The Nation Newspaper

Tag: amnesty

  • A vote for amnesty

    A vote for amnesty

    WHO can beat Nigeria’s ingenuity?

    Just when you think that a problem is intractable and that we should learn to live with it, a solution appears and the matter is resolved. Just like that.

    Whoever thought the serenity in the Niger Delta was possible? Now oil companies are pumping the stuff without much hassle. Forget the whimpering about oil theft – Is there a place where you do not have petty thieves and scoundrels? Former militants have left the rough and tumble life of the creeks from where they almost turned the Niger Delta into a Somalia of sorts for the fast and bustling life of the city. Many have been to South Africa and some other places that used to exist only in their imagination. Their former bosses now belong to the enviable league of billionaires, running huge contracts, living like kings and partying like Hollywood stars. New life.

    Does anybody still doubt the efficacy of amnesty as the magical pill for many – its vociferous advocates actually insist all – of the ailments that trouble Nigeria? Forget the recent killing of 12 policemen in the quiet creeks of Bayelsa. That was the handiwork of some idle criminals, who we shall, unfortunately, always have with us, anyway.

    After a long hesitation, the Federal Government has been persuaded to have faith in its own medicine. Now, it has agreed that granting amnesty to the Boko Haram insurgents will stop their bloody campaign against the state, a fiendish campaign that has claimed thousands of lives and limbs.

    President Goodluck Jonathan was insisting that the sect’s leaders were faceless and, therefore, could not be pardoned. We can’t grant amnesty to ghosts, he once told elders in Borno State, the engine-room of the insurgency.

    But trust those spoilers who will always want to throw a spanner in the works. They would not even allow the committee set up to study the feasibility of amnesty for Boko Haram submit its report before telling the government to abandon the scheme without suggesting any other viable alternative. They said it would cost money and give people the impression that any group can take on the state and win. The government, as focused as ever, has refused to listen to these unsolicited expertise. It is forging ahead with amnesty.

    How can you run such a gigantic scheme smoothly without spending money? Committees will be set up. Won’t the members get sitting allowances? They surely will require the coziness of a five-star hotel, perhaps somewhere in Dubai or the serenity of the Obudu Cattle Ranch to hammer out the details of the deal. How will their hotel bills be settled? Who picks the travel bills? What about other logistics? Souvenirs for committee members for sparing their time and risking their all for such a crucial national assignment. Cars for their shuttling from one centre to another. Lunch break. Dinner. And a gala night after the whole process must have been completed. Who will pay for all that?

    I am sure those leading technocrats who are well grounded in the workings of the bureaucracy must have advised the government not to listen to the blathering that amnesty does not necessarily mean dishing out cash.

    The sect’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, has rejected amnesty but elders insist the scheme must go on. That is the spirit.

    In Abia State, over 5,000 repentant kidnappers and other criminals are seeking amnesty. They petitioned the House of Assembly that they surrendered their arms in 2010 but are yet to be enlisted in the programme. Governor Theodore Orji recalled that Aba, the industrial city, used to be a den of criminals. The government built camps and was about resettling the youths when the Federal Government announced its amnesty. Now, the youths are stranded.

    Said Orji: “They were in camps…but when they heard that the Federal Government had provided largesse to their colleagues, they abandoned the camps. We took their names to the Federal Government, but no response. They promised not to make trouble…they maintained it till their kingpin, Osisikankwu, was killed. Please, tell the Federal Government to start where we stopped.”

    Will the Federal Government listen to Orji’s cry? A fellow who realised the governor’s agony has suggested that the state should float an organisation to fight its battle for amnesty. His Excellency may consider the name Abia Youths Earnestly Ask for Amnesty(AYEAA). There can be no more auspicious time for such a group.

    A reliable source told me yesterday that there are plans to extend the bonanza to all those other groups who distract the government from providing the much vaunted but hardly available dividends of democracy so as to create a conducive atmosphere for the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to perfect its plan to capture 36 –an error there, please – 32 states in the 2015 elections.

    Most likely on the line are armed robbers and their cousins, the kidnappers as well as ritualists who have turned the country into one vast arena of serious crimes. The other day in Delta State, the kidnapped Vice Chairman (Southeast) of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Chudi Nwike, was killed. His abductors, after collecting a N5million ransom, murdered the captive, the conveyor of the cash and the driver who brought him to deliver the money.

    Imagine the effect of granting such depraved souls amnesty – with some compensation for taking them off their lucrative business. Many big men who are scared of being snatched off their SUVs can then drive round the cities without trepidation, my friends from the Southeast will start going home for festivities again and people will no longer be afraid of flaunting their wealth.

    The police will then have time to return to their all-important duties of arresting people for wandering, teaching stubborn motorists who won’t renew their particulars promptly some lessons in good citizenship and keeping overzealous motor park touts in check. Peace.

    The bloodletting in Jos has been on for so long that nobody seems to remember exactly what may have caused it. Some say it is a settler-indigene palaver. Others argue it is a matter of religious differences. Herdsmen and farmers clash. Whole families get hacked to death by night marauders. Imagine proclaiming a general amnesty for them all –complete with compensation for whatever discomfort a peace deal may have caused the combatants. Jos will return to being the home of tourism, with visitors flocking in from all over the world. Just imagine.

    Even the Lagos “area boys” can do with amnesty. Imagine the streets free of alcohol drenched, red-eyed toothless youths, their mouths foaming, singing your praises – unsolicited. It is all simple. Some compensation; just a few bucks for some of those stuff that make them high. And there will be peace.

    Who knows the pension cash scandal would not have been this terrible if the leading actors and actresses had been offered amnesty. If they won’t drop what they have stolen, an amnesty will at least stop them from stealing more. There would have been no need for the Senate to issue a bench warrant for the police chief to seize anybody. Some old people would not have been carrying placards in support of a man who the Senate believed had questions to answer. No.

