbers, who have been canonised by incorrigible local overlords with connection in high places, had virtually made the state ungovernable. At the height of the impunity, one was described at a public event as a “dried fish that cannot be bent” by the very key figure the hapless citizens looked up to for their redemption.   As the stupefied audience exchanged glances, he assailed them with the clincher, ‘you have to live with his excesses.’

    No doubt, the job of government is to protect and promote the socio-economic wellbeing of the citizenry, through the provision of an enabling environment. It was with this in mind that Ajimobi premised his administration’s policy thrust on the restoration of peace and security, as well as the fading glory of the pacesetter state in all spheres. It was not mere happenstance that on assumption of office, the governor introduced eight pyramids of development, among which safety, peace and security were pivotal.

    Ajimobi’s pyramid of development bears semblance to the theory of human needs espoused by the American psychologist, Abraham Maslow, in his 1954 book, Motivation and Personality. In hierarchical order, Maslow had rated safety and security needs highly, next to physiological needs (air, water, food, shelter, clothing and other basic physical requirements), which are the sine qua non of human existence.

    In six years, the governor’s scorecard in peace and security suggest that he did not only dream about his desire to make the people of the state sleep with their two eyes firmly shut, he walked his talk. First, he reined in the rapacious drivers’ unions before clamping down on other bands of brigands. Next, the governor inaugurated a joint security outfit codenamed ‘operation burst’ with six zonal commands to whip into line the errant scallywags disturbing the peace of the land. To give the outfit the needed bite, the governor procured armoured personnel carriers, a fleet of patrol vehicles and state-of-the-art communication equipment for its operation. To enlist the support of stakeholders and forestall encumbrances in its running, the governor went a step further by floating a security trust fund to raise funds for its operations. The result of these efforts is a drastic reduction in crime rate and civil unrest manifesting in no major crime or robbery in the last six years.

    Today, nightlife that was hitherto at zero level is now witnessing a new hustle and bustle, with night clubs and drinking joints dotting the landscape. Residents can now freely pass through the once dreaded Iwo Road interchange, formerly the den of armed robbers, drug addicts and rapists, who hid under the cover of darkness to bare their fangs.

    For the furtherance of his agenda on safety and security, the forward-looking governor had recently embraced the safe city project.    The project will proffer cutting edge solutions that will nip crime and criminality in the bud, especially in Ibadan, the state capital. To this end, Ajimobi recently declared that plans were afoot to install closed circuit television (CCTV) in black spots and business districts in the city to monitor the activities of criminals. Although, the recent onslaught of the self-styled one million boys in Ibadan would suggest that it is not yet Uhuru, the rapid force with which they were crushed confirms that law enforcement agencies are equal to the task of tackling and ultimately ridding Oyo State of undesirable elements. The incident, however, points to the fact that no society, not even the developed ones, is insulated from crime. Eternal vigilance among citizens and cooperation with law enforcement agencies by blowing whistles on criminals will, no doubt, complement the efforts of the government in this regard.

    Before the advent of the Ajimobi-led administration, Ibadan was touted as one of the dirtiest cities in the country because of the mountain of refuse indiscriminately dumped in open places. The city had no clear cut solid waste management policy, while it constantly suffered environmental hazard and degradation.  But, Ajimobi took up the gauntlet and cleaned up the city in a well thought out urban renewal and physical infrastructure development programmes. Similarly, residents of Ibadan can attest to the poor network of roads in existence before the governor mounted the saddle. Not that his predecessors did not construct roads, but the quality of these roads left much to be desired.

    That the pristine state capital had now become the next investors’ destination will not be an overstatement judging by the number of blue chip companies that have berthed in Ibadan since Ajimobi cleaned up the city. For starters, investors don’t take their money to an environment where the safety and security of their workers and investment would be jeopardised; where there is poor network of roads or where the environment is filthy and uncongenial for business

    At the last count, 36 new companies have been attracted to the state in the last six years, with close to 4000 direct employees, according to figures obtained from the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria. Further proof of this upsurge in industrialisation is the rating of Oyo as the fifth most investment friendly state by the National Bureau of Statistics, which also credited the governor as having attracted more than $61m (N22.4bn) foreign direct investment to the state so far.

