The Nation Newspaper

Category: Dele Agekameh

  • A father’s uncommon sacrifice 

    Sometime last year, I wrote about how important it is to have more people willing to share information with security agencies in the fight against violence and terror in the northern part of the country. In that piece entitled: “Boko Haram and the North”, my argument was that one crucial missing factor that had been hindering the fight against violence, especially the sort of organised terror for which groups like the Boko Haram (and now, also, Ansaru) have become notorious for championing in the North, is the insistence of those with valuable knowledge about these groups to consciously shield their relatives and friends purely on filial affinity. And as many commentators have noted, such primordial considerations need to change in the interest of peace and the poor, suffering people of the North.

    So when, recently, I read the story of an anonymous, 60-year old man, of Kanuri descent, in Borno State, who reportedly handed over his son to members of the Joint Task Force, JTF, who are currently battling to flush out Boko Haram and other insurgents who have long held Borno State and many parts of the north-east of Nigeria by the jugular, I was, perhaps, like many other Nigerians, very impressed and hopeful that, at least, we are getting somewhere.

    According to the widely-publicised report, a businessman in the Hausari Ward of Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, was said to have alleged that his son, a member of the deadly group, had participated in the killing of several people in Maiduguri and subsequently handed over the son to men of the JTF in his ward. The son reportedly left the parent’s home a few months ago only to suddenly return home recently to plead with his father to allow him refuge from the current massive onslaught of security forces against the Boko Haram in Borno State, which is now under a state of emergency, alongside Yobe and Adamawa states.

    Following the crackdown by the JTF, a fallout of the emergency declaration by President Goodluck Jonathan on May 14, this year, members of the Boko Haram have been running for cover. Apart from the JTF, a group of youths under the aegis of Community Vigilance Group is also on the prowl, hunting down Boko Haram members, and in many instances, handling down instant death sentences in the form of jungle justice to whoever is caught. It is in the wake of these counter-insurgency moves that the young man reportedly ran back to the bosom of his father and confessed to how he had joined hands to kill people and loot banks, pleading with his father to shield him. But he met a brick wall as his principled father reportedly turned him down flatly. The old man was said to have told his son that it was against his conscience to keep a roving assassin, an armed robber and such a big security threat in his home. Pronto, the man approached the office of the JTF and told them of the criminal involvement of his son in serial killings and robbery. Some soldiers followed him home to arrest the son, but as fate would have it, the son tried to escape arrest and was shot dead.

    Remarkably, in an affirmative demonstration of his unflagging will to live on the right path, not only did the man turn over his son to the authorities, he also had the fortitude to resist touching the ill-gotten wealth his son reportedly starched away near their home. The young man had revealed to the father and the family the location of two cars and millions of naira he had acquired from his association with Boko Haram’s activities. Impressively, the father declined to taint his Islamic faith by taking inheritance of assets he considers haram (forbidden).

    This is a remarkable story by all account. A story that, no doubt, demonstrates the true face of religious faith, the true face of Islam. It doubtlessly vindicates many of the moderate Muslims who have been trying to tell anyone that would listen that extremist groups like Boko Haram do not represent Islam. It is a story that is sure to add more volume to the voice of those Muslims whose voices have long been drowned out by the guns and bombs of radical, violence-oriented Muslim groups and individuals like Boko Haram and their members. It is difficult to properly account for how far this might go in convincing doubters that Islam has no place for the likes of Boko Haram but what a bold statement in vindication of those who have continuously argued in defence of Islamic extremism.

    Of course, this is not the first time a father would keep his paternal feeling from interfering with his judgment where terror and his son are concerned. In 2009, after Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s failed attempt to detonate a bomb on a flight to Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States of America, it later emerged that his father had, prior to the botched attempt, warned the authorities about the increasing extremist leaning of his son. Today, Abdulmutallab, has come to be known notoriously worldwide as “the underwear bomber” now in jail in America. One staggering discovery, all through the renewed offensive against terror in the North-East in particular, is that the residents have been showing more bravery in exposing violent elements in their midst, even if these elements were family members. In many cases, the implications for the whistle blowers have been perilous. However, this un-named businessman’s case is without doubt at a different level. It is a heroic deed and sacrifice of highly uncommon extent for a parent to be so brave for the sake of his faith and the safety of others, to the detriment and even death of his own flesh and blood. This could rightly be christened: “A Brave Father’s Uncommon Sacrifice for Sanity”.

    Still, maybe we should afford ourselves the right to tinker our praise for the old man in question with a slight dose of ‘practical pessimism’ here, for a combination of factors might have been responsible for his decision. So, maybe, we can look at this man’s act in a slightly different light. In this regard, perhaps we can be a little cynical and play the devil’s advocate by arguing that he might have acted more in self-preservation – that time-tested, time-proven golden rule in human existence – knowing fully the potential dire consequences for his son and the burden that might put on members of the family. Now, is it totally implausible to think that the man was merely trying to save his own neck from his son by resorting to that course of action? Let’s look at it this way: in April this year, the son was said to have threatened to kill the father shortly before he (the son) bolted out of home. He only came back to appease his father when he realised that he could no longer take the heat the JTF, with the help of members of the Youth Vigilance Group, was dishing out to him and his fellow terrorists at Boko Haram’s training camps in Kirenoa and Sambisa games reserve forests of the state.

    Whatever the ‘permutation’, in the final analysis, especially in an increasingly materialistic 21st Century, when it seems that the values of altruism are becoming increasingly peripheral in the lives of many, we have to doff our hats to this brave man’s uncommon vote for faith, peace and sanity. Many people in his shoes in the past might have been tempted to look the other way and cover up their wards’ misdeeds for some selfish interests. Maybe, we should ask: How many Nigerians can go the whole hog to expose the nefarious activities of their children or wards like this Kanuri businessman?

    If parents can put their feet down and dissuade their children from taking the easy route to sudden wealth and perdition, a greater percentage of the economic and social problems we now experience in Nigeria will be history.

     

  • Fayemi’s final triumph (2)

    Fayemi’s final triumph (2)

    I was with General Adetunji Olurin from October 2006 till March 2007 as media consultant, when he was in charge in Ekiti State as the Administrator. This was sequel to the political crisis that engulfed the state after the dramatic impeachment of Ayodele Fayose, erstwhile governor of the state. A member of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Fayose was impeached by the PDP-controlled state House of Assembly in highly controversial circumstances. This led to the war of succession as two members of the ruling party – Friday Aderemi and Biodun Olujimi – laid claim to the seat of power. Aderemi was the Speaker of the House of Assembly who presided over the impeachment of Fayose, while Olujimi was the deputy governor at the time of impeachment. Both Fayose and Olujimi were swept off in the political volcano that swept the man of power away from his ‘throne’. At that time, Fayose had almost converted the governorship position to an imperial majesty dishing out orders which the highly enlightened people of Ekiti found not only distasteful but undignifying of a people with practically one of the largest colony of professors and academics.

