The Nation Newspaper

Tag: America

  • America producer prices data point to tame inflation

    America producer prices data point to tame inflation

    UNITED States producer prices were flat last month, pointing to benign inflation pressures that could weigh on the Federal Reserve’s decision whether to hike interest rates next week.

    The unchanged reading in the producer price index last month followed a 0.2 percent gain in July, the Labour Department said on Friday. The drag on producer prices from lower crude oil prices and a strong dollar was offset by an increase in profit margins for apparel, footwear and accessories retailing.

    In the 12 months through August, the PPI fell 0.8 percent after a similar decline in July. It was the seventh straight 12-month decrease in the index.

    Tame inflation despite a rapidly tightening labour market poses a dilemma for Fed officials who are contemplating raising rates for the first time in nearly a decade.

    Though job openings are at a record high and the unemployment rate is at a 7-1/2-year low, wage gains have been lacklustre. That has helped keep inflation well below the Fed’s two percent target.

    The U.S. central bank’s policy-setting committee meets on Sept. 16-17. The likelihood of a lift-off in the Fed’s benchmark overnight interest rate has been diminished by recent financial market volatility, which was sparked by concerns over China’s economy.

    U.S. stock index futures extended losses after the PPI data, while the dollar added to gains against a basket of currencies. Prices for U.S. government debt rose.

    Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the PPI dipping 0.1 percent last month and falling 0.9 percent from a year ago.

    Producer inflation is likely to remain muted in the near term after a report on Thursday showed import prices fell 1.8 percent in August, the largest drop since January.

    The index for final goods fell 0.6 percent last month, with a 7.7 percent decline in gasoline prices accounting for nearly two-thirds of the drop. There also were decreases in the cost of jet fuel, grains, light motor trucks, and iron and steel scrap.

    Wholesale food prices rose 0.3 percent in August as the impact of an avian flu outbreak early this year continued to linger. Food prices slipped 0.1 percent in July. Wholesale chicken egg prices rose 23.2 percent last month after falling 24.2 percent in July.

    The volatile trade services component, which mostly reflects profit margins at retailers and wholesalers, shot up 0.9 percent in August after rising 0.4 percent in the prior month. Almost half of the increase in August was attributed to a 7.0 percent surge in margins for apparel, footwear and accessories retailing.

    A key measure of underlying producer price pressures that excludes food, energy and trade services edged up 0.1 percent in August after rising 0.2 percent in July.

    The dollar’s 17.5 percent rise against the currencies of the United States’ main trading partners since June 2014 is restraining gains in the so-called core PPI.

    Core PPI was up 0.7 percent in the 12 months through August.

  • ‘Why America withheld military aid to Nigeria’

    ‘Why America withheld military aid to Nigeria’

    •How to defeat Boko Haram, by US ex-Defence Secretary
    •The Nation MD Ifijeh gets This Day Alumni Award

    America has withheld military support to Nigeria because of a law which bars it from helping countries where rights abuses occur, a former United States Secretary of Defence, Mr Robert Gates, has said.

    The United States, he said, shares a common hatred for terrorism but is limited by the Leahy Law in how much military aid it can give or ammunition it can supply to a country where gross rights abuses are alleged to occur.

    Gates served as Secretary of State to two presidents 2011 and was Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from 1991 to 1993.

    He was a guest at ThisDay newspaper’s 20th Anniversary Awards held on Saturday night.

    The event featured a session entitled: Conversations on Security involving Gates and Charles Hagel, who was a US senator from 1997 to 2009 and served as Secretary of Defence from 2013 to February this year.

    The Leahy Law prohibits US Department of State and Department of Defence from providing military assistance to foreign military units that violate human rights. If a military or police is found to have been credibly implicated in a serious abuse of human rights, the law stops US dollars from flowing to such units across the world. Thus, assistance is denied until America is convinced the host government has taken effective steps to bring the responsible persons to justice. The law is named after its sponsor Senator Patrick Leahy.

    ThisDay’s chairman, Nduka Obaigbena, who moderated the session, asked Gates and Hagel: “Does America prefer to respect the human rights of Boko Haram more than those of Nigerians?”

    Gates said the law places America in a difficult position, describing it as restrictive and inflexible, while suggesting that it be amended.

    “We obviously prefer the human rights of the people of Nigeria. I think we have a common hatred for the terrorists, otherwise known as Boko Haram. The question you raised is a difficult one for Americans because we have contradictory feelings and laws. Senator Hagel and I were Secretaries of Defence and we are governed by US Laws.

    “One of those laws is the Leahy Amendment that limits the assistance that the United States can give to other countries where there are accusations of human rights abuses by the military.

    “Speaking for both Senator Hagel and myself, we feel too limited by that law. It’s too inflexible. It doesn’t take into consideration the changes that have occurred. It doesn’t take into account the local circumstances that happened in these countries.

    “We deal with this problem not just in Nigeria but in the Philipines, Indonesia, Pakistan. So this is the problem that confronts us with our friends around the world. And we see the need to support our friends in Nigeria and these other countries in dealing with terrorists.

    “We want to provide military assistance and the kind of weapons and ammunition that you need to take on Boko Haram. Personally I have spent a number of hours talking to Senator Leahy about this law. I have real problems with it because it limits the President’s ability to do what’s in our own best interest which frankly is to support Nigerian government in the conflict,” he said.

    Gates said America’s standards of due process creates a conflict that leads to frequent arguments in the White House and elsewhere on how the US can support its friends and at the same time obey the law.

    “My personal view is: we need to do more to support Nigeria,” Gates said.

    Senator Hagel, who said the Leahy law had been enacted before he went to the Senate, agreed with Gates’ analysis, adding that they had no choice but to comply with the law even though it is restrictive.

    He said: “There is no question that Nigeria is a friend, a partner. We trade. We have common interests. There are too many facets of our lives that interconnect in our interests – there’s no question about that. The Nigeria-US situation is not unique, as Secretary Gates referred to. It is in every country where we have to deal with this issue.

    “The world is not a simple world, I think we all appreciate that. In the case of America’s interests and what we believe, they are exactly the same as yours. And so terrorism, Boko Haram, ISIS, Al-Qaeda, are threats to all of our countries and the future of every society.

    “We’ll continue to work within the structures we have and hopefully we’ll be able to amend that law. We should do more. We need to do more in helping Nigeria. I know Secretary Gates and I are committed to continue with that effort even though we’re out of office.”