    A professor of Conflict Resolution, who is a research fellow in an international agency, has just told me of a paper he is putting together on “Dialectics and dynamics of amnesty in Nigeria: A case for global application”, which he is recommending to the United Nations (UN). The result of a 10-year study, the work encapsulates all the fine details of how Nigeria formulated the magical pill that is set to bring all-round tranquility.

    It is unfortunate that Shekau has rejected amnesty. He said the sect, being the one which has been wronged, should be the one to offer Nigeria amnesty. Not the other way round. In the spirit of our belief in the efficacy of the therapy, why don’t we then ask Shekau and his boys to give us all amnesty?

    Let Bamigbetan go, please

    S I was writing yesterday, I cast a glance at the book shelf. My eyes hit Teacher, don’t teach me nonsense, written by Kehinde Bamigbetan, the Ejigbo Local Council Development Area chair who was kidnapped on Monday near his home on the outskirts of Lagos.

    Bamigbetan, a journalist-turned–politician, would not hurt a fly. His abductors are asking for $1m but I know Korki, as he is fondly called, is not rich in cash; his worth lies in his reputation as an activist who has pledged to ensure that we have a Nigeria where nobody will see crime as a lucrative venture.

    I plead with his abductors to let him go today.

     

  • Group seeks amnesty for Yoruba youths

    Group seeks amnesty for Yoruba youths

    A group of youths in the Southwest, the Oodua Youth Organisation (OYO), has urged the Federal Government to compensate the victims of Boko Haram.

    The group said it was not opposed to amnesty for Boko Haram, if it would end the violence in the North.

    OYO demands that the “empowerment programmes” that always accompany such amnesty, as witnessed in the case of repentant Niger Delta militants, should be extended to youths in the Southwest.

    The group, in a statement by its National Leader, Seun Oduwole; General Secretary Diya Ashaolu and Publicity Secretary Tope Fadahunsi, noted that since amnesty, in the Nigerian context, has become a means through which the state expends huge funds in reforming and engaging otherwise idle and belligerent youths.

    OYO decried the “deliberate marginalisation” of the Southwest by the Federal Government. It urged the government to urgently seek ways of empowering Southwest youths and not wait until they resort to violence like others.

    The group said it was surprised that despite being instrumental to the success of President Goodluck Jonathan at the last presidential election, the Southwest has been neglected in appointments and infrastructure provision.

    OYO said: “Amnesty for Boko Haram must include the empowerment of youths in the region as is the case in the Niger Delta amnesty programme. The Federal Government must also compensate all the victims of the Boko Haram insurgency.

    “We demand that the Federal Government immediately sets up a machinery to empower Yoruba youths. Our youths must benefit in the empowerment programme that follows every grant of amnesty in Nigeria. “

    “The era when our collective resources are used to empower Ijaw youths, while better qualified youths from other regions of the country languish in abject poverty, will no longer be tolerated.

    “The gesture of youth empowerment that naturally flows from the grant of amnesty in Nigeria must immediately be extended to Yoruba youths, as this is the condition for the sustenance of the relative peace prevailing in the region.”

    “We (Yoruba youths) are not unaware of the unprecedented neglect of the Southwest by the administration of President Jonathan.

    “There has been little or no federal presence or benefit in terms of infrastructural development in the Southwest since 2010.”

    The group said it was not an affiliate of the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC).

     

  • Amnesty for Boko Haram: between Gumi and Kukah (II)

    Amnesty for Boko Haram: between Gumi and Kukah (II)

    Interestingly, many of those that have condemned the Odi massacre, including President Goodluck Jonathan – remember the embarrassing altercation last year between him and former president, General Olusegun Obasanjo, over the massacre? – and supported the granting of amnesty for the Niger Delta’s militants are the same people that have since been advocating the use of the same force, indeed an even more brutal one than that used in Odi, as the only solution to Boko Haram.

    For example, The Punch (March 14) which has consistently condemned dialogue with the sect called the amnesty “outrageous” and “gravely precarious.” Yet as recently as January 15 it had praised amnesty for the Niger Delta militants as a “panacea for peace in the hitherto restive oil-rich Niger Delta…” even though, in fairness, it also expressed some concern over the seemingly open-ended approach to the amnesty.

    The Nigerian Tribune, which also opposed any form of dialogue with Boko Haram in its editorial of July 13, 2011, had apparently forgotten its editorial of February 8, 2011 wherein it said “Soldiers and other security agents, even if they are professionally neutral, cannot bring lasting peace to Plateau State. The people of the state must begin an honest search for peace.”

    Similarly the Nobel Literature Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka has been vehemently opposed to dialogue with Boko Haram. Yet back in 2001 at the height of the clashes between security forces and the Odua Peoples’ Congress, he petitioned President Obasanjo to condemn what he said were the human right abuses of OPC members and called for dialogue between the organisation and the authorities.

    In the light of his high reputation as a champion of human rights, let me crave the indulgence of the reader to quote his petition extensively.

    “What,” he said in that petition, “has become apparent and undeniable is a systematic project of decimating this organisation through acts of intimidation, brutalisation and extra-judicial killings. We cannot stand by and watch these murders continue, openly or in secret. The gaols are filled with alleged members of the OPC. We have evidence of their routine ill treatment, and the resolve of the police to continue in their conduct, in full impunity. Much of these atrocities constitute punishable crimes in any decent society. They are being catalogued, and will be answered some day, unless restraint is exercised and the agents of excess called to strict order, and urgently.