    Olujimi did not take kindly to the blanket removal of herself and her principal. That resentment soon snowballed into a near major conflagration as she took on Aderemi, who had immediately pronounced himself governor in line with the constitution. It was in the hullabaloo that ensued that the then maximum President (note the use of the word ‘maximum’), Olusegun Okikiola Aremu Obasanjo, slammed a six-month emergency rule on the state. Although the emergency rule declaration on October 17, 2006 almost stirred another ‘okiki’ (hue and cry) as certain members of the House of Representatives vehemently kicked against the move.

    By the provisions of the Constitution, the House of Representatives automatically assumes the duty of legislation for any state placed under emergency rule. The implication of this was that from then on, the duties of the state House of Assembly, which had been suspended, fell on the House of Representatives. The argument then was that Obasanjo ought to have consulted the House before making the declaration and subsequent appointment of a retired General to take over the running of affairs. Some of the members of the House, especially some principal officers, then seized the opportunity to extort money from the Presidency in order to dance to the President’s tune.

    One other salient issue that came up in the House of Reps over the emergency rule was the dissolution of the local government councils. This was buoyed by internal wrangling in the political landscape of Ekiti itself, especially the fresh bid by those who wanted to succeed Olurin after the expiration of his six-month duty tour as Administrator within the PDP-dominated House of Assembly that was billed to resume sitting immediately the emergency period was over.

    It was really a testing time for Ekiti politics but through prayers, divine intervention and perhaps sophistication of the people of Ekiti, no violence of the minutest magnitude was witnessed during the period. The rest is history. It was a sharp departure from the prevailing political atmosphere in the country today characterised by arson, killings and brigandage of unimaginable proportion which have completely taken over the landscape. This is probably the type of lawlessness and jungle justice a person like Segun Oni might have wished for in order to enable him to actualize his weird and myopic ambition to rule or misrule Ekiti once more since he cannot get his way through in the courts.

    Unfortunately, and surprisingly too, after the latest defeat at the Supreme Court, Oni has now conceded defeat and said that he could not question God. But the reality is that elections will still hold in this country, and dissatisfied parties will still run to the courts and pursue appeals, even beyond the final point as it now appears. But should the electoral process always be compromised and made questionable? Should politicians always question the will of the people? And shall we then not question the decisions of the judiciary?

    Should people or a person like Oni continue to weep and gnash their teeth over spilled milk, when in actual fact, it is glaringly clear to all that Fayemi possesses more administrative, management and human relations acumen to lead his people than the lacklustre administration or style of governance which completely alienated Oni and his government from the people? See the tumultuous crowd that heralded the news of the recent Supreme Court verdict on the Oni-Fayemi challenge. It is apparent that, that same large number or even twice or thrice that could have taken to the streets in protests if Oni had mistakenly been returned to the Government House. Perhaps, he could have thought about the option of ruling from his hometown of Ifaki Ekiti, if he had been returned to government. And, that is, if his people would not reject him outright.

    Oni and others in his clique are no match for Fayemi whose sense of reasoning and scholarly adventurism are enough to send the Onis of this world scampering for cover. Who dare mention a Lilliputian in the gathering of giants? It is an abnormality, a complete misnomer.

    Having said all these, it is instructive to sound a note of warning to the electorate in Ekiti State that 2014 is almost here when elections will be keenly contested in the state. Fayemi and his lieutenants in the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, now re-christened All Progressive Congress, APC, will be standing proudly with the flag of the party soaring higher and higher, Ekiti people should shine their eyes. Do not allow these never-do-well politicians who are clothed like normal human beings confuse you. Vote for Fayemi and his lieutenants and shame the devil. Apart from Fayemi and his henchmen in the APC, no other politician in Ekiti today has anything to offer or that is better to offer the people. They are only after the lean finances of the government, the public till which they are only interested in plundering and plunging the populace into endless poverty, misery and want. You can take their money because it is your money, take their rice and other perquisites but reject them at the final polls. They are not deserving of your votes. Any vote for them is a vote for hunger, deprivation and mass slaughter through non-provision of the essentials of a meaningful living like Fayemi and his people have been doing for the people in the past three years.

    I am not an indigene of Ekiti but I have lived in Ekiti, I have enjoyed the warmth and hospitality of the people, I have observed them from both afar and within. Ekitis are a hardworking lot. With good leaders, they can be the food basket of Nigeria. They have hectares of uncultivated, arable lands scattered all over the state. They are a proud people because they believe in what they can do with either their brains or their hands. I do not see any other society in Nigeria or Africa that parades such a contingent of professors and other academics. It is only in Ekiti that every family has at least one professor or more. They dot the whole landscape, every town, every village, every hamlet. They are just ubiquitous.

    I think Oni should go and look for something more profitable for him to do at the moment. His brand of politics has since become extinct with the coming into the arena by Fayemi and his group. Politics is not the best for Oni. As a water engineer, he can retire to his village in one of the hinterlands and devote his talents to agriculture, especially irrigation farming, channelization and all that. Let him leave politics for the Fayemis of this world!

    Ends.

  • Fayemi’s final triumph (1)

    Fayemi’s final triumph (1)

    There is a joke in legal circle that where an unsuccessful appellant at the Supreme Court of Nigeria remains dissatisfied with the decision of the apex court, he can only take his case to the “court beyond” presided over by the Almighty Himself. This common joke is in reference to the finality of appeals at the Supreme Court level. However, one ‘itinerant’ appellant found out on Friday, May 31, that even the Supreme Court was out of his reach when the apex court dismissed his appeal.

    Segun Oni, ousted governor of Ekiti State, had approached the Supreme Court to appeal the decision of the Court of Appeal sitting in Ilorin delivered on October 15, 2010, which nullified his election and on which basis he was sacked from office, and Kayode Fayemi, the candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, was sworn into office. That decision of the Court of Appeal went on to generate a lot of controversy that led to the investigation by the National Judicial Council (NJC) of the panel of the Court of Appeal that sat on the matter and the suspension of the then President of the Court, Justice Ayo Salami.

    In the appeal he filed at the Supreme Court, Oni, through his counsel, Joe Gadzama, SAN, had urged the court to set aside the October 15, 2010 judgment of the Court of Appeal on the grounds of alleged likelihood of bias on the part of the panel of the Court of Appeal. Gadzama had argued that the suspended President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Salami, who constituted and presided over the panel and also wrote the lead judgment that sacked Oni from office, had a close affinity with Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the leader of Fayemi’s party, ACN. Gadzama cited section 36 (1) of the Constitution, which guarantees fair hearing of every party to a suit in a Nigerian court. He added that bias or likelihood of it makes a decision a nullity and is therefore a sufficient ground for the lower court to set aside its own judgment.

    Fayemi, who was joined with his party, ACN, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and three of its Resident Electoral Officers as the first to sixth respondents, filed a notice of preliminary objection along with the other respondents where their lawyers countered the submission of Oni’s legal team and contended that as at the time the governorship election was conducted in 2007, the Court of Appeal was the final court empowered to determine governorship election matters. Fayemi’s team relied on the provisions of section 246 (3) of the Constitution and urged the court to decline the invitation to meddle into an appeal that had been successfully concluded. They argued that by that provision, the apex court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain an appeal that emanated from a governorship election that was held in 2007.

