The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • Polymer scandal

    Polymer scandal

    •It is sad that charity may begin abroad again, with the request for extradition of Nigerian suspect

    THE collaboration between the office of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to extradite the former boss of the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company (NSPMC), Mr. Emmanuel Okomoyon, to the United Kingdom, to face trial for alleged crime committed against the Nigerian state, is a further indictment of our jaundiced criminal justice system.

    In case the AGF does not appreciate it, the fact that Mr. Okomoyon will need to be extradited to the UK, to face trial over allegations of fraud against NSPMC, totalling over N750 million, between 2006 and 2008, for the printing of N20 polymer notes, is a sure advertisement of our country’s inadequacies. This is particularly so with respect to the office of the AGF, which has failed to show enthusiasm in prosecuting high profile frauds. Also indicted is the EFCC which reportedly had been investigating the alleged crime since 2012, following a request by the British National Crime Agency, after the Australian authorities allegedly discovered that some people at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the NSPMC were bribed by Securency Pty Limited of Australia, to secure the contract. According to press reports, the current attempt to extradite the former boss of NSPMC is in furtherance of that alleged crime, which from all accounts happened under the nose of our criminal justice system.

    While we have no qualms with the attempt to extradite Mr. Okomoyon to UK to face charges, if the law permits, we are concerned that no single indictment was made against Mr Okomoyon in Nigeria; or is the office of the AGF and the EFCC saying that what allegedly transpired between the officials of CBN, NSPMC and the Australian company is not a crime in Nigeria? If it is a crime, why has the Nigerian legal system seemed unperturbed? Again, if as alleged, there are culprits in the CBN and NSPMC, why are they not on the same train with Mr. Okomoyon? Indeed, is the silence of our criminal justice system orchestrated, or do such offences as alleged, fall within what President Goodluck Jonathan would rather refer to as stealing and not corruption?

    For us, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. While Mr. Okomoyon should fight his cause, it is necessary that all the other alleged culprits are made to face the music. Indeed, since it was our common wealth that was allegedly swindled, it is intriguing that our officials seem not perturbed enough, to go after those involved. Regrettably, the pattern of not giving a damn over scams like these has been the character of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-led Federal Government since 1999. We recall similar shameful allegations of scam, like the Siemens and Halliburton scandals, which were condoned by the Federal Government in Nigeria, while the co-conspirators in other countries are serving jail terms and paying huge penalties for the same crime.

    As we have always argued, no nation makes progress when corruption is treated with kid glove, as has been the attitude of the present government. The allegations and the treatment meted to Mr. Okomoyon is just one of the several instances of government treating, lackadaisically, serious issues that undermine the state. Mr. Okoyomon was indicted and suspended from the Board of the CBN over the disappearance of N1,000 notes; that was the end of the matter. As in the present case, which has been described as ‘a web of forgery, identity fraud and money laundering, running into millions of naira’; the culprit was not availed a trial in our courts.

  • Enthroning meritocracy in government

    Enthroning meritocracy in government

    SIR: “When we Athenians are met together in the assembly, and the matter in hand relates to building, the builders are summoned as advisers; when the question is of shipbuilding, the shipwrights… But when the question is an affair of state, then everybody is free to have a say – carpenter, tinker, cobbler, merchant , sea captain, rich and poor, high and low  anyone who likes gets up , and no one reproaches him, as in the former case, without having learned…yet giving advice”.         – Plato

    Plato’s point – as quoted above from his philosophic dialogue – Protagoras – is that governing a society is not a free-for-all fanfare but a skill that requires a specialized and intensive training. For Plato, leadership or perhaps governing a state is an art exclusively reserved for those who have soaked their intellectual cum moral cloaks in the bloodstream of ethics and science of statecraft.

    Nigeria, which ought to be model to other African states, is today a compact history of leadership failures. Since her attainment of self-rule on October 1, 1960, Nigeria has not experienced pragmatic, incorruptible and patriotic leadership at all levels of government. The cause of this appalling situation is not far-fetched; we failed to evolve pragmatic models and/or mechanisms through which we can sustain the political structures that colonialism bequeathed to us, so as to transcend the problems we face.

    The geographical area we now call Nigeria was made up of about 250 ethnic nationalities that have achieved distinct social life and have ruled themselves according to their diverse societal mores, ethos, customs and traditions long before the advent of British colonialism. Out of colonial mercantile interest, they were amalgamated into a single unit and were administered differently under the British device of ‘divide and rule’.

