The Nation Newspaper

Tag: emergency

  • Before we end the emergency rule

    Before we end the emergency rule

    The federal government seems to be enjoying a rare moment of success in the war against terror and President Goodluck Jonathan is feeling on top of the world. There are even talks in government circles that the state of emergency imposed on Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states might not last its full six months course.

    Even the National Assembly, particularly the Senate has caught the bug of victory over Boko Haram “in sight” that is pervading official and military circles in Abuja. President of the Senate David Mark recently echoed President Jonathan when he said the emergency rule would soon be over.

    But amidst this optimism lies the danger of dropping our guards and allowing Boko Haram a way back and causing more havoc. And that seems to be the case in Maiduguri, the Borno state capital last weekend when some members of the terrorist organisation sneaked through the security cordon within and around the city, hiding their guns in a coffin to gain access to where some informants were staying and shot them dead.

    The president seems to be under some pressure to end the military action and declare victory albeit prematurely and that would be dangerous for Nigeria. If he succumbs to the pressure from both within and outside the Peoples Democratic Party, the Boko Haram insurgency could become like a snake cut into half, when it strikes, it would be more deadly.

    For the first time President Jonathan seems to be doing something right. The military action seems to be heading for success and Boko Haram look certain to fizzle out or retreat into neighbouring countries. This looks good, but then with 2015 elections near the corner, the politician in the president is inclined to wanting to reap the success too quickly and risks destroying the gains. As was the case with former United States president George W Bush when he declared victory over Iraq in the second Gulf war prematurely, any hasty withdrawal of the military from the theatre of operation against Boko Haram could prolong the insurgency and harm Jonathan’s political future. Not that he has done well overall to deserve another term in office, but if he could restore peace and security to the north east and other trouble spots around the country may be he could have a chance.

    Supporters of the military action. I guess they are more in numbers, want peace everywhere in Nigeria not just the north east, just as critics of the military action. They would support every action by the military to bring about peace and security but not high handedness and crimes against the innocent as the military in states under the emergency rule are being accused of. Every criticism of the military in this regard is often seen by the government and the military high command as an attack on Nigeria by “enemies” of the country. Even media reports are seen in this light. This is rather unfortunate. The other day Aljazeera reported certain atrocities against innocent civilians and the government’s only response to it is to condemn the report without any evidence to disprove it. Now the government is hyper sensitive to every seemingly negative report of the military action in the north east almost to the point of paranoia, yet no effort has been made to take Nigerian journalists to theatre of action to see things for themselves. Telephone communication to most parts of the region has been cut, so getting first information on what was happening is pretty difficult,so the Nigerian press is left to publish/report handouts from either the military high command in Abuja or what foreign news agencies could glean from their contacts in Nigeria.

    While it might look unpatriotic to rely on foreign wire reports to get information on the military operation, the hand out from the military cold also be suspect, as the military cannot be relied upon to day the whole truth. So, as it is done elsewhere, it wouldn’t be out of place if the military should arrange “embed” some Nigerian journalists as part of the military media team covering the military action against Boko Haram. If the local journalists are there live, the tendency to want to rely on foreign wire report would be reduced and trust the Nigerian journalist to also be patriotic.

    The federal government it does appear gets annoyed only when these reports and criticism of some perceived excesses of the military in the fight against Boko Haram doesn’t favor it. Each time the United States had something not too good to say about the military action and even the activities of Boko Haram, the federal government was always on the defensive, and at times abusive.

    At a point the US was to classify Boko Haram as a terrorist organisation but Abuja kicked against the move, but last week President Jonathan finally came to terms with the reality that what we had on our hands was a gang of terrorist and has so acknowledged and classified the group together with its sister organisation, Ansaru. What this points to is a simple fact that these foreign countries and/or international agencies couldn’t possibly have anything against us other than the best interest of the country and the international community.

    Now that we seem to be getting on top of the Boko Haram insurgency, the need to engage our neighbouring countries in the fight is imperative. Some of the fleeing terrorists have found their way to Niger Republic in particular where they recently attacked a prison in an effort to free some of the inmates who are members of their organisation. The Ghanaian president recently called for a regional approach to the fight against terrorism in the sub region. A coordinated effort supported by the rest of the international community would go a long way to rid Nigeria and indeed the West African sub region of threat and menace of these terrorists.