    In a unanimous decision, the seven-man panel of justices of the Supreme Court led by Justice Mohammed Tanko struck out Oni’s appeal and held that the apex court had no jurisdiction to hear the appeal on the grounds that the matter emanated from a decision of the Court of Appeal arising from the 2007 governorship election to which section 246 (3) of the 1999 Constitution was applicable. The court reiterated the submissions of Fayemi’s lawyers and said that by the provisions of section 246 (3) of the 1999 Constitution, the Court of Appeal has the final decision on gubernatorial election petitions as at the time the appellate court sacked Oni from office.

    The decision of the Supreme Court to uphold the preliminary objection of the respondents has put an end to the protracted legal tussle between Fayemi and Oni since the elections in 2007. Fayemi had, after the 2007 governorship elections in Ekiti State on April 14, gone to the Governorship and National Assembly/ Legislative Houses Election Tribunal to challenge the declaration of Oni by INEC as the validly elected governor of the state.

    The tribunal, in its decision delivered on November 28, 2008, dismissed his petition.

    Not satisfied with the decision, he approached the Court of Appeal, Ilorin, which, prior to the amendment of the constitution, was the last court in governorship elections. The Court of Appeal, on February 2, 2009, delivered its judgement and allowed the appeal in part and ordered a supplementary election in 63 wards, leaving the result in six wards intact and to be added to the result of the supplementary election in the 63 wards affected.

    On May 5, 2009, both Oni and Fayemi contested the election with the candidates of other 11 political parties. When the result of the supplementary election was added to the result of the six uncontested wards, the first appellant (Oni) was declared the winner with 111,140 votes against the first respondent’s (Fayemi) 107,017 votes. Still not satisfied, Fayemi challenged the result of the election. In its majority decision rendered on May 5, 2010, the tribunal annulled the result of the supplementary election in some wards but dismissed the petition.

    Fayemi appealed to the Court of Appeal, Ilorin against the majority decision of the tribunal and by its judgement delivered on October 15, 2010, the court allowed the appeal and set aside the majority decision and affirmed the minority decision which pronounced Fayemi the duly elected Governor of Ekiti State. From then on, Oni has been going from one court to another.

    There are certain points to this Supreme Court decision, which must be pointed out. First, contrary to some reports in the media, the Supreme Court did not “uphold” the decision of the Court of Appeal so to speak or decide the matter on the merits in favour of any of the parties. The apex court merely withdrew itself from hearing the appeal at all on the basis that it had no jurisdiction to hear it. Another point that must be pointed out is that the 1999 Constitution has since been amended and the final appeals from gubernatorial election petitions now ends at the Supreme Court.

    The crux of the Supreme Court’s decision is that at the time of the election, the amendment had not been made, and it would not be applied retrogressively. Oni’s lawyers tried to distance the issues on appeal from the 2007 election and focussed on the issue of fair hearing accorded to every citizen by section 36 of the Constitution. However, Justice Nwali Sylvester Ngwuta, in the lead judgment, noted that “the appellants’ entire case, when stripped of its extravagant build-ups and reduced to its proper frame, is simply an invitation to rely on Section 36(1) of the 1999 Constitution to strip the ruling of the Court of Appeal of the finality granted to it by Section 246(3) of the same Constitution.”

    As expected, reactions have followed the decision of the Supreme Court, with Fayemi himself calling for the establishment of an electoral offences commission to punish electoral offenders and deter people who not only manipulate the electoral process but file frivolous applications to clog the judicial process. Femi Falana, the renowned activist who was part of Fayemi’s team, also took a jab at Oni’s lawyers by saying that their moral laxity had led to their encouragement of an appeal when they knew the law could not support it.

    In the end, does one hail the judiciary which is not free of controversy for a ‘well-considered decision’ when in the past we have had judgments that seem to run against the tide of reason and justice? The law has been so mangled in the past to accommodate predetermined outcomes at all levels of court that one can only hope that this decision, sound as it appears, is the product of genuine legal considerations and not influenced by other unseen factors as has happened so many times before. Hopefully, Nigerians will get to the point where second guessing the justice of every case will be unnecessary.

    (To be continued)

     

  • Al-Makura vs. Ombatse’s Chief Priest

    It is apparent that the dust raised by the recent, senseless deployment of security officers to their untimely death in Alakyo, Nasarawa State, has refused to settle. The unfortunate incident claimed the lives of no fewer than 75 policemen, including a dozen operatives of the State Security Service, SSS. The Police and the SSS had put the number of their dead or missing officials at 56. They comprised 46 police officers and 10 SSS operatives.

    It was gathered that no member of the Mobile Police Force, PMF 38 Squadron in nearby Akwanga, Nasarawa State, also known as “Tiger Squadron”, who were dispatched to dislodge the Ombatse militia group, survived the raid. A top police officer recently said that apart from the 61 MOPOL officers that were deployed from Akwanga, the Police is yet to see many others mobilised from the MOPOL base in Lafia, including the men of the State CID. So the claim that only 56 policemen died cannot be true.

    Abayomi Akeremale, the Commissioner of Police who ordered the deployment ‘at midnight’, has since been replaced with Umar Shehu, who has resumed. But news emanating from the state has continued to paint a gory and grisly picture of what must have actually transpired. It was also learnt that Mohammed Abubakar, the Inspector-General of Police, had summoned the officer in charge of the base to the Force Headquarters. The Police High Command was also said to have begun an investigation into allegation that the Nasarawa State Government paid a huge amount of money to the state police command to influence the massive deployment of its officers for the ill-fated operation against the militia group. Findings indicated that the 2015 race for governorship position in the state informed the operation against the militia group.

    Never in the history of barbarism in Nigeria has a large contingent of security officers been driven to their ‘cheap death’ such as this. The issue of money changing hands between police commanders and state governors has been a source of irritation to the public and also a great embarrassment to the force itself. But whenever this ugly episode rears its head, the hierarchy of the police has always been quick to cover up the misdeeds of their men with ridiculous explanations, distortions and half-truths.

    As for the issue of 2015 being at the centre of the whole crisis, those who alluded to this, and they are many, including my humble self, believe that it is not far from the truth. This argument is more germane when the revelation that has so far come from the major ‘dramatis personae’ in the crisis is pieced together. They are Al-Makura, the governor of the state, and Alla Agu, the chief priest of the Ombatse cult in Lakyo, Nasarawa South Local Government Area of Nasarawa State.

    The chief priest recently said that security men that invaded the community were ordered by the state governor to kill him. Seventy-six-year-old Agu, popularly called Baba Lakyo, spoke through an interpreter when Solomon Ewuga, the Senator representing Nasarawa North Senatorial District in the Senate, visited him. Agu said the security operatives did not come to arrest him, but to kill him “and cut off my head and take it to the governor”.  According to him, “it is the governor that asked the people (police officers) to come here, arrest me and cut my head… When they came, because they were themselves drunk, my god did not allow them to come to me and they died on the way. The question I asked is, ‘Has the governor ever invited me and I refused to go?’ If I’m invited, I will go. But he sent people to kill me and to destroy Lakyo as a whole. That is just what it is.”