    On the attainment of self-rule, political power was seen as the be-all and end-all of politics as elites of various ethnic nationalities fought to control the governmental machineries at the centre. This saw to the emergence of parochialism, ethno-religious politics as well as the enthronement of mediocrity.

    Plato in one of his treaties on statecraft – Republic – offered the theory of ideal state as ensuring the greatest happiness of the greatest numbers. The pragmatic strand of this principle is meritocracy.

    The principle of meritocracy posits that political power should be vested on individuals with uncanny ability of making morally informed political judgment as well as demonstrable achievement in their fields of study. For Confucius, political meritocracy starts from the assumption that everybody should be educated. However, not everybody will emerge from the process with equal ability of making morally political judgements. Hence, an important task of a political system is to select the bests for political recruitment.

    In Nigeria, meritocracy can be nurtured by creating institute for leadership training in which people having interest in occupying public offices should go for leadership training. There, individuals with political ambitions are exposed to the art and science of statecraft. The eligibility for vying for public offices shall be detected by their understanding of the nature and workings of government which should be measured by their performance in the said institute. They shall be tested on personality traits and psychology, ethics, vision and ambition as well as family antecedents.

    Through this means, mediocre adventurism in Nigerian politics will be curbed ; its murky waters drained and refilled with waters of transparency, accountability, fair play, equity and justice and more importantly, ‘meritocracy’.

     

    • Asikason Jonathan,

    Enugwu-Ukwu, Anambra State.

  • Damning reports

    Damning reports

    FG should address the problems of hunger, diseases and deprivation that continue to roil a rich country

    There does not seem to be any hope for the poor and downtrodden in Nigeria as every aspect of its human development indices shows negative signs. Whether in education, health, governance or physical infrastructure development, Nigeria does not only lag behind consistently, it records an unrelenting downward trend.

    It was the World Mental Health Day on October 10 and experts reported that psychiatric cases are on the rise in Nigeria. The University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, recently cried out at what it considers an overwhelming number of indigent patients in its facility. These are people who cannot afford to buy drugs or pay their hospital bills. UCH’s Head of Department of Hospital Services, Mrs Grace Logun, noted at a function to receive donations, the alarming “rate at which people die as a result of poverty and inability of the hospital to cope with the demand of many indigent patients who come to the hospital with nothing in their pocket”.

    Children seem to be more exposed and vulnerable in this scourging poverty. According to the report from the premier hospital, parents are said to bring their children in for treatment without money in their pocket. “Many children had died needlessly just because their parents lacked money to pay for basic drugs”, it was noted.

    As if to corroborate the fact many Nigerians are afflicted by extreme indigence leading to unwarranted deaths, the Global Hunger Index (GHI) report which was released last Monday reports that Nigeria falls under the “extreme” or “serious” hunger category. The GHI conducted by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) is in its ninth year and this year’s focus is on “hidden hunger” otherwise known as micronutrients deficiency.

    Nigeria is placed at “serious” with 14.7 index score while Ghana has “moderate” hunger with 7.8 score. This report tallies with another survey conducted last January by Africa Health, Human and Social Development Information Service (Afr-Dev.Info) which reported that with 12.1 million people hungry, Nigeria topped a list of 11 ECOWAS countries with over one million people affected by hunger and undernourishment.

    And with 33 points out of hundred, Nigeria is placed 86th globally and 14th in Africa, on the global food security index. Ghana on the other hand is the most food-secure country in West Africa, with 45.4 points out of 100 ranking 67th globally and number six in the world.

    We really do not need surveys and human development indices to see that the standard of living in Nigeria has continued to depreciate across board in Nigeria due to numerous structural and developmental reasons. One, the local government system of governance has been in near recession over the last decade as revenue allocations to that tier of government hardly reached down. Increasingly, economic activities in that tier that ought to cater for the rural population have dwindled because little or no resources are applied at that level.

    Since they are starved of funding, hardly any planned economic process like budgeting, planning and project execution go on in most local government areas (LGAs) across the country. This is a recipe for poverty and alienation for a tier designed to galvanise rural development and growth. Sustainable agriculture, cottage industries and rural infrastructural development are almost non-existent in hinterlands across the country.