    “No one advocates violence. State violence is no less reprehensible than the sporadic violence of extreme civil movements in society. An organisation is not condemned by the actions of infiltrators, agent provocateurs, and even the authentic lunatic fringe within a movement.

    “There is law in this nation – at least, we are persuaded that we now live in a society organised around the principle of legality. The police are not above the law. The police are certainly not licensed as killers in society. We insist: THESE KILLINGS BY STATE AGENCIES MUST STOP…

    “It is time that the OPC be called to dialogue in whatever states they exist, but most especially in Lagos State… If the path of dialogue is rejected and the current project of piecemeal pogrom is pursued, let it be understood that full responsibility lies in the hands of this government and its security agencies.”

    At the time of Prof Soyinka’s petition, OPC had clashed violently not only with the police. It had also done so with just about every major ethnic group resident in Yorubaland, all in the name of protecting Yoruba interests. Tell newsmagazine, in its edition of October 30, 2000, accurately captured the organisation’s reputation for violence in its cover story of the four days of mindless killing, maiming and destruction OPC unleashed on Lagos residents from October 15, mostly against so-called Hausa. In a sidebar to the story, the newsmagazine catalogued the organisation’s bloody attacks between July 16, 1999 and October 15, 2000 under the caption “(OPC’s) Trail of Blood.” The description couldn’t have been more apt; the bloody trail included attacks on the Ijaw Egbesu Boys in Ajegunle, Hausas in Sagamu, Ajegunle and Mushin, Igbo traders at Alaba market and even a clash between the Gani Adams and Dr Frederick Fasehun factions of the organisation in Mushin.

    The difference, they say, is that Boko Haram, unlike OPC or the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), is faceless and its goals and demands are irrational. The simple answer to the first excuse is, if Boko Haram seems faceless – and it is not, because the authorities very well know and have occasionally been in contact with several of its leaders, including Imam Abubakar Shekau – it is because it seemed politically convenient for government not to put any face to the sect’s leadership. At least twice it was persuaded to dialogue with government and lay down its arms. Each time someone, obviously an insider, leaked the move to a select media before negotiations had even begun in an apparent attempt to scuttle the talks. Worse, the authorities arrested those the sect sent to begin the talks.

    Whatever anyone may think is the difference between Boko Haram and MEND as a beneficiary of amnesty, the fact is that the militants did not come out from the creeks where they operated from until it was clear that late president, Umaru Yar’Adua, was sincere in his commitment to bring an end to the problems of Niger Delta. So far such sincerity in seeking an end to the insurgency in the North has been lacking in President Jonathan’s government and in its security agencies.

    As for the argument that the goals and demands of the sect are irrational, there is also the simple answer that however irrational, those goals and demands do not, and cannot, justify the terrible collective punishment the communities in which the sect’s suspected members live have been subjected to all these years. This is the lesson of Justice Lambo Akanbi’s judgment on Odi.

    In any case, it is not all of the sect’s demands that are irrational. Its stated objective of Islamising Nigeria through the barrel of the gun is certainly irrational if only because the Qur’an (2:256) itself categorically states “There is no compulsion in religion…” It also says in Chapter 3 Verse 20, “…So if they submit then indeed they follow the right way; and if they turn back, then upon you is only the delivery of the message and Allah sees the servants.” In other words, the word is persuasion not force.

    Islamophobes, of course, love to quote Chapter 2 Verse 191 of the Qur’an which says “And kill them wherever you find them, and drive them out from whence they drove you out, and persecution is severer than slaughter…” as evidence that Islam is a violent religion. This is simply plain mischief – probably worse; mischief, because the quotation is taken completely out of the context of the verse before it and the two after.

    Verse 190 of the chapter says “And fight in the way of Allah with those who fight with you and do not exceed the limits, surely Allah does not love those who exceed the limits.” Verses 192 and 193 respectively say “But if they desist, then surely Allah is Forgiving, Merciful” and “…Fight with them until there is no persecution, and religion should be only for Allah, but if they desist, then there should be no hostility except against the oppressors.”

    Taken as a whole it is clear from these verses that the Qur’an is against aggression. It admonishes Muslims to fight only in self defence and even then never to exceed the limits. No sane person would disagree that bombing churches, schools, motor parks and media houses, killing and maiming innocent people, etc, as Boko Haram has done, is exceeding Allah’s limits even in self defence.

    But other than Boko Haram’s untenable goal of Islamising Nigeria by force, there is nothing irrational in most of its other demands, especially the demand that the security forces stop the abuse of their powers in carrying out their duties to secure peace, law and order in society. This is a demand that has been repeatedly made by Amnesty International and myriads of local human rights organisations, including CLO and CDHR, even as they have rightly condemned Boko Haram terror.

    That the country is less secure and less peaceful today than it was four years ago when President Yar’Adua ordered the military invasion of the Maiduguri stronghold of Boko Haram, is proof positive that the preference for the use of force by the authorities almost to the exclusion of other options is a triumph of wishful thinking over the experience of the last four years.

    The big lesson of these four years of the failure to crush Boko Haram despite the military occupation of its redoubts is that amnesty for its members has become a doctrine of necessity. On its own, it may not guarantee peace, law and order in the country but without it we are not likely to see an end to the sect’s terror any time soon. Besides, it is not likely to cost the country the leg and arm that amnesty for the Niger Delta militants has cost this country – over N200 billion so far, and counting.

    Now that President Jonathan seems to have made his choice, albeit tentatively, between those like Bishop Kukah who support amnesty and those like Sheikh Gumi who oppose it, he will, hopefully, follow it through in good faith and refuse to be deterred by his more gung-ho security chiefs who have consistently failed to deliver on their boasts of crushing Boko Haram.