    Contrary to reports that the police invaded the village after he shunned their invitation, the chief priest has pooh-poled the governor’s claim by saying that he had never been invited by any of the security agencies. Although Lakyo is now peaceful, besides the carcasses of burnt vehicles used by the security men, Baba Alakyo said he was unhappy with what happened and was apprehensive of the fate that might befall him afterwards. He also denied ever forcing people to join the group through any initiation or drinking of concoction. He also said that he was in a nearby village when the incident took place.

    Asked whether the incident had anything to do with the politics of the state, Baba Alakyo said, “If you are talking about politics, it does not bother me. I don’t even understand Hausa language. Politics is not for me because I am not a politician. Politics is for politicians but I hear that the time for politicking has not even come.”  He said that Ombatse was an association of Lakyo boys into which nobody was forced to belong. According to him, it is even more saddening that he is being linked to the incident, especially when he knew nothing about what happened to the policemen.

    The governor, however, dismissed Baba Alakyo’s claim that he was never invited for any meeting. The governor, who spoke through Iliya Aliu, his chief press secretary, said it was on record that the head of the cult group did not honour several invitations extended to him. He said, “The Police and the SSS invited him before this incident but he refused to honour any of them. It was after he refused to answer all of these invitations that the State Security Council met and decided that he should be arrested. Even their name, Ombatse, means it is our turn, their turn for what?”

    On his own part, Chris Mamman, the President of the Eggon Cultural Development Association, the umbrella body for Ombatse, said the only way to get to the root of what happened at Alakyo was for the Federal Government to set up a judicial commission of inquiry.

    I totally agree with Mamman that only a high-powered judicial commission of inquiry can unravel the hidden truth of this case. Such committee should get to the root of this heinous crime that has now become an issue to be tossed around by Al-Makura and Baba Alakyo. It is obvious that the issue involved here is between the governor and Baba Alakyo as well as the mad race for 2015 election or re-election. It is all a pointer that the 2015 race will be as deadly as ever if the fever has really caught up the polity this way like hurricane in harmattan.

    Now that it is very clear that the governor might have been economical with the truth, especially with the large number of security operatives involved in the midnight raid as well as the issue of money changing hands. These are weighty allegations strong enough to keep the judiciary commission of enquiry on their toes to unmask the culprits. Even whether Akeremale has retired or not, he must also be made to face the music if he is found guilty or complicity in the entire horrible saga. All those directly or remotely connected should face the law at the levels of their involvement. This is not the time to sweep matters of national shame under the carpet. The cops cannot die in vain.

    However, we should take cognizance of the fact that the governor belongs to one of the opposition parties and so the government at the centre should not see this as an opportunity to witch-hunt him in order to shove him out of office. Also, if the claim of the chief priest is true but I strongly doubt this, the government can enlist the assistance of his ‘god’ to root out the Boko Haram insurgents ravaging the northern part of the country. At least, if Baba Alakyo’s god can wipe out such a frightening number of security agents within a twinkle of an eye, he should be able to engage Boko Haram insurgents in a matter of minutes or hours.

     

     

  • NGF election, ministers’ failure

    NGF election, ministers’ failure

    The Nigerian Governors’ Forum, NGF, took off as a mere association of governors of the 36 states of the federation. At that time, many people thought they were just like any other association bonded by the desire to create a forum to discuss mutual issues concerning them personally and the states they govern. Yet there were many who thought the governors were only creating a forum for themselves for a different kind of jamboree different from the usual rollicking and frolicking that have been the characteristics of men of means and power. I belong to the last school of thought.

    However, events of the last five years or so, beginning with the election of the crown prince of Kwara politics, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, former two-term governor of Kwara State, as chairman of NGF, have proved cynics wrong. It was Saraki, the scion of the Saraki Dynasty of Ilorin, now a senator, who introduced glamour and candour into the group when he was chairman between 2007 and 2011.

    Saraki’s exit in 2011 paved the way for the emergence of Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi as chairman of the forum. The constitution of the NGF provides for a vice-chairman though both Saraki and Amaechi have, through their deft political moves, overshadowed that office and made the occupants more or less lame duck vice-chairmen whose voices are hardly heard anywhere beyond the day they are elected or handpicked. Amaechi upped the ante but has so far failed to display the political diplomacy and maturity of Saraki. Several times, the forum under the leadership of Amaechi has come into headlong collision with the Presidency on various national issues, including the issue of the creation of Sovereign Wealth Fund, which has seen the forum and the Presidency in various legal tussles in the courts, among other litigations. It is also under Amaechi as chairman of the NGF that Rivers State, the state he presides over as governor, took Bayelsa State, a sister state, on over the ownership of some disputed oil wells. The neighbouring Bayelsa State was carved out of Rivers State in 1995.

    Perhaps, the greatest issue that is causing Amaechi headache at the moment is the forthcoming 2015 elections. Amaechi is speculated to be having a vice presidential ambition after his second and last term as governor of Rivers State in 2015. Ahead of the NGF’s election that took place last Friday, Rivers State has been engulfed in multiple political crises which many people believe are man-made problems designed to distract Amaechi and possibly stop him from pursing his agenda to return as second-term chairman of the NGF. Another issue is the grounding of Amaechi’s Bombardier aircraft by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, which has dominated the airwaves and engendered national discourse for some time now. Another matter that has attracted national attention is the sweeping-off of the PDP state executive in Rivers State and its replacement with the Felix Obuah-led group. Obuah was allegedly shot in the groins a few years ago by suspected assassins. Amaechi loyalists said it took the grace of God and Amaechi, who flew him out of the country for treatment in South Africa, before his health stabilized. Now the same Obuah has turned round to stab his benefactor in the back through his imposition as Rivers PDP party’s chairman by a surprise court ruling.

    Amaechi has also been under the threat of impeachment for some time now. This impeachment moves are thought to be the handiwork of his foes, mainly some politicians in Abuja. The arrowhead of the sinister plots is said to be Nyesom Wike, the sitting minister of state for education, who is an indigene of Rivers State in the federal cabinet. Before that Godsday Orubebe, the minister of Niger Delta Affairs had traded volatile words extensively with Amaechi on the East-West Road project. Both Amaechi and Wike have since been embroiled in a titanic struggle for political power in Rivers State.

    The road to last Friday’s NGF election was long and tortuous. The entire nation was gripped with tension as the two camps in the contest – Amaechi and some PDP governors – made last-minute desperate attempts to ensure victory for their candidates. But Amaechi knew that it was one fight for his political life. The NGF election was postponed last March when it was earlier scheduled to take place. When the forum later met in April, the issue of election or no election never came up for discussion. Amaechi would have completed his term as NGF chairman last Monday, May 27.