    The governor recently opened a new vista of industrial development with the acquisition of large expanse of land on both sides of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway to accommodate the Polaris-Pacesetter Free Trade Zone and an Industrial Park. The free trade zone is one of the dividends of Ajimobi’s many shuttles to China, where Oyo State is now very popular, because of the governor’s relentlessness and spirited efforts to attract investors into the state.  Exuding confidence at a recent event, the governor enthused that seven of the more than 157 companies expected to populate the free trade zone would be inaugurated by the end of this year.

    Within the first six years of his administration, Ajimobi constructed the Mokola flyover, which was the first by any civilian governor in the state. Although it may sound exaggerated, some travellers coming into Ibadan through the Challenge/Orita axis for the first time in six years have been said to miss their ways due to the transformation brought to the area with the new network of six-lane roads. Apart from Challenge, the once decrepit Alesinloye, Dugbe-Magazine-Eleyele Roads have been expanded to six lanes, complete with modern furniture and built to last.

    The governor’s road revolution was extended to the other five major zones of the state. Thus, Oyo, Ogbomoso, Ibarapa, as well as Oke-Ogun I (Iseyin axis) and Oke-Ogun II (Saki axis) now boast of six-lane roads, for the first time in their histories. The administration also constructed 183 roads and seven bridges, totalling 590km. Similarly, to improve the condition of the road network across the state a total of 850km roads were rehabilitated and maintained in the last six years.

    In his determination to bequeath a lasting road legacy on the state, the governor had in the past few weeks flagged off the Eleyele-Ologuneru-Eruwa; Idi-Ape-Basorun-Akobo-Odogbo Barracks junction; Gate-Old Ife Road-Alakia, as well as Oke Adu-Iwo Roads for construction into standard and six-lane roads. In Ajimobi’s avowed determination to enlist Ibadan among the elite state capitals and mega cities, the governor had also revived the Ibadan Circular Road, which had remained a dream in the past 15 years under successive administrations. To the delight of citizens, the governor had during the flag off ceremony explained that the project was awarded to the ENL Consortium Limited at the cost of N70bn, under a build, operate and transfer arrangement. He emphasised that it would be entirely financed by the contractor through a facility sourced from the China Exim Bank. When completed, the road is poised to decongest the city and enhance its aesthetics, apart from its unquantifiable commercial value. To demonstrate the importance attached to these projects, the governor had told the contractors that they must be completed before he leaves office.

    Again, in order to restore sanity to the state, the governor recently inaugurated the first of its kind master plan for Ibadan, the state capital, in conjunction with the World Bank, while he also established the Bureau of Physical Planning and Development control. All these are tailored towards ending the regime of indiscriminate and haphazard constructions in Ibadan.  But for the Ajimobi-inspired World Bank-assisted Ibadan Urban Flood Management initiative, the perennial flooding that had consumed lives and property in Ibadan prior to his regime would have again wreaked havoc this year. In the last six years, extensive dredging and channelization efforts had taken place in the Ogunpa and other rivers in Ibadan, while drainages are being desilted for free flow of water.

     

    As the Yoruba will say, ‘Oro po ninu iwe kobo’ (there are far too many words to encounter in a penny-worth newspaper!). There is so much to reel out about the Ajimobi success story…it will amount to a disservice to the governor, popularly called the game changer, to attempt to lump all his achievements in this single piece. Thus Ajimobi’s indelible footprints in education, agriculture, health, housing, social infrastructure, transportation, governance and service matters will have to be told another day soon. What is for sure and unarguable is that Ajimobi has already etched his name in the sands of time and would most certainly be remembered as the builder of the modern Oyo State by generations to come. Undoubtedly, Ajimobi’s regime was ordained by God.

