The Nation Newspaper

Tag: ECOMOG

  • Osinbajo seeks closer cooperation among African leaders

    Osinbajo seeks closer cooperation among African leaders

    • Receives Liberian Counterpart in Aso Rock

    Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Monday called on African nations to work together towards developing their economies for the benefit of their people.

    He spoke while receiving the visiting Vice President of Liberia, Mr. Joseph Nyumah Boakai in his office at the Presidential Villa.

    Osinbajo, in a statement by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, said: “We have to help ourselves first before others come, we should look for ways we can benefit each other.”

    He observed that there are Nigerian business people that can invest in Liberia, suggesting the creation of a bilateral economic council that can bring business interests from both countries together.

    “We must engender stronger relationships between our countries, that is what Africans need,” the Nigerian Vice President stated.

    Nigeria and Liberia, he said, need to work together to develop their economies.

    He said that the important task for African governments is to create enabling environments for agricultural and industrial development, noting that the  people depend on what government can do for them.

    In his own remarks, Vice President Boakai of Liberia commended Nigeria.

    He said: “Nigeria remains a very important big brother to Liberia. You have made a lot of sacrifices to our country, including through ECOMOG and the United Nations Mission in Liberia, UNMIL.”

    He also said that Nigerian businesses are helping the West Africa country in sectors like aviation, banking, insurance and investments.

    According to him, there are also teachers and doctors from Nigeria who are currently helping to set up schools and health infrastructure in Liberia.

    He said: “We are grateful to our brothers and sisters here. We want this relationship to go on, this is the way Africans should go.”

    The Liberian Vice President is in the country to participate in a public lecture.

  • ‘Our Girls’; Questioning security; Employ psychologists please; Will the $10m be stolen also?

    ‘Our Girls’; Questioning security; Employ psychologists please; Will the $10m be stolen also?

    Our Girls’ from Chibok are uppermost in our minds and actions and require a collective non-partisan political will. There is a public perception that the Dame Jonathan summons to Chibok related officials was actually in bad taste. Many people think however it revealed serious flaws in every level of national, state and LGA management, security and supervision. As a result of this and the seeming unserious sluggish uncoordinated planning and response to Chibok, Nigerians are worried and not for the first time are asking about the state of readiness of their armed forces in spite of the military hierarchy having unlimited access to the nation’s finances for years. How far has politics compromised its professionalism to meet threats?

    Generations of Nigerians are used to military excesses and many at home and abroad, still bear the scars of being on the receiving of soldiers and killer squads from the Abacha era even as Al Mustapha has walked ‘free’ in body if not in soul. But with Boko Haram and the Fulani cattle herder menaces and the coming political violence threatening every home now, this generation, is questioning the generals –retired and serving and the police hierarchy. Are they ready or will they stand aside and watch, saving only politicians and billionaires? This is supposed to be a new democratic era.

    The questions Nigerians want answered include – What manner of material and mental support does Nigeria give to those under arms as compared to soldiers in foreign countries? What quality and quantity of arms have they? What is their state of mind and body and weapon preparedness to meet guerrilla warfare? What happens to the armed forces budget that they require ’emergency’  billions extra? What is ‘welfare’ and who gets what out of ‘welfare’? What is the welfare package for our other ranks soldiers in our current warfare? When do the other ranks get paid and rotation in and out of war zone? Why was there a mutiny? Do soldiers in the field get adequate supplies as we have never seen police at checkpoints ever being supplied with food and water? What is the point of Jaji and all those military manoeuvres?

    Regardless of corruption today and in the past military era, Nigeria must further empower its armed forces to contain Boko Haram and the Fulani herdsmen and later the thugs of democracy. It must also upgrade its toilets to clean and functional, a human right for its foreign security advisors.