    Apparently, it was in the desperate bid by the PDP to stop Amaechi’s candidacy that the ‘Abuja politicians’, led by Wike, have continued to mount political pressure on him by instigating the crisis that is currently rocking Rivers State politics. The aim is to pressure him out of contention for the NGF’s chief helmsman’s job. After two major futile attempts by Bamanga Tukur, the PDP chairman, to stop Amaechi, Tukur and his clique flew a kite: it floated the PDP Governors’ Forum and made Godswill Akpabio chairman of the forum. The PDP has 26 out of the existing 36 governors in the country. The main reason for taking this road is that Tukur believes he is facing stiff opposition to his position as chairman of the party from the NGF. He has, therefore, been surreptitiously doing everything to be a cog in NGF’s wheel of progress. Tukur believes that doing just that will whittle down the powers and influence of the NGF, take the shine of it and thereby cut whoever emerges as chairman to size. All these machinations didn’t work either. When this failed, PDP drafted Ibrahim Shema, the governor of Katsina State, instead of the charismatic and much-favoured Isa Yuguda, governor of Bauchi State, into the race.

    At the last minute on Friday, all other contenders were persuaded to step aside and David Jonah Jang, the second-term governor of Plateau State, was put forward as the PDP candidate. Jang then approached Olusegun Mimiko, the governor of Ondo State, to be his deputy. Before the contest, Mimiko was reportedly caught in-between the two groups, which had both nominated him vice-chairman. That election ended in near deadlock with the two camps laying claim to victory. That was not the end of the matter. The seeming failure of the PDP to wield its influence at the election and swing victory to his side is largely believed to have been caused by the lacklustre performance of some ministers as PDP representatives in the states. It is true that 10 of the states are controlled by the opposition, but if the 26 states under PDP, except perhaps Rivers State, where Amaechi calls the shots, had defaulted, what happened in the other 25 states? By the last count, only 17 PDP governors have lined up behind Jang to divide NGF into two equal haves.

    Many of the ministers, especially those who could not deliver their states to PDP last Friday, are believed to be out of tune with the political reality on the ground in their respective states as they regard the party as the only body they owe allegiance to and, therefore, their constituencies, which are their states back home, do not matter to them. Some are also in perpetual loggerheads with their governors because their obedience starts and ends with the PDP chairman, around whom they run rings and cringe. To those in this category, their people back home, especially their governors, do not matter. So instead of going to their respective states to consolidate and mend broken fences, at least for the NGF chairmanship election, they sat back in Abuja.

    Therefore, the outcome of last Friday’s NGF election portends a dangerous signal for 2015, and may sound the death knell of NGF except tact and caution are applied. Not the courts can be of any help!

     

  • The colour of desperation

    For quite some time, the particular ethnic group in Nasarawa State, north-west of Nigeria – the Eggon – which lays claim to be the majority tribe in the state, has been clamouring for political leadership of the state. Perhaps, to actualize its desire, the leadership now came up with a novel idea of initiating any person that comes from the ethnic stock to come together to make sure that come 2015 elections, no Eggon person would vote any candidate from any other ethnic group besides theirs. It was this that led to the birth of the group which goes by the name Ombatse, meaning “the time has come” or “it is time”.

    Although the mission of the Ombatse group is to recruit the Eggon, who are from the Nasarawa Eggon Local Government Area of Nasarawa State, the search for farmlands has made most of them to spread to other local government areas of the state. The group is headed by a traditionalist called Baba Alakyo, a stark illiterate, who is known to have been selling traditional medicine in Lafia and its environs in the past. Ombatse, a socio-cultural organization, assumed notoriety after the 2011 general elections, which brought in Umaru Tanko Al-Makura, candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) who is from the Gwandara ethnic group, as the governor of the state.

    Alakyo is said to concentrate on recruiting mainly youths into the fold. He gives them native charms and/or amulets “that would ward off bullets” under the guise that it is the culture of the people. Initially, the government did not bother about this particular tradition, but majority of the people of the state cried out, appealing to government to stop the activities of this group, which they felt was becoming a threat to the security of the state. Now put under intense pressure, the governor met several times with the leadership of this ethnic group such as Senator Solomon Ewuga and Hon. Haruna Dauda Kigbu, a member of the House of Representatives, among other stakeholders. This group, at any point in time, claims that its activities are to bring unity of purpose to the ethnic group.

    Things took a dramatic turn, recently, precisely between March 31, and April 7, , when the group started going to churches and mosques, disrupting their services and forcing worshippers to drink herbs and take an oath to the effect that come 2015 election, they will only vote for an Eggon ethnic group candidate that contests on any party platform. This drew the attention of the state government which ordered the security agencies to nip the activities of the Ombatse who had gradually started bearing sophisticated weapons in the bud.

    This rather came pretty too late as it turned out to be a bloody outing for the security agents. It is said that 115 policemen, including operatives from the Department of State Security Service, SSS, were involved in the Alakyo operation, out of which, 75 policemen and 10 SSS officials were massacred. Two were seriously wounded and are currently receiving treatment in Lafia while 30 returned unharmed or with minor injuries. In addition, out of 12 vehicles used in the operation, eight were burnt while only four managed to return to base.

    The latest killings in Alakyo have some precedence. In 2007, there was a clash between the Alagos and Eggons in Assakio. Not long after this, the same group also attacked Agyaragu town inhabited by the Koro (Migili) ethnic group, killing so many people and burning down all structures belonging to the elites of this ethnic group, including the palace of their paramount ruler, a second class chief. This same group also engaged the Fulanis, killing most of them and their cattle – the reprisal attacks from the Fulanis are now history.

    They also attacked Kwandare, the hometown of the governor, killing and razing houses. Other places affected by the activities of Ombatse group are Rutu, Burum-burum in Doma Local Government, where the village head lost his life in the process, and Kokona Local Government. From April 30, 2012 to May 1, 2012, this group invaded Assakio, a town established by the Alago ethnic group which is part of Lafia Local Government. During that invasion, more than 40 people were reported to have lost their lives, while properties, both residential and business interests, worth millions of naira, went up in flames.

    However, the recent wholesale massacre of security agents sent to restore peace in the troubled area hit the nation like a thunderbolt, because of the high number of casualties involved. It is widely believed that the security agents must have committed some operational errors to warrant such a heavy death toll. Insiders or moles within the police who passed all the information from planning to execution to this group might have caused the failure of the operation. These insiders may belong to this Eggon ethnic group or its sympathisers. Two of them, Enugu Audu, a corporal, and Joseph Haruna, an inspector, have been fingered and are among those currently helping the security agents in their investigation of the dastardly act.

    In Nasarawa State, there are 25 different groups. The major ones are Migili (Koro), Alago, Gwandara, Kanuri, Hausa Fulani, Mada, Gwari, Rindre, Afo, Eggon and Ebira. The Eggons are largely farmers with a lot of educated people cutting across all educational disciplines. They migrated to Nasarawa State in 1951 while the Alagos, Mada, Gwandara, Koro and others migrated from Kwararafa and settled where they are now in 1232 AD. They practice Islam and Christianity. Only a very negligible and inconsequential proportion practice the traditional religion.