    • Oyedele is Senior Special Assistant (Media) to Oyo State Governor

  • Nigeria on the verge of extraordinary greatness

    WILLIAMS Shakespeare, a man of super-eminent genius once said, “For there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so”. This timeless truth is what we are facing in our country Nigeria today. It is natural that providence usually presents man with a raw deal to make out of it whatever he chooses. This is where the diversity in human perception is abundantly exhibited. In one and the same circumstance, some see bubbling life while others see cold death, some see exciting opportunities and seize them while others see despairing frustration, some see the beginning of good things while others see the sad end of the road, some see bright hope while others see gloomy hopelessness; in one and the same situation, some see the very best of things while others see the worst their lives have ever seen. Though all view the same scenario at the same time, they have divergent results due to differences in human perception.

    Today, providence has provided Nigeria with another opportunity in the present economic situation to make out of it whatever Nigeria would want. Wordsmiths have set the ball rolling with a befitting name tagged “economic recession”. While some great thinking Nigerians look at the economic situation as the right opportunity we need, and in fact, the opportunity we have been waiting for to bring out our best to make the country great, others are looking at it as the darkest era in the history of our country that would ultimately mark the end of Nigeria as a nation. One may ask, what is the major cause of this economic recession? And the answer would be the unpredictable and unexpected abysmal fall in the prices of Crude Oil. If a sudden fall in the price of oil would cause economic recession, it then follows that a sudden rise in the prices of Crude Oil should cause economic renaissance.

    However, this is far from being the case in the Nigerian situation. For instance, the Oil boom in the early 70’s which brought in so much money did not bring with it corresponding economic renaissance, rather the then Head of State- General Yakubu Gowon had to say that Nigeria’s problem was not money but how to spend it, and in looking for ways of spending the huge money that was in reckless abundance, the government called on Chief Udoji who awarded a geometric increase in workers’ salaries and wages leading to super abundant liquidity in circulation which in turn laid the first foundation for inflation on which Nigeria has been sliding down to the present perceived doom. Another case of a sudden upsurge in the prices of Crude Oil without a corresponding upsurge in economic activities but rather greeted with various agitations was in 1993 during the Gulf War.

    Though there was a geometric upsurge in the prices of crude oil leading to torrential inflow of Dollars into the nations coffers, there was no economic renaissance, rather, different kinds of economic policies were introduced at this time including SAP; many has it that it was at this same period that the word ’’corruption’’ was officially established in our national life. The most recent of such boom was during President Jonathan’s regime when so many windfalls were recorded bountifully – what happened? Did we have any economic renaissance? Not in the least; some say the Governors insisted that the Excess Crude Account be shared, and so it went. So, has the oil boom set us on the path of economic revival? Has it done us any good? What foundation has it laid for the younger generation? To some of us, this is the best time for Nigeria to rise, the best time for Nigeria to launch out, the best time for Nigeria to stand up and show the world what stuff we are made of. History has it that, countries with the best economies of the world today did not rise from a bed of roses to achieve the feat. Japan rose from a far worse condition than what we are experiencing to become a world class economy. Having suffered a dehumanising defeat from the Coalition Forces of the Second World War with the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the United States of America under General Douglas Mac Arthur took over the leadership of Japan, tried and convicted of war crimes 25 of their most prominent leaders who would inspire national economic and political revival and publically executed them. America placed Japan under political and economic siege for over 7 years. When America finally left, Japan was nothing more than a graveyard. But out of this hopelessness, Japan decided they would lead the world in 10 years.

    They came up with the slogan ‘’let the best teach the rest’’. The best in all fields of human endeavours began to teach the rest and the rest is history about Japan’s economy today. I therefore call on all Nigerians, providence has provided us today with a golden opportunity to be an extraordinary great nation, let us rise up quickly and seize it. It is not time for blame trading, it is not time for accusing the President and his economic team of incompetence, it is not time for criticisms and counter criticisms, it is not time for endless weeping over spilled milk, rather ,it is time for us to arise and meet the challenge headlong. Like Japan, let Nigeria’s best all over the world come forward, and let the best teach the rest in all fields of human endeavour. The world is yet to see what Nigeria can do. We will take over the world in all spheres of life. The greatest giant strides in the field of science and technology, the greatest scientific discoveries and innovations in this age will be made by Nigerians on this our soil as we seize this long awaited opportunity. Let us set ourselves to work. The world is waiting for Nigeria, let’s go!