    Responding to a question, Senator Hagel said unless the congress amends the law, President Obama is powerless to go beyond it.

    Gates added that the law is a disadvantage even to America’s interests.

    For instance, he said following rights abuses by Indonesian military, culprits were either arrested, fired or retired, yet the US has not resumed full military cooperation with Indonesia “because all of the strict provisions of the Leahy Amendment have not been fulfilled.”

    He said: “I’ve been to Indonesia several times as Secretary of Defence and tried to explain to them why this is wrong, why in our view the law needs to be changed, but as long as it remains the law, it limits our ability to cooperate.

    “I don’t know anybody in the American government who does not believe we have a common cause with the people of Nigeria against Boko Haram,” Gates said.

    Former Ekiti State Governor Dr Kayode Fayemi sought to know why America appears to be selective in its application of the law.

    He said the law was not strictly applied to Egypt which received America’s support despite abuses. Obaigbena added that it was not only Egypt, but Israel.

    Senator Hagel denied the allegations. He said after General Abdel El-Sisi took seized power from President Mohammed Morsi on January 3, 2013, America withheld some military assistance to Egypt.

    “We did stop a lot of the assistance we were giving Egypt when that occurred,” he said, adding however, that America could not have completely turned its back on Egypt.

    He admitted that there “some contradictions” in the law’s application because there is no country without some form of human rights issues.

    Gates said “consistency” in lawmaking should not be expected from the US Congress because it has made laws that worked to the disadvantage of America’s national security, including the one which required America to cut off all military contact with Pakistan for 12 years.

    “It created the problems that we have had with Pakistan since 2001,” he said.

    Gates said while it is important for America to assert its values in terms of human rights, they must be balanced with security issues.

    He said through all of its history, America has struggled to find a balance between its ideals and realism in its foreign policy.

    “So the question is: When it comes to the struggle between Boko Haram, ISIS and Al-Qaeda, where do we draw the balance in the countries with whom we cooperate? I believe that the Leahy Amendment draws the balance on the wrong side of the line and prevents us from helping governments that can help us help ourselves,” he said.

    On how Nigeria can defeat Boko Haram, Gates said it will require a combination of strategies.

    Responding to a question, he said: “It’s been more 20 since I retired as CIA director. But if I were there now, here is what I suspect: the analysis will be that Boko Haram is a real threat, that dealing with it requires a combination of security policies and actions, military actions, but also figuring out strategies that dissuade young people from wanting to join Boko Haram.”

    He said it will also involve deploying the power of religion to fill the “emptiness” Boko Haram members feel in their hearts “with something more positive and something more uplifting”.

    Gates said Nigeria has enormous human capital that needs to be developed, with latent economic, social, cultural, historical and military strength.

    “Figuring out how to mobilise those strengths is the challenge that lies before Nigeria’s leaders and its people,” he said.

    On his assessment of democracy in Nigeria, Senator Hagel said there is always room for improvement.

    He noted that America has 27 amendments to its Constitution to address a number of inequalities because it did not get everything right at first. For instance, less than 100 years ago, American women did not have the right to vote, he recalled.

    “If you have a system that allows you to self-correct along the way, that is the critical part of self-governance…America cannot impose its systems on other countries. Every country is different and that has to be factored in to your democracy. I think that democracy is moving in the right direction in Nigeria; I think that there is ample evidence of that,” Hagel said.

    Among those who got the Game Changers awards are the late Dr Ameyo Adadevoh; bombing survivor and campaigner Ms. Member Fesse, former Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) chairman Nuhu Ribadu, Zenith Bank chairman Jim Ovia, founder of Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc Atedo Peterside, Chairman of UBA Group Tony Elumelu, Chairman of Zinox Group Leo Stan Ekeh, Chairman of Stallion Group Sunil Vaswani, lawyer and businessman Olatunde Ayeni and leading events manager Yewande Zacchaeus.

    Those who received Lifetime Achievement Awards include former Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Group Managing Director Jackson Giaus-Obaseki, scholar-diplomat Prof Ibrahim Gambari, Rear Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu (rtd), industrialist Chief Olusegun Osunkeye, former Daily Times Editor Prince Henry Odukomaiya, lawyer and businessman Oyekunle Alex-Duduyemi, and former Secretary of Health Prince Julius Adelusi-Adeluyi.

    Obaigbena said others listed for awards, such as Aliko Dangote, Mike Adenuga, Prince Tony Momoh, Linda Ikeja, among others, would have theirs presented to them at their offices.

    The Distinguished Alumni award went to The Nation’s Managing Director Mr Victor Ifijeh, who joined ThisDay in 1995 as Political Editor and rose to become News Editor, Sunday Editor, Daily Editor and Managing Director; as well as to its former Editorial Board chairman Tunji Bello, who is Secretary to Lagos State Government.

    Former Sports Minister Bolaji Abdullahi, who joined ThisDay as a staff reporter and rose to become Deputy Editor and later Editorial Board member, also got the award, as well as Director-General of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) Bature Masari, who also worked at ThisDay, among others.

    Obaseki, accompanied by NNPC’s Group Managing Director Dr Ibe Kachikwu, urged Nigerians to support the Muhammadu Buhari administration. He praised the president for directing that 65 refineries be made to work and Kachikwu for restating that refineries were not for sale.

    He said: “I heard somebody say NNPC was dysfunctional. Let me say that we found ourselves at that stage in 1998. But when we came in 1999 we realised that sacrifice was needed, and we turned it round. I can, therefore, say with all certainty that it can be turned round. I am happy to have the new GMD by my side.

    “I have listened to his pronouncements. I believe that that vision that we set out in 1999 can still be realised. All I ask from you is to give the new GMD and his team the required support. And of course, to Mr President, and Nigeria will be good again. We can always do it. Support the NNPC. Support the new administration.”

    Responding on behalf of ‘ThisDay Alumni’, Ifijeh said: “We consider it a very great privilege and an honour to be so recognised. We thank the ‘Duke’ himself, the Chairman/Editor-in-Chief, media guru/entrepreneur, the father of all, for this honour. ThisDay is a great institution. In fact some call it the Practical University of Journalism. Many of us here will not be what we are today without ThisDay.