     

  • Amnesty: North urges sincerity

    Amnesty: North urges sincerity

    The Northern Elders Forum (NEF) yesterday advised the Federal Government to ensure that the dialogue between it and the Boko Haram sect takes place in a free atmosphere.

    Supporting the government’s plan for a dialogue and reconciliation commission, the NEF urged the government and the sect to remain flexible to new ideas and suggestions by people of goodwill.

    The meeting was convened to discuss the Federal Government’s plans to grant amnesty to the Boko Haram sect.

    After hours of deliberation in Abuja, the NEF spokesman, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, who read the resolutions, said: “This special meeting, which included retired senior judicial, security/intelligence officers and technocrats sought to find a way out of what may appear to be likely obstacles before the dialogue commences.

    “The meeting was able to arrive at a number of suggestions and recommendations which, without delay, should be made available for consideration to the government.

    “In the meantime, the meeting also appeals to both the government and insurgents to remain flexible to new ideas and suggestions by people of goodwill from within and even outside the country who are making genuine efforts to achieve peace in the nation.

    “In particular, the meeting noted the need for the conduct of the dialogue and achievement of full reconciliation in an atmosphere that encourages the building of confidence in the integrity of the process. All Nigerians have a responsibility to encourage the government and the insurgency to engage in honest and productive dialogue.

    “The meeting noted and endorsed the suggestion that the Federal Government should set up a dialogue and reconciliation commission, which will have full powers to facilitate, ultimately, full reconciliation of this conflict.”

    Among those present at the meeting were the NEF convener, Alhaji Yusuf Maitama Sule, former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Mohammed Lawal Uwais, former Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Aliyu Ibrahim Attah and former CJN Dahiru Musdapha.

    Despite the rejection of amnesty by the Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Saad Abubakar III yesterday cautioned against foreclosing the package for the sect.

    The Sultan, who chaired the 2012 Federal Government Hajj Delegation, is at the forefront of the push for amnesty for the sect.

    Speaking after submitting the report of the delegation to President Goodluck Jonathan, the Sultan declined extensive comment on the rejection of amnesty by Shekau.

    As he walked away and the reporters continued to pester him with the question, he declared: “Nothing is impossible in this world.”

    Receiving the 2012 Hajj report, President Jonathan promised that the Federal Government of Nigeria and Saudi Arabia will work together to eliminate the increasing anti-social crimes amongst Nigerians resident in Saudi Arabia.

    He also announced the extension of the tenure of the Federal Government Hajj Delegation from one year to two years.

    He said: “Let me thank you for what you have done because managing this number of people for pilgrimages is not an easy task and that’s why the Federal government considered the need to send the delegation, not just relying on the National Hajj Commission.”

  • Forget amnesty, try amnesia

    Forget amnesty, try amnesia

    Whatever spurts from Goodluck Jonathan’s blood-soaked power canvas is due to crass opportunism.

    He latched on to a “soft” presidency; blissfully forgetting the high folly of plunging your knife into a hippo someone else had hunted down. It is bound to cause life-threatening, if not life-claiming, diarrhoea!

    But the man of suspect luck is not the only culprit. No less guilty are his godfathers who conspired to vault him beyond his competence.

    Guiltier still, than these opportunistic political godfathers, are the giddy executors of Jonathan’s much-vaunted pan-Nigeria mandate of Southern Nigeria and the Middle Belt. In the ultra-reckless electoral ardour of the moment, they blithely proclaimed: we vote Goodluck, not PDP!

    Now, Goodluck is bad dream; and PDP no less a nightmare. There is no waking up from both!

    It is endgame, indeed, in self-induced political perdition! Welcome, poor souls, to the desert of slaughter, where Boko Haram is evil lord and master!

    In the rising appeasement hubbub, Boko Haram has declared it needed no one’s amnesty because it did no wrong! On the contrary, it was Its Murderous Majesty that must be begged to pardon the Nigerian state which, it claimed, had been wronging Muslims! Talk of the tail wagging the dog!

    But perhaps that would chasten the vocal minority, which stamps its often insensible holler with high wisdom; and dubs the dignified silence of the quiet majority as quintessential folly.

    But wait a minute! Where is Malam Adamu Ciroma? While everyone was betide themselves to make Jonathan president at all costs – let the heavens fall! – Malam Ciroma it was that maintained that dire warning: there would be consequences!

    Now before your fecund imaginations start linking the good malam with political Boko Haram, which Goodluck Jonathan has claimed is his major traducer, think hard and straight. Boko Haram might be the most explosive of President Jonathan’s many disasters. But it is not the worst.

    With absolutely no idea what to do with power, but straining every sinew to keep himself in the presidential saddle, the man of good luck brings with him multi-layered bad luck that would continue to haunt the country, even after he, and his nemesis, Boko Haram, would have become bad history.

    That Boko Haram may well score the double of being Nigeria’s nemesis as well should open the eyes of those who can’t see beyond a present power racketeering: that the House of Lugard is crumbling; and that, if care is not taken, there might soon be no territory over which to grab power and loot resources!

    Chronic, programmed and systemic underdevelopment is the wages of presidential incompetence. And Jonathan, with all due respect to his person and due reverence to his high office, is gold standard of that incompetence.

    Sure, Jonathan is not the first of these presidential incompetents. But when a presidential undertaker acts as though he had the latitude of the very first of those whose cumulative misdeeds have brought this country to this sorry pass, then the alarm bells must start clanging!

    That lack of rigour defines Jonathan’s flip-flops on Boko Haram; and allowing himself to be muscled into granting amnesty to a deranged and blood-thirsty band.

    Boko Haram is too deranged to recognise its all-too-obvious lunacy, talk less of showing penance and atoning for its high crime against millions of innocent Nigerians: in lost lives, hacked limbs and permanently shattered psyche!