  • An image of Africa: Between Achebe and Conrad

    (This piece first published on 4th August, 2013, is being reproduced today because it still remains so pertinent to the Nigerian, nay African, condition. Please peruse and ponder)

    THERE is a fascinating edition of a collection of the works of the late Chinua Achebe simply titled ‘An Image of Africa’. It is published in the Penguin series of great ideas that features such great minds as Chuang Tzu, Epictetus, Niccolo Machiavelli, Rene Descartes, John Stuart Mill and Charles Darwin among several others. The first part of this book contains what Achebe considers as nothing but sheer racism in Joseph Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’. In his clinical dissection of Conrad’s novel, Achebe contends that “Heart of Darkness projects the image of Africa as ‘the other world’, the antithesis of Europe and therefore of civilization, a place where man’s vaunted intelligence and refinement are finally mocked by triumphant bestiality”.

    Achebe continues: “In my original conception of this essay I had thought to conclude it nicely on an appropriately positive note in which I would suggest from my privileged position in African and Western cultures some advantages the west might derive from Africa once it rids its mind of old prejudices and began to look at Africa not through a haze of distortions and cheap mystifications but quite simply as a continent of people – not angels, but not rudimentary souls either – just people, often highly gifted people and often strikingly successful in their enterprise with life and society”. Even though he was immensely successful as an individual writer, thinker and intellectual, it is highly unlikely that Chinua Achebe died a fulfilled and contented man.

    This is because Africa, his beloved Africa, despite its immense human and material endowments, still lies in the throes of poverty, impunity and underdevelopment. It would appear to me that if Joseph Conrad were to resurrect today and write a novel about Africa, he would still characterise the continent as the ‘heart of darkness’. From all indices of human development, Africa lags pathetically behind – in education, health, infrastructure, poverty, disease, ignorance among several others. Ironically, the second part of this Penguin collection of Achebe’s work comprises of his seminal short essays simply titled ‘The Trouble with Nigeria’. Although these essays were penned over three decades ago, they are ever so still relevant to contemporary Nigeria.

    It would appear to me that Achebe’s ‘The Trouble with Nigeria’ confirms Conrad’s deprecatory disposition to the black man. Nigeria is the most populous black nation on earth. She harbours natural and mineral resources beyond imagination. She is blessed with abundant human genius. In his last characteristically well written but controversial work ‘There was a Country: A personal history of Biafra’, Achebe documents how the British colonialists ran an impressive and efficient public administration in Nigeria .All that has gone to the dogs. As Achebe bluntly put it over thirty years ago, “Nigeria is not a great country.

    It is one of the most disorderly nations in the world. It is one of the most corrupt, insensitive, inefficient places under the sun. It is one of the most expensive countries and one of those that give least value for money. It is dirty, callous, noisy, ostentatious, dishonest and vulgar. In short, it is among the most unpleasant places on earth!” Our severe critic is not finished with us yet. According to him, “It is a measure of our self-delusion that we can talk about developing tourism in Nigeria. Only a masochist with an exuberant taste for self-violence will pick Nigeria for a holiday; only a character out of Tutuola seeking to know punishment and poverty at first hand! No, Nigeria may be a paradise for adventurers and pirates, but not tourists”.

    Are these the words of an incurable cynic who hates his country for no just cause? Are they the musings of a mind incapable of loving his country, warts and all as a true patriot should? No, I believe these words are borne of genuine affection for the fatherland, a deep desire that an otherwise well -endowed country achieve her full potentials. They are words of truth and truth, all too often, is a bitter pill to swallow. Three decades after Achebe’s words, the infrastructure across the country has decayed abysmally. The public education sector is comatose at all levels. Public health care has virtually collapsed. Kidnapping, armed robbery and suicide bombing have become commonplace across the land. Poverty has worsened. Corruption has deepened. The Nigerian state is clearly on the verge of collapse.