    The level of corruption in the country since the beginning of the current democratic dispensation has also been a source of negative global reports. This has of course imposed extreme poverty on the majority of the populace. Budgets are rarely implemented while most institutional checks have broken down. It is therefore so easy for public officials and civil servants to breach the treasury with so much impunity. The judiciary has also become weak and compromised to the point that it has become very difficult to prosecute offenders and raiders of the treasury.

    The result is that the rate of development has been slow and unsustainable in all facets of the polity. Power infrastructure, transportation and even oil and gas, which are strategic to development, have witnessed little improvement. Nigeria suffers acute under-capacity in these crucial sectors and the result is stark underdevelopment and little growth.

    The resultant socio-economic effect is a vicious cycle of misery. The scenario is that of the survival of the fittest as the state hardly caters for anyone. There seems a constant stampede for sustenance and survival. Violent crimes, strange social vices, cultism, insurgency and terrorism are the social offshoot of this extreme deprivation of the populace.

    A scenario like this will only lead to a complete implosion if governments at all levels and the ruling class do not retrace their steps and redeem the situation. The rate of pillaging of the common wealth at the top end of the spectrum is almost directly proportional to the level of suffering and deprivation at the lowest end of the rung.

    This is sure to continue to breed increased social discontent and a possible anomy. It is not for fun that these surveys have consistently come off negative; they are warning signals that government must act more urgently and radically. We urge the Federal Government particularly to lead the radical change that the country

  • Chibok shame

    Chibok shame

    •FG’s latest threat to arrest BBOG protesters shows Jonathan’s clear impotence on saving the Chibok girls

    The Chibok kidnap saga, in its six months, is a test the Goodluck Jonathan Presidency continues to fail. The latest threat to arrest Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) protesters, led by Oby Ezekwesili, former education minister, is an empty bluff to cover clear impotence.

    Mike Omeri, director-general of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), getting whiff of the BBOG lobby’s planned march on Aso Villa to meet the president, issued the threat. He went into adjectival overdrive, dismissing the protests as “inconsequential” and “unpatriotic”; and climaxed with a flourish that the protests were a “distraction.”

    Mr. Omeri did not end his tantrums without the reflex charge that the protests were opposition-driven — the same allegation President Jonathan was levying when the kidnap was still fresh, and a prompt reaction could perhaps have saved the girls. Mr. Omeri then bared his fangs that the BBOG protesters risked arrest.

    Mr. Omeri clearly thought his threat would abort the march. Well, it didn’t — which is some good news from a very bad situation. The BBOG protesters have done well by pressing their right to free and lawful assembly. They have proved that in a republican democracy, even the president and his high office are bound by the laws of the land — these same laws that created his office and raised its occupier above co-equal citizens, so the president can deliver on his duties — cannot be taken away by a lowly official of state, which Mr.  Omeri is.

    But even the BBOG march only gifted the Jonathan presidency the chance to further belittle itself. First, a contingent of police women cordoned off the gate of Aso Villa. The president apparently was too busy to meet with a group of citizens, among them hurting mothers of the kidnapped girls. The protesters were told to contact Mr. Omeri — the same Omeri that had earlier threatened them with arrest — to read the president’s body language on the matter!

    In fairness to the president, he sent a quad of female ministers — Zainab Maina (Women Affairs), Sarah Ochekpe (Water Resources), Lawrentia Mallam (Environment) and Ekon Eyaakenyi (Lands, Housing and Urban Development). But even that proved a cold comfort.  One of the ministers rather trivialised issues, thus underscoring the administration’s crass insensitivity on Chibok.

    Told by Dr. Ezekwesili that one of the escaped Chibok girls would address the gathering in Hausa (she was not proficient in English because of Nigeria’s educational collapse), Mrs Ochepe fired back that it was under Ezekwesili’s tenure as education minister that the educational system collapsed. Talk of leaving the ball and going for the leg!

    True, Dr. Ezekwesili should not have added the caveat of collapsed education, true as it is. Still, should Mrs Ochekpe have been so insensitive as to launch a spiteful personal attack on Dr. Ezekwesili — an attack that drew stinging rebuke from the protesters? So, because the Chibok girls were no use educationally anyway, their country should not protect them from terrorists? Or did she think attacking Ezekwesili would remove the perceived impotence of the Jonathan Presidency on the Chibok affair?