    The war against terror is not one in which victory can be declared, it is a long one to be fought over generations and must not be left to the military alone. We are all involved.

     

    As PDP presses the self destruct botton

    Not picking your national chairman’s call could cost you your membership especially if you are a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). At least that seems to be the reason behind the suspension of the Sokoto State governor Alhaji Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko last week from the party. Alu, as the governor is fondly called was the second governor elected on the platform of the party to be suspended by the leadership under the guise of instilling discipline in the party.

    Remember Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State is still on suspension to ostensibly instill discipline in the party. At least that was what we were made to believe by the Bamanga Tukur led executive of the party but Nigerians are not deceived. All is geared towards clearing the way for a Jonathan candidacy for the presidency on the platform of PDP again in 2015. To achieve this, all real and perceived obstacle must be removed. Well let’s see how far Jonathan and Tukur can go.

    How many more “recalcitrant” governors would be suspended to achieve this remain to be seen but it does appear that some people in the party would stop at nothing to return Jonathan to the presidency even destroying the party and possibly our democracy. But Nigerians are watching. May be we need the PDP to self destruct to save this democracy. Time will tell.

  • Emergency threatens telecoms revenue

    Emergency threatens telecoms revenue

    The dusty, remote spot in Nigeria’s far northeast where the military says insurgents operated a major camp is now little more than burnt-out cars, strewn trash and unanswered questions.

    More than three weeks into a military offensive seeking to end a years-long insurgency by Islamist extremist group Boko Haram, Nigeria has claimed important successes, but the truth is difficult to determine.

    It has denied killing civilians, though it declines to provide numbers or details on casualties.

    Soldiers say Boko Haram members have “scattered” in areas where the army has pushed them out, but they cannot say where, only that “hundreds” have been arrested.

    Thousands of residents have fled into neighbouring Niger and Cameroon, and some allege soldiers indiscriminately killed civilians in raids before the offensive officially began. The military denies this.

    Mobile phone lines have been cut in much of the region since the start of the offensive on May 15 and visiting remote areas independently is difficult if not impossible.

    Journalists recently visited the deserted Boko Haram “camp” soldiers say they chased insurgents away from near the village of Kirenowa as part of a tightly orchestrated military tour.

    The tour wound into a patch of the semi-desert northeast, where acacia trees and shrubs dot the dry, flat landscape along with occasional villages of brick houses with thatch roofs.

    Military officials have at times provided conflicting details of operations, including involving the camp near Kirenowa, raising further questions over which version if any is correct.

    In 2009, Nigeria launched a brutal offensive against Boko Haram that killed some 800 people and forced the group underground for more than a year — but they returned with even deadlier attacks.

    This time the security operation “involved not just the military but the security agencies of the country,” Brigadier General Chris Olukolade, a defence spokesman, told reporters on Thursday.

    “The network this time is perfect, I mean near perfect, in the sense that the operation was planned to ensure their bases were dislocated — not just dislocated but completely wiped out.”

    Some say the offensive may have obliterated the possibility of legitimate dialogue, while others have expressed doubts that a military operation could lead to lasting peace.

    “The entire Chinese army cannot solve this problem,” said Bulama Mali Gubio, spokesman for an influential elders’ forum in Nigeria’s Borno state, Boko Haram’s original home base.

    Military abuse accusations

    Boko Haram’s insurgency has been under way since 2009, but a series of particularly violent events preceded President Goodluck Jonathan’s state of emergency declaration on May 14 in the volatile northeast of Africa’s most populous nation.

    In April, the military faced accusations of major abuses after nearly 200 people were left dead in the town of Baga, with residents alleging soldiers shot civilians and set fire to much of the community.

    The Red Cross put the death toll at 187, but the military insisted that only 37 people died in the fighting, while saying insurgents caused the blazes.

    A May 7 attack in Bama saw insurgents disguised in military uniforms break into a prison and attack several government buildings, leaving 55 people dead. Nigerian authorities later said they freed three women and six children abducted by Boko Haram during the attack.

    However, there were also accusations of military abuses in Bama. Ali Elhadji, a 56-year-old who fled back to his parents’ home village in Cameroon, Gance, said Boko Haram had spread violence in Bama and soldiers brutally retaliated.

    He said soldiers arrived several weeks before the May 15 start of the offensive and killed indiscriminately.