    I believe that Achebe despaired that our generation of Africans, by our actions and inactions, were actually confirming the inferiority tag implicit in Joseph Conrad’s depiction of the black man. Take the scale of corruption in contemporary Nigeria for example. Privileged officials siphon billions of Naira of pension funds into their private accounts. Yet, pensioners who have spent the best part of their lives serving their country die of exhaustion on endless pension ques. Before now, the norm was to steal thousands and then millions of Naira.

    Today, the fashion is to guzzle billions of Naira or even dollars. As Achebe put it three decades ago, “We have become so used to talking in millions and billions that we have ceased to have proper respect for the sheer size of such numbers. I sometimes startled my students by telling them that it was not yet one million days since Christ was on earth. As they gazed open-mouthed I would add: not even half a million days!” Yet, see how things have worsened. The inimitable Chinua Achebe no doubt today walks tall among our ancestors. He was an icon of integrity. He was a wordsmith of incomparable clarity. But then, we must heed his words of wisdom and mend our ways or else things will irreversibly fall apart and the great man would have to apologise to Joseph Conrad if their paths cross in the great beyond.

  • The resurgence of Boko Haram and unfolding questions

    BY appointing the National Security Adviser, General Baba Gana Monguno (rtd), Lt-General Tukur Buratai, the Chief of Army, and Air Marshal Sadiq Abubakar, the Air Force boss, all from the North-east, President Muhammadu Buhari was making a statement. The National Assembly was also aware of the happenings in the North-east where Senator Abu kyari was made Chairman, Committee on Defence, and until recently, Mallam Aliyu Betera, Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Defence. While General Monguno hails from the Monguno Local Government Area of Borno State, General Buratai is from the Biu Local Government Area of the state. Air Marshal Sadiq Abubakar hails from Gombe State. Senator Abu Kyari and Mallam Betera are both from Borno State.

    Thus, from the onset of his administration, President Buhari and the National Assembly deliberately or thoughtfully entrusted the battle against the insurgency to men from the North-east with Borno taking the lion’s share. Commenting on these appointments, the Governor of Borno State, Hon. Kashim Shettima, said: “Borno could not have asked for more?” He is absolutely right, for it is the man wearing the shoes that knows where they pinch.

    There is a Yoruba proverb which says the masquerade has given birth to his child, how to dance well is not the father’s responsibility. Besides these appointments, President Buhari gave the military the capability and capacity to bark and bite through the provision of weapons, incentives and an order to subdue the insurgency in three months. At the end of the deadline and beyond, the military gave a good account of itself. All the local government areas occupied by the terrorists were taken back in all the states concerned, while the heat on the insurgents was intensified through ground and air attacks. The climax was late December, 2016 when the military demystified Boko Haram by occupying the Camp Zero, the headquarters of the Boko Haram sect in the Sambisa forest.

    Ever since, the profile of the military in terms performance has been rising. We have been told repeatedly that:“Boko Haram has been degraded and and would not be in a position to take over any local government or community again.” While people sleep with their two eyes closed,the economy of the affected zone, especially Borno State, the epic centre of the insurgency, is gradually picking up. Both the federal government and states concerned have intensified efforts at the rehabilitation and reconstruction programme, especially in the relocation of the over one and a half million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to their respective communities.

    Borno State that took the lion’s share of the IDPs established the Ministry of Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Resettlement and pledged that by May 2017, all the IDPs in the state would be relocated to their permanent homes. As a matter of fact, thousands of the IDPs were relocated to their original communities in Benisheikh, Konduga, Gwoza and others.