    That attack was simply reckless and Minister Ochekpe did her government no credit by it.

    But then so had the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, done her husband no credit, when she tried to put the Chibok kidnap victims in the dock on prime time television. That, of course, backfired in the infamous “Dia ris God ooo …” tragi-comedy.

    The president too had lost precious lead time letting himself be misguided that the Chibok kidnap was an opposition ploy to discredit his government. On Chibok, the Jonathan government becomes more discredited by the day — which is a pity: because the government manifests lack of rigour and compassion, which questions the president’s competence to continue holding on to his job.

    Let Mr. Omeri be warned: not even the president can take away the rights of citizens guaranteed by the Constitution.

    The president too should do the needful and bring the Chibok girls back home, however difficult that is.  The Chibok stain would not go away, despite the childish and contemptible grandstanding by the administration’s officials.

  • Mental health crisis

    Mental health crisis

    • Rising cases are symptomatic of the many challenges that Nigerians are grappling with 

    The revelation that over 5,000 cases of mental health disorders were recorded in Plateau State in the last one year is certainly indicative of an even more alarming manifestation of the problem nationwide. Delivering a paper at an event in commemoration of the Y2014 World Mental Health Day, Dr Taiwo Obindu, Head of the Psychiatric Department, Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH), Jos, disclosed the magnitude of the mental health crisis in the state while lamenting the dearth of personnel and facilities to effectively meet the challenge.

    This sensitisation of Nigerians to the scale of mental health cases in the country is a positive function of the setting aside of October 10 every year to commemorate the World Mental Health Day, which offers an opportunity for stakeholders across the globe, particularly mental health professionals, to advocate for better mental health and address the stigma associated with the illness due to limited public awareness.

    One of the most prevalent mental health conditions, schizophrenia, was the focus of this year’s commemoration of the day. Noting that schizophrenia is a common occurrence among mental health patients in Plateau State, Dr Obindo described the disease as “a condition in psychiatry where the individual has problems with his thinking the way he interacts with people and …the way the person thinks and the beliefs he has is awkward”. Schizophrenics tend to hear imaginary voices and see images that are non-existent to others. The widespread occurrence of such behavioural disorders in Plateau State can be understood within the context of the pervasive and persistent violence that has  plagued the state since 2001, resulting in the loss of thousands of lives and large-scale dislocation of whole communities.

    Incessant destructive clashes between settlers and indigenes in the state are further compounded by ethnic, religious and politically motivated violence. A situation of psychological siege is, therefore created in which destabilised individuals and groups are vulnerable to mental disturbance. But then this scenario is not limited to Plateau State as every part of the country is confronted with one spectre of violence or the other. Apart from the Boko Haram terrorism that has turned the North-East into a war zone, armed robberies, kidnappings, assassinations, ritual killings, rape, thuggery and bloody communal conflicts are taking a heavy toll on lives, property and the psychological wellbeing of millions of Nigerians across the country.

    It is thus not surprising that during the commemoration of last year’s World Mental Health Day, the founder of the Mental Health Foundation, Emmanuel Owoyemi, disclosed that about 64 million Nigerians suffer from mental illness. This is understandable since experts confirm that it is possible for schizophrenics, for instance, to function well and appear normal despite the debility. This high incidence of mental ill health has been attributed to increased poverty, insecurity and hopelessness leading to greater frequency of anxiety, depression and despair among the populace. This situation is aggravated by the persistent economic crisis characterised, among others, by astronomical unemployment and frustrating underemployment.

    Against this background, it is unfortunate that the country does not have a Mental Health Policy to provide a comprehensive and coherent policy framework for tackling her daunting challenges of mental healthcare. For inexplicable reasons, the National Assembly continues to delay in passing the Mental Health Bill, which makes provision, among others, for access to mental healthcare and services, voluntary and involuntary treatment, accreditation of professionals and facilities, enforcement and other judicial issues affecting people with mental health issues as well as implementing the provision of mental health legislations.

    We call on the National Assembly to appreciate the danger that mental ill- health poses for national security and productivity and urgently pass the Mental Health Bill into law.