    “We were told in school that you can pass through an institution without the institution passing through you. But here we are. We applied ourselves to everything we did in ThisDay and we’re so glad that we have been honoured. I congratulate all our other colleagues who are not here, some deaceased; without them there will be no ThisDay. ThisDay will continue to grow from strength to strength.”

    Among guests at the event were former governors Babatunde Fashola (SAN) (Lagos), Liyel Imoke (Cross River), Peter Obi (Anambra), Fayemi (Ekiti), Vanguard Publisher Uncle Sam Amuka, industrialist Oba Otudeko, among others.

  • Sammie Okposo plans SOPP America

    Sammie Okposo plans SOPP America

    Following the success story of Sammie Okposo’s Praise Party (SOPP), a concert which coincided with his birthday celebration, the popular gospel artiste is set to take the party outside Nigeria.

    Okposo made the announcement via social media, saying, “In 2013, two years ago, SOPP was live in New York and Washington Aug 30th and Sept 7th back to back.  It was a mind blowing experience. My SOPP, American family and fan base have been on my case on when SOPP is coming back to America. Well, I’m happy to announce that the wait is over. The Sammie Okposo Praise Party Concert is coming back to America…details coming soon watch this.”

    The 2015 edition of the SOPP global tour started in Lagos on May 1. The train later moved to Benin on May 30, and Port-Harcourt, Rivers State on June 14, and other places, before a final stop at Abuja on July 12, 2015.

  • Nigeria’s greatest visit to America

    President Buhari has done Nigeria proud in America this week. Everywhere during his three-day visit, the American media welcomed him with great warmth, enthusiasm and optimism. For a change, here is one Nigerian leader who is re-assuring the world very convincingly about Nigeria.

    Known or unknown to us Nigerians, the world has, for years, been gradually giving up on our country. The stories, and the plain evidence, of public corruption in Nigeria have been simply overwhelming. They have been so overwhelming that a foreigner who wrote a book on Nigeria gave it the title This House Has Fallen. An American journalist, Richard Dowden, who visited Africa a number of times wrote a book on Africa and titled his chapter on Nigeria, “Look out world, Nigeria”, as if warning the world that a dangerous predator called Nigeria was on the prowl. Then, he wrote in dismay:

    “Nigeria has a terrible reputation. Tell someone that you are going to Nigeria and if they haven’t been there themselves, they offer sympathy. Tell anyone who has been to Nigeria and they laugh. Then they offer sympathy. No tourists go there. Only companies rich enough to keep their staff removed from the realities of Nigerian life do business there. And big companies rarely mention Nigeria in their annual reports for fear of what it will do to their share price. Journalists treat it like a war zone. Diplomats regard it as a punishment posting.”

    Dowden adds that, in fact, Nigeria’s popular image falls short of the reality – and that Nigeria is a failed state that somehow manages to keep standing. An American young man who took part in a Christian missionary group drilling water wells for poor villages all over Africa returned home and told his friends that he believed that God is probably using Nigeria for an experiment – that God is probably gathering the worst human beings into Nigeria in order to see what would happen if the worst human beings were gathered in a country. He added that he found in Nigeria something that cannot be classified as ordinary corruption – village heads demanding bribes from the missionaries as a condition for allowing the missionaries to drill the well for the villagers. A well-informed agency of the American government wrote in a report in 2004 that Nigeria could break up in 15 years.

    Of course, we Nigerians know that these images are not fair to most of us. The influential citizens who have given us these images are only a minority among us – but they are the most visible ones among us. The foreigner who comes to Nigeria for some business would inevitably encounter our immigration officials, customs officials, police and security officials, may be military officials, then various levels of civil servants, Central Bank officials, ministers of state – and perhaps our President. Predictably, all of these men and women of our country’s frontline are likely to demand or take an illegitimate something from the foreigner. If the foreigner is a journalist or researcher of some kind, he will see most of the above; he may also see, during an election, high public officials grabbing and taking away ballot boxes in broad daylight in order to rig the election – and he will see police, military, and security officials helping the high public officials. If the foreigner happens to be a senior bank official in his own country, he very probably will encounter some Nigerian high public officials who have stolen huge amounts of Nigerian public money and who are seeking help to hide the loots in secret bank accounts. If he happens to be a realtor in his country, he will probably encounter clients who are Nigerian public officials seeking to invest large amounts of stolen public money on expensive real estate properties.

    These are only a few examples. The manifestations are legion. And in reality, many of us too who are not public officials do cut corners in order to survive the poverty that our governments have foisted upon our country. Still, it is not fair to say that Nigerians are all thieves and takers of bribes – as lots of foreigners who come into contact with our country say (innocently or maliciously) about us.

    However, fair or unfair, the image hurts. It has hurt us Nigerians, as well as our country, terribly. We live today in a world in which capital owned by investors from various parts of the world is crucial to development in every country. Most of that capital is searching for the best countries to invest in. We live in a world in which commerce – the exporting and importing of goods – builds most of the wealth of countries. And we live in a world in which tourism is one of the generators of the wealth of countries. We have a country that is wonderfully rich in resources, and that should be one of the world’s largest focal points of manufacturing, commerce, tourism, movements of finance, etc, but our country’s awful image inhibits our share of these things. What this translates to is poverty. We Nigerians live in undeserved poverty, and much of that poverty is generated by the terrible image that we have acquired in the world.

    But now, with Buhari, new prospects are opening up for our country and us – new possibilities, new glimmers of hope. No Nigerian ruler has ever had the quality of image and perception that Buhari has acquired in only seven weeks. From the few steps he has already taken, nobody doubts that this is the real fight against corruption in Nigeria – and not just another one of the endless and empty promises of fight against corruption. And what that can do for our country and us is incalculable. Buhari is inviting the world to trust us and come, and the vibrations strongly indicate that the world will respond. From my home in a distant country abroad, I speak this message to my people back home: Buhari is putting together something big and good for our country.

    This is a war for all of us Nigerians to fight; it is not Buhari’s alone. We must all join hands and fight it. I hereby offer some contributions of my own. One of the things that have made corruption easy in our country is that, since the mid-1960s, we have removed the old civil service rules, regulations and processes that protected access to public money. Today, our president and governors more or less go about with all of our public money in their pockets. We need to revive and retool the measures that guarded public money before 1966. In addition, we need to establish watch-dog agencies that oversee budget performances and the movement of public money. And we need to make ethics laws that all must obey, and establish enforcement processes from which no public official is exempt. We did not have massive “security votes” before 1966 – security votes that nobody can audit. It is a poison from Satan’s own hand. We must review it.