    How many of our hundreds of unemployed psychologists are employed in the police, the armed forces and other security units and even NGOs and for staff and victim support? For the first time in Nigeria’s history, we are thankfully being forced by international anti-terror protocol to involve psychologists to care of anguished parents, families and initiate standard Post Trauma Psychological Protocols (PTPs), for dealing with anxiety and trauma memories on release. We had no such psychologists for the victims of Fulani herdsmen, bomb blasts at Nyanya or for the survivors of the several other attacks since Chibok which have claimed over 350 Nigerians since Chibok. This Post Trauma Psychological Protocol must be part of the medical preparations for the reception of the Our Girls’ and victims and family at every other emergency that produces physically and psychologically traumatised survivors and relatives.

    Of course our armed forces are good. Look at their track record internationally. For our investment in them, they have to be. From their pledge of service they must be good. They have pledged their lives and many have lost their lives, often unsung, to protect us. Already how many soldiers have paid the ultimate price to keep us safe from Boko Haram? How do we honour those already dead? Do they even get a public military funeral?  Though we do not judge success by the casualty figures, the estimated 8,000 ECOMOG soldiers dead in Liberia and Serra Leone are bloody testimony to the sacrifice of our young Nigerian men. Where is their memorial? Did they get a military burial? We all know that the Navy and the Air Force have been under-supplied for years supposedly because of the expense of training and purchasing and especially properly maintaining sophisticated planes, helicopters and modern ships. However is the army in the same poor-equipment boat? Nigerians pay little attention to maintenance. Is it so in the Armed Forces?

    Certainly Nigerian authorities pay little or no attention to communications updates even in the police. Remember David Mark’s remark, as a high military government minister, about the phone not being for the poor. Of course we all have cell phones now but do the armed forces personnel have modern high-tech communication gadgets that we see in modern warfare during the capture of Bin Laden for example? Many Nigerians want to know if we have any elite troops not the type unleashed during the Abacha terror when Al Mustapha worked infamous CSO for the dreaded Abacha.

    International donors’ $10m school security fund will substitute for education funds mismanaged or stolen over the years. Donors should demand evidence of recent funding in the 500 schools for books etcetera and how much of the vote for the selected schools was received. The $10m donors will merely replace funds routinely ‘redistributed’ from the LGA accounts monthly. Each LGA in Nigeria has had enough money to turn schools and hospitals into good quality premises delivering good education and health.

     

  • Boko/Fulani/Bank interest Rate/CSR Wars: Matters of Urgent Conference Importance

    Boko/Fulani/Bank interest Rate/CSR Wars: Matters of Urgent Conference Importance

    Nigeria is at war. The second war is the Boko Haram war. ‘Our Girls’, 200+ girls, kidnapped from school, are still ‘missing’ with no encouraging information or ‘Daily News Bulletin’. Instead we hear of new contracts for roads. Over 200 girls and their captors are not too tiny to have left a heat trail to be picked up by the daily satellite surveillance, our spies and our paid informers. No doubt there is an Air force and military ring of steel tightening around the area in the Sambisa Forest by the magnificent Armed Forces of Nigeria who at last have something to prove at home after their ECOMOG victories.

    We salute our brave men under arms and in foxholes, eyes penetrating the darkness of that forest seeking their targets and attempting to free the hostages with minimum or zero casualties. Even one dead girl will be too much for any parent to bear, though Boko Haram has maliciously already executed many girls and children and unborn babies in the Nyanya, Abuja bombing. Certainly Nigeria expects the early release by ‘ANY MEANS NECESSARY‘of ‘Our Girls’ so cruelly kidnapped by Boko Haram. Our whole government and private sector energy as a nation should be targeted towards freeing ‘Our Girls’ As Soon As Possible.

    Meanwhile Nigeria must not forget the daily 10-50 victims of the Fulani herdsmen’s ‘Right of Cow Way’ war and assault on Nigerian farmers across seven states, north and south who on retaliation are labelled as demons. Nobody lies down to die. The Non Sovereign National Conference must address this issue.