  • Appeal to Atiku Abubakar

    Appeal to Atiku Abubakar

    SIR: I read with mixed feelings, the report credited to the former vice president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in some national dailies that he was not in support of consensus option for choosing the presidential flag bearer of the APC. There is no doubt that consensus option is slightly undemocratic, but the situation in which this nation finds itself, which makes change imperative and for the sacrifice of the founding fathers of the APC not to be in vain, the option has become an imperative.

    APC is a child of circumstance, and borne out of great sacrifice by the various leaderships of the legacy parties that merged to form the party. The acrimony that ensued over the election of the national chairman of a party, few months ago is still fresh in memory. Not only that, the ruling PDP will do all in its power to plant moles in the party to scuttle the legitimate aspiration of the founders of the party to bring the much needed change to the nation. This has been its stock in trade. Therefore, all hands must be on desk to forestall any sinister motive from the ruling party.

    Consequently, Alhaji Abubakar is advised not to see his present ambition as an end in itself, but a means to an end which is to rescue this nation irrespective of who accomplished the task.  We should bear it in mind that thousands are in the party who are equally talented and up to the task, but have to forgo their ambition in other to support the leadership of a party in its quest to come out with a consensus candidate which is the only way to prevent acrimony and untoward consequences which always followed the conduct of a direct primary.  Of particular mention is Senator Bukola Saraki whose patriotic action in withdrawing from the race has been acknowledged by all and sundry.

     

    • Adewuyi Adegbite

    Apake, Ogbomoso.

  • Looming anarchy in Edo State

    Looming anarchy in Edo State

    •Police look away as hoodlums sack legislators, threaten governance

    The drama in the Edo State House of Assembly took a dangerous turn as miscreants last week invaded the official quarters of the state lawmakers, destroyed properties and attacked their families. It was a sign that the crisis that had grounded activities of the House since May might indeed have pitched the Federal Government and its agencies against the state government, to the detriment of the welfare and security of the people for which the governments exist.

    The police whose duty is so germane to protecting the peace of the state seem to have read the political barometer and taken a decision to favour the party controlling power at the centre. This runs contrary to the expectation of the state government whose leader is dubbed not just the chief executive but also chief security officer.

    The claims and counterclaims by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the centre and the All Progressives Congress (APC) that provided the platform on which Governor Adams Oshiomhole rode to power are so long and the noise so deafening that one would be correct to liken it to the noise made by tanks and ballistic missiles in modern warfare. The facts of the crisis are so clear, but the use to which they have been put are so befuddled that it would take the most brilliant judge time to make sense out of it.

    It is a fact that four members of the assembly, namely Abdulrahzaq Momoh, Jude Ise-Idehen, Patrick Osayimwen, and Friday Ogeiriakhi defected from the APC to the PDP. The state governor and his party frowned at the move, which was seen as a grand plan to destabilise the state and impeach Oshiomhole. Realising that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, the APC that still controls 15 of the 24 members of the assembly immediately hatched plans to suspend the four legislators.

    It was against this background that we could understand the slide to violence and seeping anarchy in the state. The PDP claims that the earlier assault on Momoh was executed by the APC, with cover allegedly provided by Governor Oshiomhole, while the invasion of the legislators’ quarters and the mayhem unleashed there last Saturday was regarded as the handiwork of the PDP.

    The tragedy of the situation is that all we have are claims by parties. The state police command has its voice muffled as it is regarded as a party to the fray. Governor Oshiomhole alleged that he personally got the police commissioner informed of an imminent attack on the legislators. Rather than respond by beefing up security around the legislators and the quarters, the police were said to have merely found a way of withdrawing those already attached to the quarters, thus paving the way for easy operation by the murderous gang.

    This is quite unfortunate as it falls into a discernible pattern evolving in different parts of the country. In Rivers and Ekiti states, similar drama had earlier played out. This is clear and present danger to democracy. Where an institution like the police fail to perform its task professionally, the people are encouraged to resort to self help and the result is total breakdown of law and order.

    The people of Edo State want and deserve peace. We therefore call on the police to lift the siege on the House of Assembly, win the confidence of the gladiators and work with democratic institutions in the state towards ensuring that all act within the parameters prescribed by law. We also call on the major political parties and their leadership to restrain their members and ensure that all conform to the requirement of the law. Should the existing tension in the state be carried to next February when the governorship and legislative elections would hold, violence is likely to be the by-product. This is an avoidable ill wind.