    Finally, as I have said repeatedly in this column and elsewhere, the search for and recovery of stolen public money, the punishment of the culprits, and the establishment of rules and processes for protecting public money – all are just the surface battles of the war against corruption. In addition to them, we must deal with the fundamental root of corruption. When our military rulers robbed our states of their powers, resource control, and development initiative, and pooled all together in the federal centre, they created a super-corrupt federal government, the mother of corruption, the dispenser of corruption all over our country. President Buhari must not leave this unattended to.

  • For B. B. King and ‘Black’ America

    For B. B. King and ‘Black’ America

    He died last week – did BB King.

    He was a giant of a man – literally and metaphorically. Plump, effervescent.

    A big, commanding presence.

    He had been going to die for weeks. Ill with what his Press people described vaguely as ‘Diabetes-related complaints’, it was generally put about that he was receiving ‘Hospice care’, a description which did not give grounds for any undue optimism concerning recovery and a return to normal life.

    Normal life for BB King for several decades has been sitting up on stage, singing the Blues, and twanging on Lucille, his faithful guitar.

    More lately the reality emerged of an impending battle over inheritance that was playing out even as the principal lay dying.  His daughter went to Court, seeking power of attorney to take over his affairs. The court rejected the request, saying in effect that her father was ‘Compos Mentis’, and had access to counsel for advice and action if he felt he was about to be taken advantage of by his Manager.

    The story of the Blues is the story of the African, transplanted to America to make his home and make his life in conditions that were so cruel and so destructive to the soul that it was a wonder that he survived. Part of the reason he survived, and has gone on to flourish, well – sort of – is that he had The Blues.

    Nothing is easier to misunderstand, or trivialise, than The Blues. The very notion conjures up images of morose people, bereft of all hope, crying in their cups. Psychiatry itself does not help matters. It uses the description ‘The Blues of Birth’ to describe the depressed mood some women experience soon after the delivery of their babies.

    If The Blues is the music of wretched hopeless people wrapping themselves about in the thick blanket of their pain, does the audience then pay money to go, out of a shared humanity, to wallow in their pain, to sympathise with them for a few minutes, before discretely making their way back to the comforts of their own lives? Or is there something bigger, higher?

    The memory of your first and only experience watching BB King live with Lucille comes flooding back. Edinburgh Playhouse, up on the hill.

    For years, dating back to your student days in Ibadan, you had been collecting old records by an assortment of Blues performers including Leadbelly, Howling Wolf and Bessie Smith. You enjoyed sitting in the evenings listening to the repetitive notes banging on the high notes of the piano, or the strumming of the guitar, and the plaintive, poignant wail of the musician’s voice. Often the quality of recording of the vinyl records was so bad you could not make out the words. All you got was a general sense of the theme of the song, and the mood of the singer. Your friends were convinced this was evidence of  ‘something not quite right upstairs’. Certainly the cadence was worlds apart from Candi Staton, or the vibrancy of ‘You Sexy Thing’ from Hot Chocolate that was the vogue. In your mind as you closed your eyes, you tried to picture the cotton fields of Mississippi, so removed from your own experience. You tried to feel your way into the passions. You thought of the people inhabiting that world as ‘Our People’. Sometimes the pathos of Bessie Smith would bring a tear inexplicably to your eye.

    You had expected that watching BB King live would bring all the emotions of those mellow and lonely evenings crowding back to your consciousness. You did not expect the throbbing excitement that vibrated through the hall as he thrummed on guitar, shaking and cuddling it as if it was a living thing, or the vibrant foot-thumping joie de vivre he radiated as he sang ‘The Thrill Is Gone’ and ‘Since I Met You Baby’.

    That evening with BB King and his guitar opened your eyes to the expanded vision of The Blues, and why it had played such a vital role in seeing ‘Our People’ through the rigours of their tough lives, and into the hazy sunshine of a day when an African American now occupied the White House, though much remained to be accomplished, as was only too evident shootings of black men with readiness and impunity, whether by disturbed young white men ‘standing tall’, or trigger-happy policemen who could explain it all.

    The insight came to you that evening that the Blues was not about being Blue at all. It was about making a life for yourself within the space that you had, even as you strove through other means to expand that space.

    It was a tough life, was the life of the black man in America through the centuries, in the deep South, in the slave belt of America. For the generation of slaves who were taken from their home in Africa and cruelly sold, and harshly worked, at the end of the whip, in the sight of the gun, to create the wealth of America, it was an existence so bereft as to be pointless for people of less resilience to endure. Yet, even as they suffered in the day, they sang, and they danced, in the day, and even more in the nights. They loved. They hated. They married. They divorced. They procreated new generations to carry their lives on, and also their hopes.

    Generation onto generation, they sang and danced the story of their lives. They sang the Gospel, because they often found Religion, and it offered them the recognition and equity that they could not yet find on earth in an Afterlife. And they sang the Blues, which was about Life here and now. Suffering was an item in the song, but not all of it. Most of it was the substance of LIFE no oppressor could take away – the love of a woman, the betrayal of a loved one, the philanderer who could get away with murder, the beautiful woman who could not stick to one suitor, the wayward child and the mother trying with all her might to straighten him out. They would dance this story avidly, and they would sing it. It was their life. They would drink to it. They would make love to it.

    After Slavery was long gone, economic and social slavery took over as the dominant theme of ‘Our People’s’ lives.

    BB King had been born in Mississippi, Alabama. He had worked in the cotton fields in his early years, before he went on to find fame and fortune playing the Blues all around the world, first to people who were most black like him, and then gradually to audiences that were all the colours of the rainbow.

    But the story of the Blues is not just about the Blues, or its creator, the long-suffering black man in the cotton fields, or his successor, the one who got away from the cotton field to play Carnegie Hall and Edinburgh Playhouse and the swankiest venues in Paris and Berlin. The story of the Blues is also about post-Slavery Economics, and the music genres that have been spawned by the Blues. And the rash of paradoxes that immediately assault the sensibilities when the eyes are trained in that direction. Rockn Roll, and even Rock, the bastions of ‘white’ popular music, are drawn from roots that are undoubtedly located in the Blues. For the devotees of these music types, these antecedents are easier to acknowledge today than they were long ago. Think how difficult it must have been for an Elvis Presley to acknowledge that he owed the music he was playing to black slaves and their descendants. Many of the stars of those genres were white men who would not give a black man the time of day. They took his music, turned it around, and made money and fame from it.