    Indeed, what President Jonathan needs right now is amnesia, not amnesty. Amnesia would completely blot out all past crimes, no matter how wilful or heinous; and prepare the state for even more heinous future crimes, assured that future amnesties would wipe out future crimes, until the sick joke collapses in a heap!

    To start with, amnesia helps the president to forget, with bliss, that the impunity of his own rigged emergence, against his party’s zoning policy, may have birthed the so-called political Boko Haram.

    If indeed there is political Boko Haram, and it and its religious evil-twin had not been clobbered to seek a soft landing, why should they, for “amnesty”, hand over their ace to their writhing victims; taking a part when then could take the whole? And then what: cohabitate with Jonathan as they erect their beloved Islamic republic? Please!

    Whichever way you look at it, amnesty for now is a no-brainer. But the impasse that has forced it thunders a dire warning to future players in power and impunity: powerless is power acquired by dodge!

    Still, not even amnesia can excuse the shallow linkage between amnesty for Niger Delta militants and the one being proposed for Boko Haram.

    Turai Yar’adua has proffered a simplistic, exchange-is-no-robbery theory: her late maigida had granted amnesty to Jonathan’s creek anarchists. Why couldn’t Jonathan, court to court, just return the favour, to the militants’ Sahel cousins-in-terror? Jonathan, Hajia Turai seems to cry, bring this feudal transaction to closure!

    Gen. Muhammadu Buhari has also chipped in his own bit: amnesty for Boko Haram, as anything that can promote peace, should be encouraged. What of justice, the first condition for sustainable peace?

    Still, the Niger Delta case was different from Boko Haram, aside from the fact that the militants basically targeted oil-pipelines in the creeks, while Boko Haram killed with venom a defenceless urban population, even if there is clear criminality in both campaigns.

    But the most important difference: at amnesty time, the Niger Delta militants had been clobbered enough that the terror party seemed over; and the creek boys badly needed some soft landing; which their political leaders secured, in exchange for the free flow of crude.

    Boko Haram is different: a murderous, cocky, boastful and implacable foe, still flexing muscles and daring the state. What does anyone gain by granting such dogma-stoned anarchists amnesty – to turn the crumbled House of Lugard into the Taliban theocratic republic of their sick dreams?

    Jonathan and his traducers had better wake up. Nigeria, as structurally constituted, is close to end times. Restructuring for development is therefore the key. It is a stark reality: restructure or perish!

    After six years of blood and gore, Jonathan should take a bow, and quit his eternal scheming for power, even when it is clear he cannot add any value. He should therefore perish any thought of running in 2015.

    But his recommended exit does not obviate Nigeria’s structural debacle; which has made the country a developmental grave. So, whoever takes over from him, who blissfully forgets about this structural challenge, only plays with fire.

    That is why Jonathan must table concrete proposals on political and economic restructuring to give this polity a rebirth; and also propose a Nigerian Marshall Plan for the impoverished North East, which basically produces the wretched of the earth that sign up for Boko Haram and its evil campaign.

    Restructuring, along productive federal lines, would stop future Jonathans from seizing poisoned chalices coated with power; and condemning the rest of Nigerians to bloody trouble.

    That’s what the country needs – not some amnesty powered by amnesia!

  • Oshun: Don’t extend amnesty to Boko Haram

    Oshun: Don’t extend amnesty to Boko Haram

    Former House of Representatives Chief Whip Hon. Olawale Oshun is the leader of the Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG). He spoke with EMMANUEL OLADESU on the insecurity in the country and the imperative of a national conference to discuss the basis for peaceful co-existence.

     

     

    How would you assess the Jonathan Administration?

    We have confronted the nation with information regarding the mind-boggling issues of corruption, profligacy and the scared-cow syndrome, including the unprecedented marginalisation of the Yoruba by the Jonathan Administration, focusing on the issue of lopsided recuitment and promotion in the public service. Unfortunately, this situation has not abated. The current reality also paints the picture of an underestimation of the scale of impunity and flagrant disregard for the laws of the land and every sense of propriety and good order. These have been exhibited, most notably by the recent pardon granted to the former governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Diprieye Alamieyeseigha. This blatant display of deficit in ethical-based governance, has received widespread and worldwide condemnation, which ARG also reacted to via a press statement.

    It was reported that ARG was part of the recent re-union of Afenifere in Akure. Could you shed light on this?

    For the avoidance of any doubts, ARG was neither involved nor represented at that meeting. None of those who attended that meeting could claim to be representing ARG. Whoever attended or participated at that meeting did so entirely on his own volition. ARG is a group that recognises the independent mindedness of individuals. Therefore, we concede to individuals, their right and choice of association.

    ARG is a group with explicit and untainted moral values and stance. We affirm therefore, that anybody who purports to be an ARG member, and sits in a meeting with Iyiola Omisore, and some of the other personalities mentioned at that meeting, is on his or her own and cannot and will not be a member or an associate of the ARG. We need to emphasise that ARG does not and will not quarrel or contend with the old Afenifere. We have met with them and consulted with them on Pan-Yoruba issues where and when necessary. We also affirm that there is no question of a re-union between Afenifere of old and Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG). ARG has and does projects a uniquely vibrant identity, a clearly distinctly defined mission and philosophical stance that are carved in progressive and developmental independence of thoughts and actions, that are informed by engrained Omoluabi values.

    It has been alleged that ARG is closely associated with a political party. What is the true position?