    Encouraging as these efforts and commendations are, the dramatic events for about two months now have negatively impacted on the forward match, especially in the rehabilitation and resettlement process. The sudden upsurge of the activities of the insurgents in some parts of Borno, especially in Maiduguri, the state capital, is to say the least frightening and worrisome. For example, for weeks now, the state capital has no respite from a series of suicide bombings and attacks from the insurgents. Even on the eve of the recent visit of the Acting President Yemi Osibanjo to the state, Maiduguri was under siege. For about a month now, the University of Maiduguri has experienced not less than ten bomb blasts with attendant causalities, including security personnel.

    From June 25 to 26 instant, Maiduguri and its environs recorded seven bomb blasts with many killed and injured. The Maiduguri – Damboa – Biu Road which leads to the southern part of the state which travellers use daily under military escort to other parts of the state has now become a death trap as the insurgents attack at will, killing passengers, taking some hostage and taking away their goods, especially, foodstuffs. Even the decision of the Borno State government to relocate all the IDPs to their homes by May 2017 has been put on hold for security reasons.

    Sadly, the pervading fear and uncertainty that originally engulfed the people at the inception of the insurgency is now back with a sense of hopelessness, despair and lack of confidence in the governance gradually creeping in and questions are being asked: How come the sudden turn of events where people are driven from certainty to uncertainty? How come the sudden resurgence of the insurgency with no commensurate response from the military? Could there be a fifth columnist within the authority concerned to undermine the efforts of both the government and military in favour of the insurgents? Why is it that insurgency remains in Borno, whereas Yobe and Adamawa states are witnessing peace? Who wants Borno destroyed? How true is the allegation that some individuals in the military would prefer the war to continue? At a time, the military, in a statement, warned that some prominent men and politicians from the Northeast, especially from Borno, are undermining efforts to end the insurgency for their own gains.

    Are the accused be the brains behind the present ordeal of the people? Who are the sponsors of this heinous crime? Are they untouchable? Who wants to make Borno Afghanistan? Who wants to pull back the wheel of progress of this administration? These are some of the questions that now rattle the minds of the distressed ones in the zone. If the insurgency persists in Borno, the elite as well the politicians from the state in particular, would not escape the harsh judgement of history as they had the opportunity to reverse the trend for better, but they refused.

  • This gifted curse of an eternal hump

    Today, we abuse youth. We demean it. That old-fashioned respect for the young is fast dying out. It is virtually dead.

    Thus our depiction as lower brutes – forgettable elements in the annals of the Nigerian state. Like our fathers, we shall start to agitate like the young at the age of 60 but then it will be too late.

    We may die silent. Silent on the innumerable excesses and grotesqueness of leadership we loathe but have learnt to endure like the gifted curse of an eternal hump. It is never my intention to discountenance such vigorous activism that has become the pastime of contemporary Nigerian youth neither do I intend to ridicule the highly informed protest we consistently launch to counter the meanness of the Nigerian ruling class – for such articulated dissent are worth dying for.

    But despite the riotousness we orchestrate, our heartfelt protests resonate futilely like the maniacal hooting of owls caught in the blaze of the midday sun. Such enterprise…such severe impotence is best suited – as demonstrated by the current ruling class – to presidential corridors and parliaments that neither humanity nor the blandest form of patriotism could substantiate.

    Such silliness is best suited to citizens’ bars and soapboxes we mount in our rant-activated living rooms and courtyards – sounding boards for that infinite, untamed temperament we ennoble till date.

    We shall die silent. Looking around on the noisy inanity of our discontent: words with little meaning, rage with poisoned passion and actions with little worth, one comes to the sad realization that among other ills, we diminish the significance and inestimable timelessness of the intense violence of silence.

    The riotous band of social media activists, youth leaders, human rights activists, women’s rights activists, advocacy chieftains, youth pastors, and so many more that we claim to incarnate distressingly negate that proverbial breed of noble, purposeful youth, scattered and integrated here and there, each in his separate devices – determinedly striving to achieve our individual and collective freedom from the ruling class.