    In the past few years, it has become fashionable for white ‘Rock’ superstars to acknowledge their black and ‘Blue’ antecedents, and even to celebrate them. One of the most important ‘Rock’ records of recent times is Eric Clapton’s ‘Riding With The King’. The album’s cover photo has Eric Clapton driving an open top car, with BB King sitting in the back, in what Nigerians call the ‘owner’s corner’. The photo, as well as the title, carry far deeper meaning than is obvious at first glance. ‘The King’ is not just about BB King’s name, but the fact that he is ‘King’ of the Blues. His sitting in the ‘Owner’s Corner’ of Clapton’s limousine is emblematic of the fact that the huge fortune made by Eric Clapton and other top ‘Rockers’ of the world is substantially ‘owned’ by BB King and countless black men and women who invented The Blues.

    Blues notables now make albums and sing in live concerts with Rock superstars. U2. The Rolling Stones. It is interesting that the Bluesmen, including BB King, make more money from these ‘collaborations’ than they do from their own records. It is also interesting that ‘reinterpretations’ of Blues music by Rock musicians sell to a vastly larger audience than the ‘originals’. A case in point is a song named ‘Little Red Rooster’. It was originally done by Howling Wolf, who sold a few records and made a pittance. But it became world famous when The Rolling Stones chose to sing it. It became a Number One in the British Charts, selling in the millions, and raking in many millions for the Stones.

    It is a bitter pill for The Blues, a musical genre honed in black adversity, that it needs to ‘cross over’ in order to get popular acceptance and to survive into the future. The reality is that outside America today, there are more ‘white’ people listening to the Blues and attending Blues concerts at Ronnie Scott’s and other venues than the traditional ‘owners’ of the music. It may be a dying genre, surviving only by enlarging its coast through infusion into other genres, or being hijacked by other genres that may not even acknowledge it. Most black youths today favour Rap, and Rhythm and Blues. ‘Pure’ Blues is abandoned to ‘purists’ – older folk who relish the times past, and the old greats. The music of the present day black struggle, which is not in the cotton-fields but in streets of New York and other cities, is not the Blues, but Rap, whose Blues antecedents are barely recognisable, and whose attitude of youthful hostility raring for a bare-knuckles fight with the enemy is a world apart from the compliance and survival mode of the cotton-fields.

    Sadly the ranks of the ‘old greats’ are diminished by one, with the passage of BB King. His guitar may not have twanged as high a note as Albert King’s, and his voice may not have growled with the ‘devilish’ passion of Muddy Waters. But he was the King.

    It is truly the end of an era.

     

  • ‘My miraculous survival of Boko Haram attack’

    ‘My miraculous survival of Boko Haram attack’

    It sounds like a movie story but it isn’t. Abubakar Umar, who has just graduated in Petroleum Chemistry from the American University of Nigeria (AUN) in Yola, the Adamawa State capital, was shot thrice by Boko Haram insurgents. He survived despite not receiving medical help for almost 24 hours. He is planning to write a book on his “miraculous survival”. He shares the synopsis of the book with KOFOWOROLA BELO-OSAGIE at his graduation last Saturday.

    •The story of a Boko Haram survivor

    Many in the graduating Class of the 2015 American University of Nigeria (AUN), Yola, won  thousands of naira in prizes for excellence in academics and leadership at an awards dinner last Friday, but the prize for courage, which went to Abubakar Umar, surpassed them all.

    It was only Umar that parents, teachers and dignitaries from far and wide, including the university’s founder, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, gave a standing ovation as he made his way from the back of the expansive hall to the podium to receive his prize. Umar fell a victim of Boko Haram insurgency last year because of his dedication to community service. It remains a miracle that he lived to complete his BSc programme.  He had no medical help for almost 24 hours after he was shot last December 4.

    The university’s President, Dr Margee Ensign, described Umar’s courage as profound and deserving of recognition, especially as he was busy raising funds for the less privileged before he was attacked.

     

    The genesis

     

    It was not for want of adventure that Umar, who hails from Jigawa State, stayed behind after the university closed last December to do extra community service.  It was because the university requires all students to undertake community service projects of their choice – programmes they must initiate, raise funds for and implement to positively impact on their host community; and also because of his passion to help the less privileged.

    He said: “Here at AUN we do a lot of community service. For example, there’s this secondary school that has some extension of classrooms and they don’t have paint. So we organised some of our students to buy paint to paint those schools. We also tutor some of them. Also women from the community are taught English and Mathematics. Some are also taught tailoring and others.

    “I happen to be someone that loves travelling and anytime I am travelling, I see a lot of people, challenging people, lots of struggles everywhere.  I notice some people trekking some kilometres just trying to get drinking water so I know that not all people are from the same place, and some get many things easier than others. Hence, I believe that by reaching out to those people, one day, the gap won’t be that wide and everyone will be okay.”

    During his community service project, Umar said he helped to paint a secondary school in Yola and also teach mathematics and English, among other activities.

     

    The journey

     

    Done with his extra community service, Umar left Yola at 6am with the hope of stopping over at Jigawa to visit his grandparents before getting to Kano, where he lives with his parents.  He was aware of the increasing insecurity in the northeast, which forced the university to close earlier than normal for the year.  He took precautions by stopping in the transit town of Gombe to get some items for his grandparents and share information with fellow travellers on how best to proceed on the journey.  That interaction made him to change his route.

    “The travellers usually converse and exchange ideas about what is happening on the road. That was where the drivers were saying the road from Gombe to Bauchi was not safe. Usually, the road used to have more than 12 checkpoints, but on that day, those people coming from Kano said they saw no single checkpoint. And the military personnel stationed there are not usually brought to that place; they have their containers there so they live at that place.

    “For some strange reason on that day, no check point was seen. So the people were very cautious and they shared the information with us, telling us that we should not pass that road because anything could happen. A road that there is no check point, you know, you are on your own. So we decided that there is a much safer road, which is through the Nafana-Bajuga road, which will take you to Potiskum; then from Potiskum, you pass to Jigawa and then from there, you get to Kano. Although that was a longer route, on that day, it seemed to be the safest of all roads.”