    If meat is the cause of war –fast on, turn to fish. Will Nigeria embarking on a three to six month prayer and ‘FAST FROM MEAT’ stop the war? SAY NO TO MEAT.  All wars are financial. Why are Nigerians so insensitive to the rights of others as to demand and actually eat meat brought to their tables at the cost of human lives? Incredible insensitivity! Even one life is one too many for your lunch of meat.  ‘Blood Meat’ brought to our tables by the murder of over 3000 and displacement of millions of farmers and families members is unacceptable and must be rejected. The Fulani-Nigeria must be stopped by a ‘MORATORIUM ON MEAT EATING’ until peace returns. It is small price to pay to instil sanity. We should have enforced this long ago.

    Meanwhile Nigeria is fighting a third war after the Boko Haram and the Fulani –Nigeria War. It is the ‘The Cement War’. Check cement bag prices worldwide. Cement is N2,300 per bag, up from N600 a few years ago, pre-rich man, whereas worldwide the average price is N500. Is this the price we have to pay to host the richest man in Nigeria and Africa and 23rd or 25th richest man in the world among us, excluding Nigerian and African past heads of state who are publicity shy? The price Nigeria is paying is too high. Building prices have shot up. The richest get invited to Davos to pontificate, with corner-mouth, on the imperatives of mass housing and poverty reduction. Excuse me, but ‘cement charity and fair play’ begin at home with the normal, not inflated, cement prices in Nigeria. Just imagine the cost to Nigerians of fuel when the richest man’s Lagos Refinery comes on stream. Has he got the guaranteed petroleum deliveries denied all previous refinery planners since Obasanjo’s feeble or frustrated private refinery initiative?

    There is also a ‘Bank Interest Rate War’ against Nigerians needing loans. The banks first quarter profits, and secret bank bonuses, are as usual obscenely mind-boggling and why not, with interest rates shamefully still at 22-25% except for the chosen few in some economic areas. Four banks have a collective profit in excess of N12b. Cut Interest rates! In normal societies this translates into a Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR, fund of 1%+ or N120m. Where is that money? Is it well spent? N120m is twelve N10m youth centres countrywide or 36 in a year. And that does not include the CSR from other banks and 1000 other companies. CSR could be better coordinated than it is.

    Just as we complain to the Non-Sovereign National Conference about poor and over-centralised central government, we must also complain about poor CSR with over-centralisation in the headquarters. Why should head office in Abuja spend all the CSR vote? Every manager should be able to spend money in the locality of the bank, perhaps in proportion to earnings. AGMs and shareholders must monitor and direct CSR activities of their companies and the service companies their company does business with and ‘RECOMMEND THAT COMPANIES AND BANKS IN PARTICULAR ‘DECENTALISE CSR FUNDS’ TO BRANCHES and DISTRIBUTORS. A bank or company with a branch or distributorship in your neighbourhood should be doing serious CSR in your community. CSR is not a joke and should not be given maximally to sports like polo and golf. A lot of CSR is well motivated and well spent. However, in our dysfunctional society without any social security net, CSR is actually life-saving, life-changing and a desperately needed helping hand. Without CSR many NGOs and ‘Homes’ especially those servicing the poor, the orphaned and physically and mentally challenged will die. CSR has the additional burden of providing relief in crisis areas.

    Will the true Nigerians please stand up! Nigeria is so desperately in need of true Nigerians.

  • Where are the soldiers?

    Where are the soldiers?

    The Nigerian military since inception has proven not only to be a good, effective and efficient fighting machine but also a strong vehicle for national unity and cohesion. When the country was on the verge of disintegration following the crises that led to the unfortunate 30-month civil war, it was the patriotic soldiers that fought to hold us together. The patriotic slogan then was ‘To keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done’ and the Khaki boys were up to that task.

    When the likes of the murderous Maitatsine religious sect decided to strike in Kano and later Maiduguri in the 80s, the military moved swiftly to wipe them away from the face of the earth so to speak and Nigerians heaved a sigh of relief.

    Even across our borders in the ECOWAS sub region in the 90s, the Nigerian military proved its mettle first in Sierra Leone and most importantly Liberia where a band of rebels had moved in from the bush to destabilize the legitimate governments. Leading soldiers from other West African countries under a sub regional military group called ECOMOG, the members of the Nigerian armed forces drawn from the Army, Navy and Air Force fought heroically to restore peace to the two countries and saved West Africa from a crisis that could destabilize the entire sub region.