    “They killed all those who appeared young and who they crossed in the streets,” he told AFP recently in Gance. “They killed many innocents.”

    There is no question that the insurgency mainly in Nigeria’s deeply impoverished north has been brutal.

    Boko Haram is blamed for hundreds of deaths through suicide attacks, targeted killings, car bombings and other means.

    In declaring the state of emergency, the president said the group had taken over pockets of territory in the remote northeast.

    Soldiers said the extremists even raised their own flags in the Marte area.

    At the same time, the military’s response to the insurgency over the last several years has come under heavy criticism, with widespread accusations of extra-judicial killings, arbitrary arrests and unlawful detentions.

    Diplomats and analysts have long said a military solution alone is unlikely to resolve the problem, stressing that conditions in the severely underdeveloped north must be addressed.

    The government in Africa’s largest oil producer has more recently sought to portray itself as offering a carrot-and-stick approach, carrying out the offensive but also forming a panel to look at possibilities for offering an amnesty to insurgents.

    It recently released 58 women and children who had been held in connection with the insurgency. Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau had demanded that the government release the wives and children of its members.

    But with the offensive grinding on and its details unclear, it is difficult to know what effect if any such moves have had.

    “Is it dialogue with the people you are pursuing with troops, with armoured tanks and with fighter jets?” Gubio said. “Are these the people you are trying to give amnesty to?”

  • State of emergency: Minister, Service Chiefs brief Senate

    MINISTER of State for Defence, Erelu Olusola Obada and Service Chiefs briefed the Senate yesterday on the ongoing state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states.

    The Service Chiefs were led by the Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Ola Sa’ad Ibrahim, to the meeting with the Senate Joint Committee on Defence and Army, National Security and Intelligence, Navy, Air Force and Police.

    Chairman, Senate Committee on Defence, Senator George Thompson Sekibo, chaired the over two-hour closed door session.

    Before the meeting went into closed door, Sekibo noted that the Senate in Plenary on May 21 discussed and debated the state of emergency declared by President Goodluck Jonathan in the three states and accordingly, adopted all clauses of the President’s proposals.

    He said it meant that at the end of the plenary, the Senate gave its full support for the declaration of the state of emergency in the affected states.

    He added that the Senate is aware that to operate a state of emergency, the Defence Headquarters and perhaps, all the service chiefs will be involved.

    He said: “From that May 21, these committees were given the mandate to closely monitor the progress being made in this declaration and then also, to report back to the Senate.

    “This meeting is part of the fulfillment of that Senate resolution.

    “Here present are members of the Senate Committee on Defence and Army, Chairmen and Vice-Chairmen of Senate Committees on National Security and Intelligence, the Navy, Air Force and the Police.

    “This team would be monitoring the performances and progress being made in the state of emergency in the states.

    “So, this meeting is to get briefing from you from that May 21, when the state of emergency was declared till now, how far you have gone.

    “We believe that you have been there for about three weeks. We gave you enough time to master the environment and then invite you to give us the briefings.”

    Obada thanked the joint committee for the invitation.

    The Chief of Defence Staff did not say anything until reporters were asked to leave the venue of the meeting.

     

     

     

     

  • ‘Emergency rule will not affect financial markets’

    The emergency rule in Yobe, Adamawa and Borno states will not affect the money, capital and fixed-instrument segment of the financial market, the Chief Executive Officer, Financial Derivatives Limited, Mr Bismarck Rewane, has said.

    He said the emergency would not send wrong signals to investors, but only shows that the country is managing its security well.

    Speaking on the state of the economy vis-à-vis the performance of the financial services sector on a television programme, Rewane said the nation’s security could be managed rightly or wrongly. He said the security is being managed well, considering the case of the three states.

    “To do nothing is not acceptable. What the government is doing is to ring the crisis so that it will not spread to other parts of the country. So, it is neither sending bad signals to the foreign investors not affecting the activities in the various segments of the financial market. Rather, it is a good signal to investors,” he said, adding: “How many investors from the three states are investing in the market? They are few. So, how would the current development send wrong signal to investors in those areas?

    According to him, the issue of flow of investors to the domestic market should be the major concern of the operators among other stakeholders now.

    “I think the question we should be asking is: “How much of the domestic investors are going into the market?” he asked.