    Sadly, it was not.  It was on that route – about three hours into the journey – that the insurgents struck twice.

    “So myself together with some public drivers, we passed that road and unfortunately, that was where it happened. We passed Bajuga, we passed Nafana, I think I was almost 40 km away from Potiskum. That was where the road was really bad, so I slowed down. When I slowed down, these insurgents came out from the bush and they started shooting drastically at us. At first I wanted to stop because I noticed they were putting on the military uniform.  The trousers were military and the timberland boots. But they were putting on head bands and screaming ‘Allahu Akbar’ so it made me realise that these were not military, they were the insurgents. So I downshifted the vehicle and sped off. And that was when they shot me on my left arm.

    “I kept on driving. I was very scared; so scared that I did not even notice that I had been shot. I was bleeding and kept on driving. I think I drove for five minutes when I noticed that the road was very rough again.  Within that interval of five minutes, there wasn’t any check point or any town in between. I wanted to stop anywhere I could reach quickly, like the nearest town, to report the incident, but there was none.  After the five minutes, I noticed another check point and the pot holes and the road was very bad so I slowed down. And when I slowed down, the same people came out again and they shot me the second time. That was when I was shot twice at my right arm.  But I had to continue driving, because if I had stopped, it would have been the end. I don’t know where the energy came from.”

     

    Help

     

    After some distance, Umar abandoned his car to seek help.  He was bleeding profusely and getting weak.  But help did not come early.  Despite meeting about four groups of people in the village (called Daudu) where he stopped and speaking Hausa to them, they did not help him; they even ignored him.    The last group of older men only volunteered information, advising him to avoid the major roads within the village because the insurgents were around and preaching.

    Their counsel ultimately proved useful as the back routes led him to his helpers – though he was initially turned away by them too.

    He said: “I just took a left turn and I was going. I never knew where I was going but I was just walking and I found myself in the compound of someone. I met a lady there and she wanted to give me shelter to stay but two older women in the house said I cannot stay because if the insurgents came, they would kill me and kill them too. So in order to protect themselves, I have to stay out.

    “I pleaded, because I knew if I should leave that place, I was going to die. But they said if I should continue pleading, that they were going to scream and call them and they were going to kill me. I said there was no need for that and I thanked the old woman and was on the verge of going.

    “But as I was about to go, the old woman told them that the insurgents told them that they were going to attack Gombe and those people happened to have relatives at Gombe. So the old woman told them that ‘if you cannot help this young man, how would you now expect God to protect your own relatives that the Boko Haram are going to attack next?’

    “That was what convinced them that I can stay at their house but should the insurgents come, they don’t know anything about me. So I said ok, I would take my chance. They took me to a toilet where I hid.”

    From about 10am after getting to Dauda Village to the next morning, Umar stayed without medical attention because none was available in the village.  It was perhaps the longest wait of his life as his military contacts could not rescue him until the next day.

    With his car and all its contents stolen, he had to depend on his hosts for first aid and contact with the world.

    “When the man of the house came…I directed him to make the salt and water solution to be very thick and asked him to pour it on the wounds. I could see my bones from the injuries, because they were very deep. He poured it and funny enough, I don’t know what happened, maybe because of the trauma, but I did not feel any pain at that point. He used rags to tie my hand that I had a fracture.  Fortunately, the bleeding reduced to drops.  That sustained till I think around 6pm.

    “He gave me his phone and that was when I made contact.  I have friends in the military.  I called them.  The person I know in the military was not in town.  So he called his friend and the friend then called me; he asked for my location, I told him.  That was around 7 ‘o’ clock in the evening.  He told me that no one can come and take me at that particular moment because Gombe State had imposed a 24-hour curfew then; no one was allowed to move.  He said from Potiskum where they were coming to rescue me, they were afraid that the insurgents may still be around.  So there might be a chance that I might eventually die unless I stayed there till the next morning.  I said no problem.  He told me not to take a lot of water; that if I take water I might die, so I didn’t take anything.  He told me to get some antibiotics if it was possible.  Everyone had left that place so there wasn’t any pharmaceutical help of any kind.  I have to stay there till the next place and that was when they came to get me.”

    The next day, in order to get help, Umar said he disguised like a mad man to beat Boko Haram informants.

    “The man of the house told me that there were Boko Haram informants in that particular village.  So if I am going out I need to dress like a mad man and disguise myself so nobody would recognise me; and I had to go through the back door so that no one will see me and I won’t put him into any sort of trouble.

    “And that was exactly what happened.  I covered myself in chicken dung and some sand, mud and something like that.  I removed my shoes; put them inside my pocket, and walked barefooted like a mad man.  I walked to the road side and they came and took me to Potiskum, where I received first aid treatment before my parents came and took me to Kano where I had surgery.  And I think I didn’t recover until after 14 weeks,” he said.

     

    Recovery

     

    Eight weeks in hospital stabilised Umar enough to return to school towards the end of January.  But it took another six weeks before he could remove his cast and learn to write again.  He missed examinations; could not take notes in class and had trouble with post traumatic stress disorder.  But, he got help from the university.

    He said: “Even when I was recovering I hardly slept for over two hours in the night or may be one hour. I had nightmares.  But later on, I kept on getting help from the AUN Psychologist, Regina Musa.  She did well.  I also received therapy from AUN clinic.

    “I resumed school sometime late January (21st/22nd) – that was about eight weeks.  I had to be with my POP cast for like I think extra four or five weeks.  And then I just attend classes but I can’t write.  I used my phone to snap the blackboard, stuff like that.  There were exams then but I couldn’t write them.  The school knew about my situation so they said that they were going to give me make-up exams when I was alright.

    “After the cast was removed, it took me like two extra weeks to learn to start holding my pen because I had a fracture in my right hand and I could not write.  You can see that it is still not fully alright.  They gave me my make up exams and here I am.  I passed and I have graduated.”

     

    Future plans

     

    Despite the challenges, Umar graduated with a Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 3.00 (on a 4.00 scale), which is an equivalent of a second class upper degree.

    His immediate plan, with his school’s support, is to write a book on his experience; then go for further studies.

    Above all, Umar is grateful to be alive and now he is a Petroleum Chemist.