    We also make clear that we are tied to no strings – individual or institutional. ARG is an independent group of Yoruba patriots, an ethos we hold in high esteem and guard with principles. ARG is not controlled from anywhere, by anyone, by any group or by any political party. In our midst are professionals, businessmen, academics, intellectuals, technocrats and people across the length and breadth of Yorubaland and in the Diaspora. We have made no secret of the fact that we are a political organisation. However, many of our members are not partisan and they view the socio-economic and political development of Yorubaland as a major goal. Only the mischievious would continue to make unsubstantiated claims about any juggernaut behind ARG or any money-bag funding the activities of the group – in the past or even now. We reject these claims completely; they are totally baseless.

    PDP is threatening to capture the Southwest in 2015. What is your reaction?

    It has become evident in the history of Nigeria, that whenever Yorubaland is poised for development, or is seen to be on the path of development, all forms of threats and conspiracies begin to rear their heads. These threats are usually from within and outside the region. We do not fail at any time to recognise them. Our progenitors in the distant past and, of course, in the not-too-distant-past, have had to contend with these scenarios, and they have done their best to either mitigate them or fight them off. This time around, the Yoruba people are prepared for them. ARG will stand in constant watch and will sensitise and mobilise Yoruba people everywhere against the threats that have started to emerge, apparently to truncate our march to development. Of course, internal collaborators from within, foisting all kinds of pernicious and suspicious agenda are never in short supply.opportunists where they belong.

    Is the marginalisation of the Yoruba not confounding to you?

    Without any doubt, the Yoruba have always been specifically targetted either for development decimation or at best arrested progress. The trajectory is all too familiar. Awolowo’s travails, just as colonialism was winding down in the country, and of course with active collaborators from within Yorubaland, led to the end of the First Republic. When another opening emerged for development in the UPN days after 13 years of military rule, the internal colonialists, through the military, struck in 1983 to truncate the advancement of the progressive Southwest governments. Moshood Abiola emerged on the political scene. Nigerians voted for him out of their free will, but his victory at the polls was viciously scuttled. Those who have continued to arrogate to themselves the decision of who would rule and reign over the rest of us, crafted an arrangement that imposed former President Olusegun Obasanjo on the country. The eight subsequent years of a PDP led government in the Southwest imposed a reign of terror and violent dispossession of our value system, foisted on us strange people and strange policies and took away the development agenda of the progressive Yoruba people.

    Former PDP National Chairman Senator Ahmadu Ali has described Yoruba as ungrateful people…

    We are mindful of the recent thoughtless and insulting statement made by the former PDP Chairman, Ahmadu Alli, against Yoruba people and our collective sensibilities. Some of our people have adequately responded to his tirades and we are sure he will continue to suffer the opprobrium of the majority. We would, however, like to say that we would not further dignify this man, who in the course of his odious public engagements within the Nigerian space, has had no credible record of performance, but has constantly acted against the interests of Nigerians, including of course his own Igala people. He is so thoroughly bad, discredited and evil that the PDP, as bad as they are, could not risk him being the Chairman of their Board of Trustees, against his wishes and those of his master.

    Specifically, the ARG wishes to make it clear that we are aware of the plans by the PDP-led Federal Government to take advantage of our historical sensibilities, by promoting certain individuals to form political associations and political parties in our Region, and providing funding to them through spurious and dubious contracts in order to use them as agents of destabilisation, in fulfilment of a sinister 2015 agenda. We are putting this in the public space, so that our people would be informed about the threats that are being massed against them. However, this is Yorubaland.

    We are hereby placing our people on high alert, and asking them to be on guard against the enemy within and the enemy outside. This time around, we must not allow them to succeed, as this is in our interest and that of generations unborn. ARG would like to warn those who are involved in any invidious project or plot against the Yoruba people to desist, or they would inevitably face the wrath of the people.

    What is your reaction to the growing insecurity in the country?

    Our group is concerned about the current spate of bloodshed in the country, mainly as a result of the activities of the so-called Boko Haram and another group that calls itself Ansaru. We are deeply touched and we sympathise with the victims of these unfortunate occurences, and like most Nigerians, we call on the Federal Government to rise up to its responsibilities and put a final stop to this frequent bloodshed. This is squarely within the scope of their responsibilities, and there should be no beating about the bush. I will like to warn that this type of tendency is alien to us in Yorubaland, and so it would not be permitted, it would be resisted by our people, and it would never be allowed to have a foothold. However, while we appreciate the concerns of those who have canvassed amnesty as a response strategy to this menace, we would however like to say that the Boko Haram menace is a persistent indication and manifestation of a deeper malaise beleaguering the country. Amnesty will therefore, be another attempt not only to create an opportunity for anarchists, but to further postpone the evil days. Considering the structural deficiency of the country, it is not likely that we would see an end to the use of amnesty. Therefore, in line with our constant agitation for the imperative of restructuring this multi-ethnic, multi-religion and multi-faceted country, it is our view that there is no better time than now to convene a National Conference that would finally resolve the nationality question that constantly and continuously pushes this country to the precipice. We demand a convocation of this Conference without any further delay.

     

     

  • Before the amnesty

    Before the amnesty

    December 1991 was historic in the life of Algeria as the north African Arab country held her first free parliamentary election and was on course to becoming a real democracy after decades of military-styled dictatorship. Against the sitting government’s expectation, the Islamic Salvation Front known by its French acronyms FIS, won the polls. Trouble.

    Both the government and its western backers, particularly France never saw this coming. An Islamist government in a North African country, just on the other side of the Mediterranean, over looking Western Europe? No,no,no, this is unacceptable, the government in Algiers and its allies seemed to be saying and before the Islamists could even savor the joy of their victory, the Algerian military moved in and cancelled the election. Another trouble.

    The Islamists would have none of this. How can you deny us the fruit of our labour? They were asking the military and when the soldiers refused to change course, the leaders of FIS felt they had no option but to claim their mandate, albeit forcefully. With most of their leaders now in jail or detained by the military, FIS took up arms against the state and Algeria effectively plunged into a civil war in January 1992, a year and few months before the then Nigerian military government annulled the June 12, 1993 presidential election, which consequences threw the country into a political crisis that even the advent of democracy in 1999 has not been able to fully resolve.