    Domestic investors, he said, were the real catalyst for change, adding that they must be encouraged to participate actively in our market. He said the government, investors and households constitute a major force in any economy, adding that the environment must be made conducive for investors to create capital formation.

    He said the decision of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to maintain the 12 per cent Monetary Policy Rate was expected, given the happenings in the macroeconomic environment.

    Rewane said CBN in deciding the MPR looks at anticipations in the economy, and from there takes a position that is good for the industry and the economic in particular.

    “Inflation is a threat to oil prices. If oil price drops and the depletion of reserves occur, the apex will put in place measures to absorb the shocks that would occasion the development,” he said.

    The Financial Derivative boss said democratic promotion and cultures would continue to grow to support national development, arguing that the discussions on the issue of budget amendment currently with the National Assembly are part of the democratic processes.

    In a related development, the Managing Director, Bgl Securities Limited, Mr Sunday Adebola, said domestic participation was critical to the growth of the financial market.

    He said it has been proven globally that no country develops its market from outside. He said many countries have developed their market to a point before foreign investors come in to assist in one way or the other.

     

    He said the need to encourage domestic involvement in the money, treasury bills, bonds, and capital market is necessary to foster meaningful growth.

    “Let look at what happened in 2008 when foreign portfolio investors left the country. If we do not have a vibrant financial market, it would be difficult to absorb the shocks internally when a major and global problem occurs,” he said.

    Mr Adebola said more local interest is being generated in various segment of the market, advising investors to sustain the feat.

     

  • Emergency fiat

    Emergency fiat

    • President Jonathan must refrain from turning emergency rule into an exercise in tyranny

    The president pitched the declaration of emergency into another high of tension. In a surreptitious move, President Goodluck Jonathan introduced the state of emergency that gave him more powers than he implied in his broadcast.

    Playing on the emotional vulnerability of many Nigerians who were frustrated by the spasms of violence in the north, he applied wholesale force, without letting on the other form of coercion. That is, he planned to render the democratic structures not only impotent but virtually non-existent in the three states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, where the emergency measures have taken effect.

    He was praised by his own party governors and some other members of the civil society for respecting the integrity of the democratic structures. He relished the high noon from those he had goaded on.

    But the truth has been unveiled at last. What the president wanted were powers that were less obvious but equally lethal in the callow tradition of President Olusegun Obasanjo who slammed emergency rule on some states when he presided over the affairs of the nation.

    The Senate swallowed up the dangerous portions of the emergency bill that was gazette before the two chambers of law sat and upturned it, and the House of Representatives adopted it. The emergency law will go down in history as one of the irresponsible acts in our democratic history.

    When President Jonathan read out his broadcast to the nation, he asserted that the governors would function in the meantime. The phrase was routinely ignored by the commentators and the political society. In the usual Nigerian naivety, some trusted that the president, being apparently less boorish than his forbears on the throne, would act with honour.

    Now, let us examine section 3 of the Emergency Powers (General) Regulations, 2013 as proposed by the president: “The President may give directions to a state governor or local government chairmen directly or through his designate or duly authorised with respect to the administration of the emergency area and it shall be the duty of the state governor and local government chairman to comply with the directive.” Does this look like the governors and local government chairmen are allowed to perform according to their rights in the constitution? Are we paying any respect to federalism in any way?

    The compromise version changed it only perfunctorily.

    It provides a room for the president to undermine the governor and turn a designate into the de facto sole administrator and local government chairman, thereby rendering the elected officers completely sterile. Also important in the democratic structure is the state assembly, also elected by the people. Under the emergency law, they are in no position to checkmate the activity of anyone acting on the orders of the president.

    The other contentious part of this act, which the National Assembly accepted uncritically was section 2 (e), which states that the president can “provide for the utilisation of the funds of any state or local government area.”

    How does a government operate without access to funds? More importantly, how does a governor operate without control of his state resources? What it means is that the governor has to beg for his rights within the constitution. It is standing democratic principles on its head. It implies a further desecration of the federalist principle.

    Is it not with money the governor maintains the state programmes and runs the institutions of state? When the president exercises such powers, he has suspended the constitution, to all intents and purposes. The governors, lawmakers and local government officers are in office by name only. They have become appendages of a centre that can decide on a contemptuous whim to starve them until they squeak.