    “The day of the incident, I felt like I could have died because I passed out. I lost so much blood; there wasn’t any transfusion; I stayed for 24 hours without any medical help.  So I believed I could have died that day but somehow Allah kept me alive for some reasons I guess.  Who knows maybe completing this degree is one of the reasons.”

  • Elections, INEC and America’s prediction

    SIR: Socrates, the philosopher, born circa 470BC in Athens, Greece, and as wont in their custom, was presented to the “god of life” by his parents, during dedication. The trusted god did not blink in reeling out dossier of the new-born. The darkest spot of his life curricular was, however, a dent on his amphora where the god predicted larger than life achievements but on negative norms – “this newborn will become a Chief Highway Robber the type the world has never witnessed, the god submitted”.

    His parents were perturbed by the message of a god held in high esteem. Socrates’ mother refused to address him by the christened name but chose to call him “Armed Robber”. Noticing, as he grew, his mother addressing him in unconventional way, he challenged her for disparaging his person by the odious name. The mother did not hesitate to reveal the reason.

    What Socrates did when told of the story of a “god that never lied” was to prove the “god” wrong.

    This is the time to prove America and her ilk wrong by surmounting our God given innate qualities and abilities to keep this fragile nation one. The white refer to us as black people but they are wrong. We are dark-skinned and our brain is neither black nor dark.

    The Independent National Electoral Commission under the leadership of Professor Attahiru Jega has to rise to the occasion by ensuring fair contest amongst the numerous candidates.

    The stigmatized image of a body believed to be instrument of electoral frauds in the recent past should be salvaged as we are all waiting to see whether or not he who pays the piper will not call the tune.

    INEC officials are Nigerians, and official corruption has no borderline as people with hitching palms are abound in all facets of life.

    A one man, one vote permutation where justice is seen to be done in arena where votes count is the only panacea to suppress the unseemly beggary and loathsome minds who believe that nothing good could come from the Nazareth of our INEC.

    The fact that Nigerians have been condemned to abject poverty by the successive governments and majority are hibernating under the gale of inescapable fate of economic strangulation and kwashiorkor does not blur our vision from discerning lies even when coated with tissue of truth. People’s sensitivity to electoral manipulations has never been more charged than now.

    Sovereignty belongs to the people and every democratically elected leader is expected to derive power from the people through transparency and prudent accountability in affairs of the state by a way of giving hope to the local populace in a society where individuals are privileged to wangle ways in serene and secured ambient environment for economic emancipation. Yes, political office holder, if truly elected, should be accountable to the electorates.

    We should be reminded that a few Nigeria politicians in their desperation, either to cling to power or record electoral success at all cost, are obstinate in hypocrisy by laying foundation of their house of deception on an undermined sand cliff ready to crumble to pieces with the occupiers.

     

    The phobia of break-up as orchestrated by the West in form of a kite supposedly flown in our sky of sub consciousness is a charade, an intrigue of deceit intended to sow seeds of discord, hatred and disunity amongst our ruling elites for actualization of their dream, not for anything, but their economic interests.

    All eyes must open. All ears must open. All sense organs must be at alert as if this is the last lap on a common race towards destination for a new Nigeria where everybody will be his brother’s keeper

     

    Let the votes count. Let us put our detractors to shame. Let Nigeria be

     

    • Jimoh Kayode,

    Lagos

  • America and the world of Islam

    In July and August, I was in the United States on a long visit including a lecture tour of one of their universities. I had all the time in the world to follow the discussion in the media about American foreign policy. The foreign policy of any country is essentially designed to protect that country’s national interest and the office charged with articulating and prosecuting that interest is the Office of the President or Prime Minister depending on which system of government that is being followed. In the case of the United States, it is the office of the President that is responsible for executing America’s foreign policy. The Secretary of State, National Security Adviser, the Central Intelligence Agency and all other security forces contribute to advising the President in the formulation and execution of the foreign policy. When President Obama was running for office, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were raging. He ran on a peace platform to end these two wars to bring American soldiers home, he was able to extricate the United States from the quagmire in Iraq and was determined to wind down American military involvement in Afghanistan and in spite of provocation by Iran and the urging of Israel, the tail that waxed the dog of American foreign policy, to take on Iran militarily on the grounds that that country is building atomic bomb, Obama had resisted and he is working with the P-5 and Germany to prevail on Iran not to go the way of building atomic weapons. The resolution of this problem is still ongoing and the recent meeting between the two parties has not resulted into expected solutions. Iran says, it has its sovereign rights to go into peaceful use of atomic power without any restriction and that it has no plans to build atomic weapons which it claims would even be against the dictates of the Quran but nobody believes them. The situation in the Middle-east in general characterised by violence, wars, and Islamic fanaticism frightens the western world about an Islamic bomb. Of course, Pakistan an Islamic country already has the bomb which makes some people to feel uncomfortable because Pakistan is totally unstable and its government could well fall into the hands of Muslim fanatics. It is with this background that the west particularly the United States and the Europeans and apparently excluding Russia are scared to death when there is instability in the Middle-east.