  • Ali Mazrui (1933 – 2014)

    Ali Mazrui (1933 – 2014)

    •A towering African intellectual sometimes tinctured with by a vision founded on his identity as an African Arab

    In the visual age, perhaps what may be considered as strikingly illustrative of the enduring intellectual interest of Prof Ali Mazrui, who died on October 13 in the United States at the age of 81, is his celebrated 1980s television documentary series The Africans- A Triple Heritage, which was a joint production of the BBC and the Public Broadcasting Service (WETA, Washington) in partnership with the Nigerian Television Authority. It is noteworthy that a book by the same title was also published, which underlined the significance of the subject.

    Mazrui created the attention-grabbing series and was the narrator of the story focused on modern Africa as the product of three defining influences, an indigenous heritage, Western culture, and Islamic culture. For much of his extensive career as a scholar and creative thinker, he was preoccupied with the unfolding consequences of these legacies. He was well-decorated, and in 2005 he was listed among the world’s Top 100 Public Intellectuals by the US journal Foreign Policy and British journal Prospect.

    A Kenyan-born African Arab, this apparently complicated identity mirrored the tensions and complexities that he grappled with using his liberal intellectual resources. As a researcher, he was also drawn to African politics, international political culture, Islamic politics and North-South relations. He wrote numerous books as well as hundreds of academic essays published in major journals and strongly expressed opinions published in the media.

    Particularly relevant to his lifelong interests are his books, Christianity and Islam in Africa’s Political Experience: Piety, Passion and Power, Africanity Redefined and Africa and other Civilizations: Conquest and Counter-Conquest. It is a testimony to his academic stature that until his death he was the Albert Schweitzer Professor in the Humanities and the Director of the Institute of Global Cultural Studies (IGCS) at Binghamton University in New York, a position he attained in 1989.

    His global perspective on political and cultural issues was further demonstrated in a speech in 2000 at an event hosted by the Royal African Society and the BBC in London. Bemoaning what he perceived as the expanding and domineering influence of the West on societies across the world, Mazrui said: “Even the very vices of Western culture are acquiring worldwide prestige. Muslim societies which once refrained from alcohol are now manifesting increasing alcoholism.” He added: “Chinese elites are capitulating to Kentucky Fried Chicken and MacDonald hamburgers. And Mahatma Ghandi’s country has decided to go nuclear.”

    Mazrui’s reputation as an informed and influential Africanist remained intact, undiminished by critical claims that his sympathies tended to lie with Islam, which was his religion. Even before his well-known television series, in 1979 he was considered a fitting mind to deliver the BBC’s prestigious Reith Lecture entitled “The African Condition.”  It is interesting to note that in 1991 he delivered the eighth Anniversary Lecture of The Guardian of Nigeria, entitled “The Black Woman and The Problem of Gender: Her Trials, Triumphs and Challenges.”

    His academic career was based on a solid foundation, having earned a doctorate from Oxford University in 1966, following an M.A. from Columbia University in New York in 1961 and a B.A. with Distinction from Manchester University in Great Britain in 1960. It is a reflection of his effective role as a public intellectual that he irritated the dictatorial military regime of Uganda’s Idi Amin well enough to earn himself a forced exile from his teaching position at Makerere University in Kampala in 1973.

    Toward the end of his life, he became prominent as a commentator on Islam and Islamism, and attracted controversy on account of his perspective that modern Islamic fundamentalism is an anti-imperialist response, although he rejected violence and terrorism. He also held the contentious view that Sharia law is not undemocratic.

    Indeed, Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta who led tributes to him was correct in describing Mazrui as a “towering” academic whose “intellectual contributions played a major role in shaping African scholarship”.

  • Nobel committee goofed on Malala

    Nobel committee goofed on Malala

    SIR: “Am studying economics in college and have to pass my exams before being awarded  grades” was a Facebook  message sent by one American student during a special BBC World Have Your Say  programme on  the announcement that United States’ President Barack Obama has won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. The message was the tip of the iceberg of the criticisms that followed the prize.

    The award of this year peace  prize  to Kailash Satyarthi for me is a recognition well-deserved but  to Malala –  whom I always argued will receive the prize but not now- is too early. It falls within the committee’s technique of awarding the prize to people for what they will do rather  what they have already done. Since 2009,  no worthy recipient of the peace prize has been seen with exception of Laymar Gbowee and  Tawakkul Kar.