    The Afo, where Abdullahi Adamu, the first civilian governor of the state hails from, ruled the state from 1999-2007. The Alago took over with Aliyu Akwe Doma as governor from 2007 to 2011. Al-Makura, the incumbent, who is from Gwandara ethnic group, took over from Doma in 2007. The governor might have tolerated the Ombatse group for such a long time purely on political grounds because they played an important role in the 2011 election. But since their activities had become a threat to the security of the state, he had no other option than to move against them.

    Since 1999, Ewuga has been the arrowhead of the clamour for the leadership of the state. However, he could not succeed despite the fact that he moved from Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP in 2003. Although prominent leaders of the community may not readily agree with this, the Eggon people listen to and obey all directives by Ewuga. In 2007, he single-handedly made Patricia Akwushiki a senator representing Nasarawa North Senatorial District, where he hails from. And when he contested against Akwushiki in 2011, on the ticket of the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, after their relationship turned sour, he defeated her hands down with a very wide margin.

    It is noteworthy to know that Ewuga, Maku, Alhaji Halilu Envulanza, the Secretary of the National Judicial Council, NJC – all Eggons – are in the forefront of those contesting the governorship election in the state in 2015. So also is Dauda Haruna Kigbu, a member of the House of Representatives, who will also want to retain his seat in the House in 2015.

    The latest killings may boomerang on the fate, future and fortune of the Eggon ethnic group in the coming 2015 general elections as all the other tribes in the state may shun any party that fielded an Eggon ethnic group as its candidate. If this happens, it will be a direct fall-out of the desperation exhibited by the Eggons through forceful initiation and oath-taking by the Ombatse group which has now culminated in the large-scale massacre of security agents and other people. With this, Ombatse or no Ombatse, the politics in Nasarawa State may go along the old, past pattern without the Eggon taking the leadership of the state for a very long time to come. And the relative peace hitherto enjoyed by the state may have now been truncated.

     

  • Under ‘enemy’ fire

    There seems to be no let-up in the massacre that has taken over a sizeable part of the northern part of Nigeria. It is daily assuming a frightening dimension in spite of efforts by security agents to bring the ugly situation under control. And the casualty figure among the security agents themselves, particularly policemen, is on a fearful ascendancy. In actual fact, at no point in the last three years or more of the orgy of violence, arson and brigandage have we witnessed the type of ‘genocidal’ attacks on security agents as happened last week.

    First, it was at about 5a.m on Monday, May 6, in Bama, a sleepy border town in Borno State. That day, suspected insurgents popularly called Boko Haram attacked Bama at dawn. Fifty-five people, mostly security personnel – 20 policemen, two soldiers and 13 prison officials – were among the casualties. By the time the dust settled, a number of dangerous weapons, including improvised explosive devices (IEDs), assorted ammunition, rapid propelled grenades (RPG), general purpose machine guns, bombs and others were recovered from the ‘theatre of war’.

    The whole nation was still gripped in the throes of grief and mourning, when less than 24 hours later, precisely, at 12 midnight the same Monday, tragedy struck again. This time, in Alakyo Village, about 10 kilometres to Lafia, the Nassarawa State capital. A contingent of policemen who were on their way to a notorious shrine at Alakyo to effect arrest were ambushed at a point on their route by deadly, blood-thirsty cultists, simply known as the Ombatse – meaning ‘Enough’ – militia group. In the ensuing gunfight, 23 policemen were mowed down. By the last count, the casualty figure of the security agents may have risen to 47. This includes policemen and State Security Service, SSS, officials. Among the dead is an Assistant Commissioner of Police.

    Shortly after the bloody confrontation, a thoroughly frightened Tanko Al-Makura, the governor of the state, dashed to Aso Rock, the seat of government. There, he held a closed-door meeting with Namadi Sambo, the Vice-President who was holding fort for his principal, President Goodluck Jonathan, who was out on official visit to Southern Africa. He later told State House reporters that, prior to the Alakyo massacre, it was discovered that the militia group was holding arms and carrying out cult activities in the state. “Members of the group usually moved from one place to another, including mosques and churches, to attack helpless citizens, taking people from a particular ethnic group to come and take portions that are meant to empower them to do what they want to do. We took a decision to go to the shrine and pick on the cult leader so that the problem will be solved once and for all. As security operatives were approaching the shrine, unknown to them that ambush had been laid, these people attacked them,” Al-Makura said.

    Al-Makura was not alone. Gabriel Suswan, the governor of Benue State, was also in Abuja to report the clash in Agatu Local Government Area of his state. The clash also claimed the lives of people, including women and children, who were attacked in their sleep. He told State House correspondents: “I came to brief the Vice-President on the security situation in Benue… there are serious altercations between the Fulanis and the local farmers in Agatu Local Government… and they almost overran the local government. There were a lot of killings, a lot of property destroyed.”

    The three incidents above are as disturbing and confusing as they are worrisome. Bama to Alakyo is a distance of about 700 kilometres and nothing less than six hours’ drive. Besides, Nassarawa is a contiguous state to Abuja, the seat of government. And there is a common thread that ran through both the Bama and Alakyo attacks – ‘sorrow, tears and blood’ – as scores of security agents were callously hacked down.

    One disturbing scenario here is that criminals seem to have become more emboldened to confront security agents and slaughter them mercilessly at will. Last week alone, if you add the figure in Alakyo (47), Bama (33) – policemen, soldiers and prison officials – you will get 80. If you add that to the 11 policemen who were posted on guard duties in Bayelsa, but were recently attacked on the high seas, it gives a staggering figure of 91. The bulk of this figure, about 68, are policemen. Considering the rate these killings are going, the numerical strength of the police is being rapidly depleted. And come to think of it, how many policemen does the nation have? About 370,000, and this insufficient number is being further run down in the orgy of massacre that has gripped the nation. I am quite sure that most of the arms and ammunition of the slain security agents may have also found their way to wrong hands. This will certainly enrich the terrorists’ ‘war’ arsenal to the detriment of the nation’s security.

    A friend and a very senior police officer in Abuja agreed with me that there might have been a possible operational error in the attack in Alakyo. According to him, “I suspect there was either a failure of intelligence or that the movement of the security agents was leaked to the cultists, or they had a mole within who gave them advance tips. Otherwise, it was a moving force that was mercilessly dealt such a big blow.” When I told him that the police should have deployed helicopters for surveillance or reconnaissance duties before storming the notorious shrine, he agreed. He then emphasised that modern-day crime fighting should evolve the use of hi-tech equipments so as to be far ahead of the criminals.

    The escalation of violence against security agents may be a fall-out of the kid’s glove approach the nation has been adopting in tackling growing insurgency and banditry across the country. It is high time we rose to the growing challenge and check the rising impunity with which the criminals have been carrying out their deadly exploits.

    My police officer friend believes that those who attacked Bama were not Boko Haram insurgents, but a certain group of bandits who operate along Birnin-Gwari axis. His argument is that the real Boko Haram agents have somehow gone a bit cold because of effective security coordination in the northern part of the country, especially in recent times. But then the rise of different militias or gangsters all over the place is a sign that things are really snowballing out of control. We have heard about Oodua People’s Congress, OPC, in the South-West; Egbesu Boys and a surfeit of others in the Niger Delta; MASSOB in the East; and now the Ombatse in Nassarawa State. Yet there are more than a thousand and one such criminally-minded groups mushrooming on a daily basis all over the country.