    The declaration of the so-called Islamic Caliphate (IS or ISIL) in Iraq and the Levant has further introduced a complex factor into the Middle-east cauldron. The beheading of American and British nationals by this so-called Caliphate has put so much pressure on the Americans and their allies to do something. Obama for weeks resisted the urging of the media and the right-wing politicians in the Republican Party that feel that Obama’s foreign policy was amounting to appeasement and was leading to lack of respect for American power globally. They want America to resist Russian aggression in the Ukraine, intervene militarily in Syria, send troops back to Iraq to degrade and destroy the Caliphate and possibly invade Iran to remove the possibility of that country building nuclear weapons. In their madness, they would also want America and their allies to intervene and probably engage in nation-building in Libya that has collapsed after the NATO murder of Muhammad Ghadafi. I watched with dismay, the ignorance of many so-called experts in the US put pressure on their government to embark on military adventure overseas without counting the cost. I of course remember President Dwight Eisenhower’s warning Americans to be careful of not handing over its government to what he called the military industrial complex. This is to say corporations that are building weapons of war as the basis of their industrial prosperity. Without these weapons being used their prosperity would not be sustainable. Ironically, it is when Americans are at war that there is more employment if not full employment. The point to make is that there is economic interest in going to war among some circles in United States. The public face of this war mongering group is the Fox network and the rest of the Murdock media empire. Their constant barrage of information and abuse of Obama as a weakling has finally forced the poor man to start bombing ISIL in Syria and Iraq and occasionally bombing Al-Shabab in Somalia and sending drones into Pakistan’s Waziristan. One would not be surprised even without discussion with Nigeria, the war party in the US may prevail on Obama to start bombing north-eastern Nigeria all in the cause of putting down global terrorism. The recent mid-term elections in the United States in which the Republican Party took over the two arms of Congress amounted to repudiation among other things, of Obama’s foreign policy of employing diplomacy to solve inter-state problems rather than using the awesome military might of the United States. We now have a situation in which 3000 foot soldiers are now deployed back to Iraq while Obama continues with the charade that he would not deploy back American foot soldiers in Iraq. The logic of this situation is that mission creep would set in and 3000 troops would grow into hundreds of thousands before the forces of ISIL can be degraded and destroyed. The air force alone which has been dubbed the Shiite air force would not do the job and there would be need for American infantry and armoured forces to clear the forces of ISIL on the ground. This unfortunately would totally destroy the pacific legacy of Obama’s presidency and his campaign of bringing American soldiers home, a campaign platform on which he was elected. There is also no certainty that when American forces are drastically reduced in Afghanistan, the situation there will be stable. The worst scenario therefore is that Obama will end his presidency and be disgraced out of power with America fighting wars in Syria, in Iraq and in Afghanistan. This will gladden the hearts of the racists who ab initio expected the first black American president to fail. This unfortunate legacy will seal the fate of future non-white aspirants to the White House.

  • America’s restoration of ties with Cuba

    President Barrack Obama has taken a giant step that history would never forget him in politics and human endeavour.

    The decision to open diplomatic ties with Cuba is a decision that needs to be applauded in the world of politics; hence it would cement the bound between Cuba and America.

    When the threat of Ebola reared its ugly head, the Cuban government deployed its very best doctors to help the countries where the diseases was ravaging, this drew the attention of the American government, which for the first time in fifty years of its sour relations commended the Cubans.

    When the regime of former President Fidel Castro was in government, his avowed determination to hold his regime’s policies angered the Americans, particularly the communism the Cubans are practising.

    This restoration of diplomatic relations has drawn world commendation from world leaders which would open the window of opportunities between the two countries.

    Also, this relationship would afford the Cubans living in America to travel to Cuba without undue intimidation and harassment from the American government.

    It now behoves on the American dominated Republicans congress to ensure the relationship see the light of the day, because in any good thing that would come out, it must face some resistance from the section of the society.

    The Cubans are very versatile and determined people that are contributing to the uplift and development of many sister countries around the world.

    We hope the restoration of this diplomatic relationship would ensure greater ties that would reduce the unnecessary political tension amongst the various countries of the world.

    The end of cold war has opened window opportunities, where many countries in the world believe in mutual cooperation amongst themselves to promote peace, unity and development in the best interest of the humanity.

    The report that former President Fidel Castro would be visiting

    America next year is a welcome development and would go a long way to promote the much anticipated diplomatic ties.

    The opening of American embassy in Havana is the right step in the right direction which shows the seriousness of the relationship restoration.

    By Bala Nayashi

    Lokoja, Kogi State

  • Obama presidency and racism in America

    SIR: Obama phenomenon – no doubt – was a watershed moment in American politics. It instilled a sort of equality complex in the minds of many black Americans who hitherto feel segregated just because of their body pigmentation. But today, those psychological gratification and inclusion has already began to wane. From the streets of Miami – Florida and Ferguson – Missouri along   Staten island – New York and down to Cleveland – Ohio , African Americans are not just being discriminated and killed but also judicially deserted.

    Racism is something that deep rooted in American history. And thus any worthwhile analysis must consider its history. The evolution of racism in American started with the transatlantic slave trade. According to transatlantic slave trade database, between 1626 and 1850, an estimated total of 305,326 Africans were forcibly transported via US vessels to the Americas.  Many of them worked out their lives in sugarcane  plantations under harsh climatic and unacclimatized environmental conditions.

    These inhuman treatment meted against the and stolen Africans in the united States of America continued until President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1865 which freed slaves in the defunct Confederate States of America and the 13th Amendment of December 6 , 1865 that finally established the freedom of slaves in United States of America.

    Today, America is once again awash with streets protest . Eric Garner is the latest rallying point in the recycling racial violence that are burning American society like a wide bush fire set in harmattan.

    Eric Garner- an African American- died in Tompkinsville neighborhood of Staten island,New York , after a police officer put him in apparently chokehold for 19 seconds – a tactic banned by New York City  Police Department (NYPD)- on suspicion of selling “loosies”, single cigarettes from packs without tax stamps.

    Before Eric Garner,  it was Michael Brown. And before Michael Brown,it was Trayvon Martins. And just recently we heard about Tamir Rice , a 12-year old black boy shot by a police officer just for brandishing toy gun. All happening under Obama’s watch. The question all these phenomena are begging is : Is Obama’s presidency a disappointment to the Black Americans?

    Day after day, race relation in America is getting worse and judiciary is not even helping matters. In the Trayvon Martins’ case, a black teenager (17) was shot dead by Gorge Zimmerman, the coordinator of neighborhood watch in the gated community where Martin was temporarily living. The six female jurors acquitted Zimmerman. In a shocking judgement on Michael Brown’s case, the grand jury ruled that the officer – Darren Wilson – that shot Michael Brown should not be indicted even when the multiple gun wounds on Michael’s body suggested otherwise. Eric Garner’s case followed suit and it’s now generating much protest. Tamir Rice case is on-going and following  the judicial principle of stare decisis, Tim Loehmann might be acquitted. This is not a good story for American judicial system. The picture being portrayed is that the police can continue to shoot unarmed black youth without being prosecuted!

    Black youth are 21 times more likely to be shot dead in America than their white counterparts, according to an analysis ProPublica. Black people are arrested 10 times more often than white people in this country, USA Today reported last week, but black people don’t commit 10 times more crimes.

    Obama’s presidency has helped to expose the fact that America still has to do more to combat racism. Of course America has made strides from 60’s to date. Nevertheless, a lot is yet to be done for Martin Luther king Jr’s dream to be completely fulfilled.

     

    • Asikason Jonathan,

     Enugwu-Ukwu , Anambra State.