    The Nobel Peace committee has through this act made the Nobel Peace Prize not just the cheapest, but the most controversial one.

    Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five prizes created by the Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiology or Medicine, and Literature. Since 1901, it has been awarded annually to those considered by the Nobel Peace Committee to have contributed exceptionally to the world peace.

    Judging from Alfred Nobel’s Will, many people who have received the award never deserved it.  The Will stated that only ‘person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses’ should be awarded the prize.

    Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager became a worldwide figure when she was shot by Taliban for campaigning for girls’ rights to education at Swath valley, Pakistan. She was treated briefly in Pakistan and later flown to UK. On recovery, she started schooling in London from where she got a number of awards and accolades – and now Nobel Peace Prize.

    Malala no doubt, is a promising young girl with golden future whose campaign for girls education in Pakistan is a great project. The project however, has not recorded great success to attract Nobel Prize. It sounds awkward that the world’s most prestigious award on fostering World Peace was given to Malala just because she was shot by Taliban!

    One important thing Nobel Peace committee should learn from Mo Ibrahim Foundation is this: You must not award the prize every year!

    • Jonathan Asikason,

    Enugwu-Ukwu, Anambra State.

     

  • Civilian JTF to the rescue

    Civilian JTF to the rescue

    •These heroes have shown that the war against terror and guerillas could only be successfully fought in partnership with the people

    Since the story of the battle to rid the Nigerian territory of terrorists changed for the better, we do not seem to have put enough value on the contribution of the civilians who constituted themselves into a Joint Task Force to defend their fatherland. The hunters and young men mainly in Borno State picked up the gauntlet and threw all they had into resisting the merchants of death who have been peddling death in the state –prowling, boasting and hoisting flags. In the process, our military men were said to have fled the scene, leaving the people, young and old, at the mercy of the insurgents. But, the Civilian JTF, to the detriment of their own lives rose to the occasion and faced tanks with crude weapons and sticks.

    At a point when the terrorists were within kilometres of Maiduguri and threatened the Shehu of Bornu’s palace, these heroes massed around the palace and formed a bulwark –  untrained and unassisted by the military. They were also useful in the battle to reclaim Konduga from the terrorists. We easily recall how the military and the police were sacked from Gwoza and morale fell in the armed forces; how military commanders lost control of their men and how some fled or strayed into neighbouring Cameroon. It took the bravery of these largely untrained but dedicated Nigerians to save the territory and repel attacks. Most times at great costs to them and their communities.

    These young men and ordinary citizens are true heroes. Many of them barely could eke out a living. Hardly had any members of their families benefitted anything of the Nigerians state. They rose up and, imbued with patriotism, chose to defend their ancestral homes, ready to die in the process if necessary.

    The example of the Civilian JTF has shown what the ordinary Nigerian could do if challenged by the state. These men must not be forgotten. They have been used to stem a tide and should not be dropped like rotten apple as soon as the danger has gone away. The reported plan to get them trained and, where applicable, drafted into the formal structures of the military, is commendable. Those who may not be found fit for the rigour and discipline needed for recruitment into the armed forces should be retooled for a useful future.

    The contribution of the Civilian JTF has shown that there must be partnership between the military and the civilian population if progress is ever to be made in the defence of Nigeria’s territorial integrity. The local people know the territory and the enemies better than the military men who had been drafted from all parts of the country. Besides, their feeling for the land could not be compared to the artificially activated love of the men of the armed forces. The recent trial of officers and men of the army for mutiny and sabotage underscores the point that patriotism in its natural form is superior to those learnt and taught in the classrooms.

    However, it must be pointed out that they should not be turned to cannon fodders in this war. It has been shown that these terrorists are heavily armed and well financed. It would be unfair to recruit thousands of the civilians in the area merely to confront Armoured Personnel carriers, with sticks. They would, at this point, be more useful in providing intelligence than in being turned into a fighting force.

    Beyond investing in the future of these young heroes, children and widows of those who fell should be adopted by governments at the various levels to demonstrate that there is reward for whoever chooses to partner with the Nigerian state. It is also a unique opportunity for the armed forces to interact with the people, take interest in the education of some orphans by adopting and enrolling them in military schools.

    These rare Nigerians deserve the gratitude of Nigeria and Nigerians.