    Al-Makura said that the Ombatse group had been identified since January this year, when their satanic exploits escalated. But what did he do to immediately clip their wings? That was how Boko Haram grew to become the monster it has assumed. Lack of decisiveness and political will to crush these groups must have been providing the oxygen needed to fester and become a malignant tumour to the nation.

    A foreign journal captured it succinctly in a headline last week: “From motorcycle fighters to grenade throwers”. Now, those who attacked Bama had RPG and anti-aircraft guns mounted on 4×4 wheel vehicles. Perhaps, we are moving to the era where these terrorists will involve the use of fighter jets for bombing raids. The way things are going, we may wake up one day to discover that Aso Rock is under heavy shelling, both aerial and land bombardments, by terrorists.

    This is the time for our security agencies to sit down and decisively address this growing insurgency and violence all over the place. There is also the need to create employment and put food on the table of Nigerians. There are far too many idle hands and hungry mouths which are fertile grounds for easy recruitment to all forms of banditry now plaguing the country. God help Nigeria!

  • New Ekiti Deputy Governor

    New Ekiti Deputy Governor

    It was swift and well calculated to deliver a big, maximum political punch on Ekiti politics. Perhaps, that is the only mild manner the sudden appointment last weekend of Modupe Adelabu as the deputy governor of Ekiti State could best be described. A Professor of Education, Adelabu replaces the immediate past deputy governor, late Eunice Oluwafunmilayo Adunni Olayinka, who passed on, on April 6, following a protracted battle with cancer.

    The late Olayinka was an amazon gifted with guts, gumption and iron in her backbone while her sojourn on planet earth lasted. Unfortunately, her poise, finesse, elegance and mental acuity had been consumed by a notorious cancer that cut her down.

    The outpouring of emotions, grief, tributes, and the well-choreographed rites of passage with which she was‘escorted’ from her death bed to her final resting place at Ado-Ekiti, the fast growing capital of Ekiti State, attested to the high esteem which the Ekitis usually accorded their heroes and heroines, living or dead. No wonder many people, especially her kindred in Ekiti, knighted her “Moremi Ekiti”. This is a great honour and perhaps, the first time in the history of Yoruba land, that someone is considered worthy to literarily step into Moremi’s shoes.

    Moremi, in Yoruba mythology, was a damsel who was abducted (or kidnapped) by some bandits from a particularly nagging tribe that perennially invaded Ile-Ife, the cradle of Yoruba land many, many years ago. On one of such raids, Moremi was taken along among the supposed captives, easily one of the spoils of wars then.

    Legend has it that Moremi allowed herself to be captured by her own volition. Before then, the Yoruba were always voting with their feet whenever the masquerade-looking invaders who they ignorantly referred to as ‘ara-orun’ (spirits) invaded Ile-Ife. Moremi stopped all that. During her period in captivity, she spied on the so-called invaders who had tormented her people for a long time. One day, she escaped and meandered her way back to Ile-Ife. There she revealed to her people that the recalcitrant invaders were actually human beings disguised in regalia made of raffia palm and dressed like masquerades to frighten and terrorise the people.

    Now loaded with the gift of insider knowledge, the Yoruba started plotting how to confront the terrorists. By the time they came on their next expedition, they were not only confronted by the now emboldened Yoruba, they were massively slaughtered and routed. The trick was simple. Long bamboo sticks were mounted with‘oguso’(dried palm fruits waste), which was highly combustible. It is still used in some African rural settings to make bonfire till date. So many of them, stored in various ‘armouries’ all over the ancient town, were released. Bonfires were then made of them and the ‘masquerades’ were set on fire one by one. Before they realised what was happening, the invaders had been routed. Those who managed to escape, if any, never dared the Yoruba again.

    It is to the everlasting memory of the heroism of Moremi that the Yoruba worship and equate her with a deity, which she really was. It is in commemoration of the titanic battle that the Ife people celebrate her annually with what is known as ‘Edi’ festival, which holds towards the end of the year. It is an event which attracts people from all walks of life, including the Diaspora, to Ile-Ife.

    During the festival, which runs for about seven days, the fourth day called ‘ina-osan’, ‘noon fire’ is celebrated by inducing a mock ‘war’. Here, able-bodied men carrying thick and long fire-bearing sticks, usually emerge from the innermost recess of the palace of the Ooni of Ife. With the ferocious fire burning all through the streets, crisscrossing Itakogun and Arubidi quarters of the town, a distance of about six or more kilometers to the palace. The procession terminates at a sacred grove located deep inside a thick forest (Igbo Oro), in the Iyekere area of the ancient and historical city, close to present-day Ondo Road. This procession is held amidst drumming, singing, dancing and acrobatic displays by various traditional, gender, age and cultural groups in the town.

    After the fire-bearing men has exited the palace, another group of tall and huge men dressed in the costume of the ‘masquerade’ invaders of old, will emerge from ‘hiding’ and dance round Enuwa quarters located just by the gate of the palace. They also dance inside the palace with youths and young children trooping behind them. The final day of the Edi festival is marked by the appearance of ‘Tele’.

    That seven-day revelry that accompanied the annual Edi festival was the equivalent of what the Ekitis did for Olayinka all through her death to her final interment. That was more than what a princess, which she was, deserved because Olayinka proved that it was possible for a lady to combine beauty with brain and sparkling achievements. By doing that, she joined the lengthy list of eminent women who are today occupying sensitive places in the hall of fame not only in Nigeria or Africa but the world at large.

    This is a big challenge for the new deputy governor who is stepping into such giant-size shoes. Do I call it Queen-size? I am quite sure that she is up to the task. This is because Adelabu’s academic standing speaks volumes about her talents. Kayode Fayemi, the workaholic, incumbent governor of Ekiti State, had initially wanted her as a deputy, but the case of her ailing husband at the time was more compelling for her total attention. Hence she politely turned down the offer. At that time, she was the Head of the Department of Educational Administration and Planning of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, the ancestral home of Moremi. She was later appointed chairman of the State Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB.

    Adelabu has held many important positions both in the academia in Nigeria and abroad. She was part of the 15-member Education Reform Panel that worked assiduously on Ekiti State government’s reforms in the education sector. At various times, the new deputy governor has also served as a resource person for United Nations Development Programme, UNDP; United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF; and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, UNESCO, on numerous issues bordering on education. She has also been involved in consultancy work for the Universal Basic Education Commission in Nigeria.

    As someone who had served as external examiner in some reputable national and state-owned universities, I am sure the education sector in Ekiti State, which is the major industry in the state, is set to witness great transformation, I mean real transformation and certainly not a cosmetic one that has become music in the airwaves all over the place. I think the education portfolio and, in some cases, local government affairs are usually tucked under the purview of deputy governors, especially in educationally advanced states of the South-West of the country.