    The senate hurriedly accepted the emergency without looking at the terms. This is the height of legislative incompetence for a body the people assigned the task to check executive recklessness. The House of Representatives, after grandstanding, only worked superficial changes. In the end, the compromise law compromises the integrity of the constitution and republican ideals. The National Assembly, whose task it is to advance the balance of forces for a sense of equality and harmony, genuflected to an act of high tyranny.

    The impression has been allowed to fester that because it is a state of emergency, the president is allowed to wield autocratic powers that obscure the commonsensical principle of a democratic society. Nothing is further from reality. The president derives his emergency powers from the constitution of a democratic society. The emergency cannot subvert democracy that gave birth to it. Otherwise, that would mean that we can manipulate a democratic tenet to impose despotism. The result? Democratic self-defeat.

    In the lead up to the declaration of emergency, we have on good authority that the president had intended to dissolve the democratic structures but the leadership of the House of Representatives had resisted.

    In apparent terms, he did not dissolve the structures. But by taking away their life source, he has subjected them to the desperate debility of slow lynching. What this means is that the president was economical with the truth. It was a sly, despicable, backroom strategy to undermine the finer principles of democracy. He imposed a draconian principle with a sunny face.

    Happily, the states can recourse to the law and fight back. This matter ought to be resolved at the level of the Supreme Court, and this newspaper urges the governors and local government chairmen to seek a judicial answer to what is clearly an unprecedented show of force in the name of democracy.

    What the president has done may have repercussions beyond the states now clobbered by emergency law. If he does it to any other state, he could simply use the precedent of this law to dislodge the influence of the governor and recruit his cronies for political influence. The fears were openly expressed recently when jitters of emergency rule ran through the arteries of River State.

    When the president removes the funds of a state and puts it in the service of anybody he designates, it turns the state into an extension of his political sphere of influence. It becomes less about a matter of law and order, but a matter of muzzling what he could see as political foes. It becomes a flexing of muscles for swathes of the political landscape and not about the higher principles of ensuring that the people live in peace. It is a cynical thing, and it must be condemned without reservation.

  • Declaration of emergency rule, right step-Sani

    Auwalu Sani is a member of the House of Representatives representing Dutsin-ma/ Kurfi Federal Constituency. In a chat with ADETUTU AUDU, Sani spoke on the emergency rule in three northern states and other issues

     

    You recently said the projects you have brought to your constituency are far more than what your predecessor has brought in for eight years? Can you expatiate on this?

    Since I joined the National Assembly, I have contributed both at the committee level and on the floor of the House in making laws for the smooth running of our country. In the 2012 budget, I was able to influence grassroots projects ranging from the provision of portable drinking water through drilling of ten solar-powered boreholes and 61 hand pump boreholes across the constituency. There is also a stable power supply through the procurement of transformers in Dutsin-ma and Kurfi towns; provision of free treatment to over 250 patients with cases of hyena and hydrosol problems. In the area of education, efforts are being made to provide financial assistance to final year students in higher institutions of learning and several others.

    A BBC journalist accused your governor recently that there is virtually nothing working in Katsina State, how true is this?

    I think time will not allow me to enumerate the achievements of Dr. Ibrahim Shema-led government. Education is the backbone of the development of any society. There is free education to all primary and secondary school pupils in the state right from 2007 to date. Also those at tertiary institutions are given scholarship annually. Shema completed and equipped the state university. The government has been paying examination fees for WAEC and NECO since 2007 to date in order to assist the less privileged in the state to have basic education .Moreover, the government secured admission and sponsor indigenes of the state under a special foreign scholarship.

    Why is the House always at loggerheads with the Executive?

    I don’t think the House of Representatives is at loggerhead with the Executive. I think it is mainly the perception of the public. What you perceived as loggerheads is what makes democracy beautiful.  If all the three arms of government are functioning the way it ought to, just as we are doing, then, there is bound to be disagreement here and there, but that does not mean there is crisis between us and the Executive. If anything else, I think the House should be commended for being firm. Democracy cannot strive where there is no disagreement.

    What would you say is the high point of the House in the last one year?

    Section 88 and 89 of the 1999 (Amended) of the Constitution empowers the National Assembly to carry out their legislative functions such as approving and passing of budget, oversight functions, conduct of public hearing etc.  In the last one year, we concentrated on all the above, and in addition, we resolved to hold a peoples public hearing on review of the constitution   across the 360 federal constituencies. I think this is one of the legacies this 7th Assembly will be leaving behind by the time it leaves office in 2015.