    For over a decade Algeria knew no peace as the civil war which reached its height between 1997 and 1998, when innocent civilians, especially whole villagers were massacred by Islamic extremists who had initially focused their attacks on government and its agencies and sympathizers including intellectuals and journalists, but abandoned political course and changed tactics to attack ordinary people and other soft targets, claimed no fewer than 100, 000 lives in a population of just 35 million.

    The arrival of democracy or a semblance of it in April 1999, with the election of President Abdulaziz Boutlefilka brought no immediate relief as the Islamists now buoyed by an emerging global terrorist organisation called Al- Qaeda were getting stronger even in the face of relentless military onslaught by the Algerian government.

    But with a combination of carrot and stick approach and a dodgy amnesty programme packaged in a Charter on Peace and National Reconciliation approved in a October 2005 referendum, the government granted pardon to both the Islamists and soldiers that participated in the civil war and killings on both sides thus setting the stage for the relative peace being enjoyed by Algeria today. Relative peace if you close your eyes to the activities of Al -Qaeda in the Maghreb, the terrorist organisation that masterminded the January 2013 hostage taking and attacks on a BP run gas field in eastern Algeria.

    Today, the Algerian government can claim to be on top of the security/terrorism situation in the country in spite of its flawed amnesty programme which has been dubbed amnesia in some circles. Can Nigeria say the same?

    Although the Federal Government amnesty programme for Boko Haram is still on the drawing board, I’ve gone this far to draw the Algerian inference because of the Nigerian government’s decision or readiness to draw inspiration and learn from such countries as Algeria that have had to combat terrorism such as we are witnessing today with Boko Haram.

    As the Foreign Affairs editor at Concord Press then, I could recollect that though the two key leaders of FIS, the spiritual leader and the political head were in jail but were still in firm control of the organization such that when the Algerian government decided to talk peace, the two were involved. In Nigeria nobody is sure who the real leaders of Boko Haram are and where they are. So, who do you discuss peace with?

    Again as the example of Algeria shows, FIS had a grouse against the Algerian government which it felt could only be resolved by resort to arms. What is the grouse of Boko Haram against Nigeria and what have the rest of us done to the group as a people to deserve all these killings and terror being inflicted on us?

    If we know what wrong we have done to Boko Haram then may be we can begin to appreciate where they are coming from and begin to talk. Flowing from such talks could be amnesty for the terrorist group as part of the solution to the problem. But offer of amnesty before talks is putting the cart before the horse.

    Amnesty is supposed to be forgiveness for wrongs done or crime committed. So, what wrong or crime has Boko Haram committed? Of course we all know it but government has to put such in black and white for all, including the terrorists leaders to see, so that when the peace talk that all seem to be clamouring for begins, both sides would be talking on points. Boko Haram, it is expected, would also put Nigeria’s crime against it on the table.

    When both sides agree to pursue peace then the terms would be set and responsibilities assigned. We can then begin to talk of ceasefire and amnesty. It is the absence of this kind of behind the scene talk that I think was responsible for Boko Haram’s rejection of the Federal Government’s offer of amnesty. If truth must be told, the terrorist group had by that action ridiculed the Federal government and exposed the whole idea of amnesty as an afterthought. Don’t forget that President Goodluck Jonathan was initially opposed to the idea when it was first suggested by the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar. Those who twisted the president’s arms to accept the idea of amnesty do not appear to have done their home work well on Boko Haram leadership. If they had done that the embarrassment caused by this rejection by the terrorists’ leader Abubakar Shekau would have been avoided.

    This failure notwithstanding, the Federal Government should not go back on the offer of amnesty, if anything, it should move swiftly to reach out to the leaders of Boko Haram, if not directly initially, but through their proxies and sympathizers of which there are many in the north. The northern leaders who have been calling for the amnesty should also move out to ensure that the core Boko Haram leadership buy in to the amnesty programme. And their hands can be strengthened in this regard if government comes out as soon as possible with the terms of the amnesty programme which I think should be holistic, both for Boko Haram and the victims of their crime. It should not just be about forgetting and wiping out the crime, but also compensating the victims and preventing the circumstances that led to the insurgency in the first place.

    It is clear that the divide and rule tactic employed by the security agencies to factionalise Boko Haram has not worked as the escalation of attacks by the group in spite of a faction declaring a ceasefire not too long ago, has shown, hence the need to bring the Shekau’s faction into the picture.

    If the amnesty must work, all the necessary hands must be involved then we must talk and agree to forgive and forget and move forward as one. There should be no distraction as being currently exhibited by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND). Jonathan should call his people to order.

     

  • 5,000 ex-kidnappers seek amnesty

    •Petition National Assembly

    Over 5,000 repentant kidnappers and criminals in Abia State have petitioned the National Assembly, complaining of non-extension of amnesty to them.

    The youths voluntarily surrendered their arms in 2010 when the state offered them amnesty through a proclamation by Governor Theodore Orji.

    The Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Public Petitions, Uzor Azubuike made this known in Umuahia, when he led members of his committee on a visit to Orji.

    Azubuike said: “We are here because of the petitions received from over 5,000 Abia youths previously involved in criminal acts.

    “They are complaining that they were not included in the Amnesty programme of the Federal Government .

    “If they are not listened to, it has the capacity to engulf the nation in a crisis.

    “There is danger of a backlash, if the youths abandoned their criminal acts and nothing is done to resettle them.

    “It will be wicked of the Federal Government to ignore them.

    “The petition is a fallout of your action when you offered the youth amnesty to make them drop crime.