    Aside from the education sector, between 2000 and 2003, Adelabu was also a foundation member of Board of Ekiti State World Bank Assisted Poverty Reduction Agency. And fighting poverty is a major plank of the Fayemi administration in Ekiti State and by extension, a major political weapon being wielded by the Action Congress of Nigeria now re-christened All Progressive Congress, APC, a new political identity that is already sending shivers down the spines of other real and fake politicians in the country.

    She has consulted for the World Bank, the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) and other international agencies. This is another asset for the Fayemi administration and Ekiti State in general, especially the womenfolk who are now required to rally round one of their own just like they did for the departed Olayinka.

    I can bet it with any serious politician in Ekiti State today that the choice of Adelabu as deputy governor has given Fayemi another victory, a resounding victory at the yet-to-be-contested and conducted 2014 polls. This is indeed a win-win strategy designed to inflict maximum punishment on the rancorous opposition in the state!

     

  • Bamigbetan: Nigeria’s boiling cauldron!

    Bamigbetan: Nigeria’s boiling cauldron!

    When the unfortunate news of his kidnap broke recently, not a few of us who are close to him felt it must have been an error of judgement on the part of his captors. This was because Kehinde Bamigbetan, the second-term chairman of Ejigbo Local Council Development Area, ELCDA, has built a reputation over the years of activism, honesty and simplicity. So, to have picked on such a person appeared to be a grave misnomer. It is not that it is right for kidnappers to pick on anybody at all for that matter. Far from it. But it is widely expected that such an individual should have been spared the nasty ordeal he went through.

    Anyway, by the second day, his house at an innocuous part of Ejigbo town had become a Mecca for all manners of people –relatives, friends, politicians, journalists, et al. That day, when I got there in the company of Bisi, my darling wife, we ran into a frenetic prayer session being conducted impromptu by Lady Abimbola Fashola, wife of the Lagos State governor. When the prayer session was over, we all sat down quietly, all motionless except for some little hisses here and there.

    There was this aura of humility that played around Mrs. Fashola as she sat quietly but occasionally whispering to Fatimah, Bamigbetan’s wife’s ears. She was damn too simple – no earrings, no ‘mascaras’painting, no make-up, no flamboyance of any nature.

    As she prayed earlier, I noticed the constant refrain, “May God banish this evil deeds from this our state!” to which the‘congregation’ chorused a loud “Amen!” all the time. Right there, the journalist in me silently took over. I started wondering why God should single out Lagos State for all evil cleansing and not the whole country. But not until the prayers were over, even then I could not easily place the face until she made to leave. It was then I confirmed what had rung through my mind as I sat gazing at her direction. While her entourage sat on the modest sofas in the room, she sat on a plastic chair brought in as ‘reinforcement’ or attachment to accommodate the crowd of people. Such was her simplicity.

    After the exit of Mrs. Fashola, we all sat there bemoaning the great calamity that has befallen the nation – the rampant and incessant cases of kidnapping for ransom. Somebody raised the issue of the late Dr. Chidi Nwike, former deputy governor of Anambra State, who was recently murdered by his abductors after three gruelling weeks in their captivity. Even the two couriers who took the N5 million ransom money to the kidnappers were killed along with him. It was such tragic news. I told the gathering there that Jane, Nwike’s wife, was my schoolmate at the famous but now defunct Federal School of Art and Science, Ondo, FSASON. In fact, the old students are meeting this weekend to see the role they can play in the burial of the former national Vice-Chairman of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, South-East zone. People talked so much, so positively about his life and times as if death should have spared him.

    In a sober gathering like that, all manners of sad reminders usually come up. So many past cases of kidnapping were raised. Some were mere newspapers’ rehash while others never got mentioned at all in the press even for once. Some were solved through divine intervention while others paid ransom. It was generally put in prayers that God shall manifest his handwork in Bamigbetan’s case. And He did.

    The prayers went on non-stop for the six days he was in captivity. Journalists and their various news medium did not help matters. Some wrote out of context. It was lazy and pedestrian journalism at work. Many of the stories were never cross-checked before hitting the headlines. Many were abstract; many obvious fabrications. Many assumptions, innuendos, rumour mongering, fallacies and all that – it was as if some of the journalists were working for the kidnappers. Many reported that he had been released when he was still under torture. It was then I realized the magnitude of professional misjudgement and miscarriage of news going on in our much-cherished profession. That is a matter for another day.

    On Sunday morning, six days after he was abducted, newspapers carried the news that he might have regained his freedom. Earlier the previous night, I had seen the news scroll on AIT. I called Fatimah, who said the rumour had been on since Friday. I remember early on Friday morning, when Musibau Sulaiman, sent me a text message from his house in Mushin ‘congratulating’ me for the news of Bamigbetan’s release, which he claimed he picked on “Koko Inu Iwe Iroyin”, a news headlines programme in Yoruba, on a particular radio station. So that Sunday morning, I called his wife’s phone but she did not pick it. Then I asked my wife to call Idowu, Bamigbetan’s younger sister, who was my wife’s kid mate, who confirmed the news. I immediately dashed down.

    The whole house was in a joyous mood in contrast to what it was four days earlier when I first visited there. Bamigbetan’s narration was heart rendering. His bloodshot eyes and bruises on his face, nose and all that underscored the intense torture and inhuman treatment meted out to him by his captors. He was brutalised, starved and denied all access to comfort. Thrown on a stack carpet on the night he was captured, the bare carpet was to be his bed, his sitting position all through his ordeal. His hands were tied, so also were his legs.

    His captors spoke impeccable English. Some of them claimed they were Engineering graduates from Nigerian universities – I do not know whether kidnapping was part of their Engineering courses while at school. They also claimed that they had paced the streets for more than six years until somebody introduced them to the lucrative but risky business of kidnapping for survival; That their parents and guardians suffered untold hardships to train them, but here they are, they could not even lift a finger to reciprocate the good gesture. How will they be able to set up their own families and train their children when the society has no plans for them? They could not understand why one person could be richer than the whole country when there are many people who cannot get even a single meal a day.

    One of them claimed he had gone to Cambodia, one of the poorest Asian countries in the past. That as poor as the people were, their international airport was marvelous unlike the poultry called international airports in Nigeria. That there, the standard of living was better but he fell on the wrong side of the law and was deported. I quickly told myself that that chap is still on the wrong side of life and might be consumed by the law in no distant time.

    By the time they knew that Bamigbetan was a local government chairman, they accused him of being part of the rotten system that has pauperized everybody. He defended himself. Trust Korky, as he is fondly called, gave a good lecture to them on his student union days, his social activism, the achievements of his administration as chairman –scholarships, free meals to school pupils etc. Surprisingly, while he was in their dungeon, some of them came to do espionage on the LCDA Secretariat, asked a few questions about him and so on. Everybody they spoke to had one or two good comments about his character and humane nature. That, perhaps, was his saving grace. And of course, there was real divine intervention. God manifested Himself and secured his freedom.

    The lesson here is that Nigeria is sitting on a boiling cauldron which might turn over at anytime. And it is not if, but when it turns over, nobody will be spared. Those who have ears let them hear this now and start doing something positive to douse the gathering tempest!

     

  • This committee needs ‘amnesty’

    This committee needs ‘amnesty’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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