    What is your take on the emergency rule declared by the president in Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa States?

    I think it is a right step in the right direction. I support the emergency rule to the extent that all the democratic structures in the affected states are intact.  The federal government, even in the midst of the emergency rule, is still opening room for communication with the sect because on the long run, these sect members are Nigerians and I think this is where the federal government should be commended for its action so far. I call on the sect to please embrace dialogue with the federal government in the name of Islam which is a religion of peace.

    The North is clamouring for the presidency in 2015, how feasible is this?

    2015 and beyond is in the hands of Allah and therefore, who becomes the President of Nigeria is in the hands of Almighty Allah and He alone can and will decide for the nation when is due.

  • From Nigeria factor to emergency? (2)

    From Nigeria factor to emergency? (2)

    Boko Haram’s activities provide a sufficient condition for a National Conference

     

    We ended last week’s piece thus: Would emergency declaration be the end of the interrogation of Nigeria’s multicultural federation that has been at the center of Boko Haram’s agenda to turn Nigeria into Sharia country and outlaw western civilization, the source of Nigeria as a country? The objective today is to look ahead, beyond the ultimate defeat of Boko Haram by the empowered JTF and out of the box of the country’s tradition of denialism.
    The news since the commencement of emergency rule in Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe is to the effect that the military is gaining ground at the expense of Nigeria’s Islamic terrorists. We have been told by the commander in charge of the special operation that many Boko Haram fighters have been sneaking into neighbouring countries, such as Niger, Chad, and the Cameroons. It is thus conceivable that after a few months,Boko Haram as a group capable of fighting the Nigerian military might become a footnote to contemporary Nigerian history. This possibility does not automatically include the end of guerilla warfare in the cities by warriors of the extremist sect. It also does not pre-empt deliberate harassment of security personnel or innocent citizens, such as had happened several times in the past.
    The question of the moment is what will be the response of the federal government, the ultimate determiner of security in the country, should Boko Haram terrorists, driven away or underground during the special military operations permitted by emergency, come back to kill and maim innocent citizens periodically, as was the case when the group first unleashed terror on the country? We know what has happened in Mali. The country’s Islamic extremists had been driven largely across the border, but they have not been routed to the point that the security forces in Mali could sleep with their eyes closed. What if Nigeria’s Islamic extremists choose to harass us from their underground cells within or outside our borders?
    There is a Yoruba saying: Eni pa inaoritikotii pa eyin re, niisepuponiwajulati se (If you kill a louse on the head without killing its eggs, you still have a lot of work to do, if you plan to avoid diseases from lice). The point of this proverb is to underline the fact that there is still a lot of critical and proactive thinking to do on the part of the federal government. From some of the grievances and objectives of the group announced by Boko Haram leaders, the sect’s agenda is similar to undestroyed eggs of a louse that has been killed. It is thus crucial for the President and his team to start preparing for a post-battle scenario in which the eggs of killed Boko Haram warriors return to haunt and hurt the nation.
    Boko Haram has consistently raised two basic issues: the view that the group believes that western education, and by extension western civilisation is an abomination and the imperative of turning Nigeria or, at least, northern Nigeria into a Sharia region. The professional negotiators that are being prepared for post-war détente with BokoHaramists must not only think in terms of amnesty as paying money to survivors within the sect of the current battle. They will need to get ready to engage Boko Haram men at the peace talks about the root cause of the conflict. It is not enough to assume, as western pundits have done, that the terrorists are victims of poverty, or in the assessment of the country’s professional politicians, individuals hired to make the country ungovernable for Dr. Jonathan.
    In other words, negotiators on federal government’s side must be ready to ask many hard questions. One of such questions is why would Boko Haram want to end a federation that is over half a century old and that had fought a civil war that claimed over one million of lives by calling for an end to its secular rule? Are Boko Haram thinkers aware of the fact that in a multicultural federation, any group that attempts to impose its worldview on other components of the country risks disintegration of the country or secession by other groups that want to keep their own worldviews intact? Do leaders of the Islamic terror group believe that Nigeria can survive as a country without western civilization, knowing fully well that there would have been no Nigeria without western civilization? Would members of the Islamic extremist group agree to the terms of a secular Nigerian State as part of the settlement of the two or three year-old conflict? How far are the Islamic extremists willing to go in accepting that there are millions of Christians in northern states that are not likely to become Muslims? There will be several other questions to be asked before writing the Amnesty treaty.
    In addition, the federal government needs to prepare for a national dialogue as part of the discussion with Boko Haram terrorists. There is a need to stop being in denial about the magnitude of the problem facing our federation. That it was possible for a group to emerge and hold the country to ransom for about years over its preference for an Islamic State or his opposition to western education should be worrisome to the leaders of the nation-state. That modern and traditional leaders from the north spent more attention on the symptoms of Boko Haram’s grouse than on the cause–desire to Islamise the country– should send signals to the presidency about the need to think out of the box. Moreover, the fact that it took the federal government almost two years to read the riot act to this group needs to set the government thinking more critically about how to sustain the nation’s secularity beyond or despite Boko Haram.
    The action that is needed after the end of the physical combat with Boko Haram includes re-thinking the architecture of the country’s security. Ironically, the leaders of the birthplace of Boko Haram are the most mordant critics of calls for decentralisation and democratisation of law enforcement in the country. The long-drawn battle with Boko Haram in the last two years had drawn special attention to the inefficiency inherent in using a central police force to establish and maintain public order. Otherwise, it would not have been necessary to deploy the military to fight Boko Haram, as if it is a foreign enemy. As we look toward the final settlement of an avoidable conflict started byBoko Haram, let us not forget that no sane human being that has seen the benefit of western education would be so opposed to it. The forces that had prevented most of the young men in the terrorist group from having an opportunity to benefit from western education must be reined in once and for all.
    It may not be possible to come to a sustainable solution to the problem of managing a multiethnic and multicultural society and polity, without being ready to face the fact that citizens are fully involved in creating the constitution that guides the management of their lives. Boko Haram’s activities in the last two years provide a sufficient condition for a national conference.