    We are in no measure comparable to such salt of the earth thus our evolution in the worst of ways. Like a forest that has no roots and yet crowds with leaves and boughs, our grandiloquent agitation shall soon wither and die; as the stray notes of a flippant symphony.

    The contemporary youth is as dumb as doornails. Ah yes! I could say that again. A tireless lust remains our woe. Yet we who cannot do without spurting like barrel-heads, to curse our luck and curse the times, even as we do nothing to salvage it, would like to revolt.

    We speak of revolution like the next best thing we could orchestrate after our last follies have fallen silent. We forget that there is a time to speak and time to act; time to scream and silently orchestrate the inestimable violence of uprightness.

    At this juncture, many would cling to the timeliness of the brazen and fundamentally futile, defunct Occupy Nigeria Movement; still, they forget that despite our lack of hesitancy in confronting the State and our romanticized wish to abolish the status quo as the protests dragged, the eventual result was as usual, an opportunistic contract between the exploiters (the government) and a part of the exploited (labour leadership), at the expense of the rest of the exploited (you, me and everyone) – something Noel Ignatin would call “the original sweetheart agreement.”

    Says a lot about our revolutionary potential; today, the Nigerian youth is written off and our grievances dismissed as the crazed rant of a pathetic mass of revolutionary impostors. President Buhari and company couldn’t be wrong for eventually dismissing us as essentially hopeless and misdirected.

    Despite the fervor and promise of the Occupy Nigeria movement, the Nigerian youth remains exploited and perpetually exploitable – victims of what George Bernard Shaw, terms “the stupid system of violence and robbery which we call Law and Industry.”

    Times without number, we moot and romanticize the inevitability of a Nigerian revolution, driven by the nation’s band of poor, disadvantaged youth. We dream of the moment when the

    Nigerian ruling class shall pay with blood, melancholia and despair for every ill they have wrought on us. We envision them in shallow graves and grisly jail cells, lusting for life and desperately seeking a second chance with a kind of humble defeatism. But within that same breadth of history, the Nigerian youth shall pay with more tragedy, more misery and blood even as we bemoan the disappearance of our “better tomorrow.”

    And the reason is hardly far-fetched; in desperate pursuit of our better tomorrow, we have “today” but yet fail to make the best of it. Like the ruling class, the Nigerian youth suffers a lack of intellect and knowledge – useful knowledge to be precise.

    Thus even if spurred by inexorable courage to topple the elite and change our stars, our tragedies shall persist in frequency and extent. After we inter the bones of the last of the ruling class, we shall raise our heads to seek our next best hero only to find none. That is because we who shall survive are as savage as the worst of the ruling class.

    Left to our devices, we display an unforgivable lack of humaneness and character. Hence even if we could successfully seize power, we shall manage to remain not much in significance and sight. Simply put, were our dreams of change realizable, we shall undoubtedly remain the next awful alternative.

    We are victims to an irrepressible yearning to actualize ourselves according to the magnitude in which greed has made us; to speak and act out what vanities we incarnate. We mistake this insatiable craving for stirrings to a revolt. Although it is in actuality, a half-awakened common consciousness, sprung from common grief over our common hardship in poverty, low wages and bad leadership and above all, lack of equity and opportunities.

    All this cause us to think some thoughts and moot some measures together; but when this mutual agitation is ripe for expression, our actions and voices trail off in confusion. Sophistry and deceit are the springboards from which much of our civilization evolve; add mediocrity, mindlessness and greed; and you have a perfect representation of the Nigerian youth.

    We were wrong to think it a matter of years and decades that we would improve in citizenship and tact. We are unaware – like our base and iniquitous elite – that true citizenship essentially translates to being an emissary of truth, hope, superior culture and progress to both the literate and unschooled.

    Now that time, among other things, devaluates every hackneyed premise, anecdote, and elitist abstraction we recycle and foster, shall we begin to affect such citizenship deserving of our battered State? It is about time we rose in rebellion against the foul breath of socio-political oppression and economic slavery characteristic of the incumbent ruling class? We could begin from the grassroots.