    “So we are here today to listen to those petitions from the youths.

    “The Amnesty Office has confirmed that it has the petitions. We are here to see how these youths can be captured in the programme.”

    Orji said: “There was a time Abia was the den of kidnappers. Aba became a ghost city. Everybody ran away. That was the situation and we fought it. We fought them doggedly.”

    The governor continued: “We tried amnesty here. They came here and I saw them.

    “They told us their grievances, and we acceded to their complaints and proposed amnesty to them. They accepted and we built camps.

    “They brought their arms. They were in camps and we were planning to settle them.

    “But when they heard that the Federal Government had provided largesse to their colleagues, they abandoned the camps.

    “We took their names to the Federal Government but no response.

    “Though they left camp, they promised that they will not make any trouble because we treated them like human beings.

    “They maintained it till their kingpin, Osisikankwu, was killed. Please, tell the Federal Government to start where we stopped.”

     

  • Boko Haram: FG can still go ahead with amnesty – Sultan

    Boko Haram: FG can still go ahead with amnesty – Sultan

    The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, on Monday said Federal Government can still forge ahead with amnesty for the Boko Haram sect despite the group’s rejection of the proposal.

    The Sultan stated this while speaking with State House correspondents shortly after leading other members of the 2012 Federal Government Hajj delegation to present their report to President Goodluck Jonathan.

    When pressed by journalists to comment on the sect rejection of the amnesty proposal which he put forward, Abubakar simply said “there is nothing impossible in this world.”

    He was later whisked away by his aides in waiting vehicles.

     

  • From amnesty to paralysis

    From amnesty to paralysis

    What is mocking us today is not love but faith. Yet faith should proceed from love. Faith has abused love, and love faith. The twain, to paraphrase Poet Rudyard Kipling, shall not meet.

    The cries over amnesty evoke the union of incompatibles – religion and politics. They don’t blend very well. The crisis in the Middle East is intractable because one side regards itself as God’s and the other as Beelzebub’s. Mutual contempt is guaranteed.

    Most Americans threw their weights behind President George W. Bush when he railroaded the world’s top military into Iraq and his lies became truth about weapons of mass destruction when he cast Saddam as the Satan.

    Evidence is irrelevant in faith because it is its own proof.

    We saw that dark farce last week. Character A offers pardon. Character B says no and feels offended. Character B says it cannot brook the effrontery of Character A because the offender is not Character B but Character A. Character B says it owns the moral high ground and so it is on the right platform to offer pardon.

    That is the character of dark farce. One side, that is Boko Haram, said it owned the moral force. The Federal Government under Goodluck Jonathan said the religious militants were miscreants of the macabre with a blood trail of massacres. The Christian Association of Nigeria ruled out pardon even before Boko Haram rejected.

    This is a season of allegations. Everyone says it is on God’s side. The CAN says it cannot forgive, and the Boko Haram says, in spite of all the bloodshed, it owns the right to forgive. In the final analysis, we know that no one is on God’s side, and what is going on is the religious taking advantage of the political and the political taking advantage of the religious. Two toxins have entered into a bucket, and the only result is poison. So, the fury and bloodshed rage on.

    Less emphasised is the plight of the victims. Those who have died all these years, the fathers lost, the sons slaughtered, daughters slain, wives widowed, whole families impoverished and dislocated. Amnesty is good, what of amenity?

    Where communication fails, peace eludes. Those who call for amnesty are heard but not understood by those who reject. Those who reject are heard and insufficiently understood by those who can grant. Those who can grant cannot grant because of unrequited love. Those who profess the love of Christ cannot forgive even if Jesus commanded it.

    Now, what we have is not a theocratic state. It is not even a society of believers. It is a secular state professing a belief in a higher God whom no one obeys. Like Charles Dickens’ novel on the French Revolution, it is the epoch of belief and the epoch of incredulity. Everyone is going to heaven and everyone is going the other way.

    If we say we want to grant amnesty, it provides a conundrum. Who do we forgive and who do we punish? This is a season of anonymous massacre. No deaths bear any one’s imprints. It is either we forgive all or punish all, but we can do neither. So we face faith without evidence. That works for religion, but it does not work for politics.

    The only way we can resolve religious issue among humans is in the turf of politics. There has to be a panel. There will be accused, witnesses, prosecutors and judges. They will all be human, and they will consult neither the Koran nor the Bible, but the constitution of Nigeria. How do we anoint a secular text to resolve acts beholden to the canons of deity, secular system against theocratic temperaments?

    We have evidence against detainees, the ones caught, and they are inevitably consigned to punishment. But most of the militants are out of our ken, hidden in shadowy communities of the North.

    How do we galvanise a believable system of assessing criminals and punishments? We also know that in the Niger Delta, all are forgiven. But the issue has not even been raised by Boko Haram because they believe they are God’s army. They should dispense God’s justice. So who is anyone, who is human, to challenge them since they have the ultimate backing of the Almighty?

    President Jonathan says he will not negotiate with ghosts. What it shows is that the President has run out of ideas. If he had control, these offers and rejections will not happen. His first task as president is security, we are reduced to exchange of offers for rejection, and a general clamour in the open because the centre cannot hold. President Jonathan is a cagy commander.

    It is time for a new paradigm. Repetition of a jaded approach brings repetition of failures. It is a collective frustration. This is a frustrated country because it elected a frustrating leader. The billions spent, the states of emergency, the soldiers deployed and intelligence officers of impotence, only point to failure. He has not worked with northern governors like Kashim Shettima of Borno. The much bandied talk about the North not cooperating with Jonathan is the excuse of the lame. He claimed a pan-Nigerian mandate when he won in 2011. Now is time for a pan-Nigerian peace.