    Let’s forget about what went into those wars in terms of human and material resources and who got what and not, the fact was that even opponents of the Liberian/Sierra Leonean adventure by the Nigerian Military were proud of our boys even if they failed to openly admit it.

    The roles our boys have played in peacekeeping operations around the world have earned praise for Nigeria not only from the United Nations but also other big players in the international arena including the United States.

    With all these domestic and international accomplishments not a few Nigerians believed that our military could rank among the medium powers in the world in terms fighting capability and efficiency. I remember Babangida’s Foreign Minister, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi even floating the idea of what he called a ‘Concert of Medium Powers’ to bring together those countries that are slightly below the two super powers of that era and their allies. He believed Nigeria qualified to be in that league; not many argued with him. The belief then was that we could take on and crush any opposition at least in the sub region, and if push comes to shove, our military could raise our flag high even in the continent.

    Between that time and now a lot has happened to our military as a fighting machine and in the last four years or so the Boko Haram insurgency has really exposed or rather confirmed the fears of most patriots that the Nigerian Military is no longer what it used to be.

    Since the insurgency began somewhere in Bauchi State in the north east some four years ago, the terrorists have been waxing stronger and stronger and the Nigerian military seemingly unable to contain let alone crush them.

    Each time I hear stories of how armed insurgents drove into villages in convoys and spending hours unchallenged killing and maiming innocent people my heart cuts and I ask, where are the soldiers? Sometime in 2012 I went round the country campaigning in the run up to the then upcoming national elections of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ). Nowhere in that region was as militarized as Borno and Yobe States yet the insurgents were still able to sneak and cause death and destruction.

    In Yobe State as you approach Damaturu, Potiskum and such other big settlements there are military check points at almost 200 metres interval and you have the impression that if this is replicated in almost all parts of the state then the people are or should be safe. The same situation is obtainable in Borno and lately Adamawa State. So, when one now hears that Boko Haram insurgents have struck again and our soldiers were nowhere to be found one gets confused. It is more confusing when one throws the Air Force into the equation and one begins to wonder how could a band of at best rag tag insurgents operate in a place for hours and our fighter jets or helicopter gunships could not go there to bomb them. Where is the pride of the Nigerian Air Force if it cannot police our air space and pick out enemies from the air, especially in the desert and destroy them?

    When vehicles move in convoys, especially in the desert and in day light, they can easily be spotted even at night and should be easy targets. Markudi where the Air Force Tactical Air Command is located should be within two minutes flying distance to anywhere in the North West for our fighter jet. So, even if NAF cannot put them on ground at Maiduguri Airport or Air Force base for whatever reason, its pilots should be able to reach and bomb any target from Markudi within seconds. Why are we not doing this?

    All militaries in the world rely heavily on air power to subdue their opponents in any warfare whether conventional or not. The Air Force is regarded as the teeth of the armed forces; go in there, subdue the opponent, then the foot soldiers (Army) can then move in and finish the task. Where are the teeth of our own armed forces in this battle against terror? Where is the Nigerian Air Force in the war against Boko Haram?

    It is easy to blame the Babangida era for the rot in the Nigerian Air Force and to some extent the rest of the armed forces, but then we have had 15 years of civilian rule during which if we are serious, we would have rebuild our armed forces to such an effective fighting machine capable of routing irritants such as Boko Haram in a matter of weeks. But here we are, four years or so on and we can seem to make any head way.

    Until we address the problem of the Nigerian military the war on terror especially against Boko Haram would be difficult to win. It is not just about personnel alone, what kind of training are we giving them? The war on terror is not a conventional one and we need to master the tricks of the terrorists and outwit them before we can defeat them. Let’s not play politics with this war, it is not President Goodluck Jonathan’s war or his problem, it is our problem, our war and together we must fight it and win.