  • Emergency: National Assembly restricts Jonathan’s powers to security, public order

    TThe National Assembly has restricted the powers of President Goodluck Jonathan in states under emergency rule to maintenance of public order, peace and security only.

    This followed the harmonization and adoption of the conference report of the proclamation of state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states by the Senate and House of Representatives.

    According to the report of the conference committee of the Senate and House of Representatives on the state of emergency proclamation, 2013, clause 1 states that “duly authorized person” means any person designated or authorized to act on behalf of the President of the

    Federal Republic of Nigeria with respect to the administration of any emergency area on public order, peace and security only.

    This was the House version of the conference committee report which was adopted by the two chambers.

    The implication of this clause is that governors of emergency areas and local government chairmen would still handle general administrative functions in their respective jurisdictions.

    Also clause 2 (3) of the proclamation states that “the President may give direction to a state governor or local government chairman directly or through his designate or a duly authorized person with respect to the administration of the emergency area in matters of public order, peace and security only and it shall be the duty of the state governor or local government chairman to comply with the directive.

    The Senate and the House of Representatives adopted this version created by the House.

    Experts said yesterday that the insertion of the clause “in matter of public order, peace and security only” was meant to ensure that the President knows the limits of his powers in the emergency areas.

    In clause 3 (1) “Power of President to make orders” says that the President may make such orders as appear to him to be necessary or expedient for the purpose of maintaining and securing peace, public order and public safety in the emergency areas.

    On control of functions of certain authorities in the emergency areas, clause 5(c) states that “in the public service of the state in the emergency area with the meaning of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999; to exercise their functions in accordance with any direction given to them by the President, his designate or any authorized person as it relates to matter of public order, peace and security only.”

    The lawmakers explained that “these regulations make provisions for the general administration of the emergency areas in relation to security matters.”

  • Beyond emergency rule

    Should President Goodluck Jonathan have declared a state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states in response to the protracted and horrendously bloody Boko Haram insurgency that had practically paralysed the north? The debate rages on fiercely despite obvious overwhelming nationwide public support for the measure. Yet, it is an exchange that is largely theoretical and can only generate more heat than light. I really think that the President had little option. The situation had degenerated almost irredeemably in the north and decisive action was called for. Indeed, irritated by the President’s inconsistent vacillation between tough talk and pacifying the mindless terrorists through the offer of amnesty, many had queried Jonathan’s leadership competence.

    They saw him as irresolute, weak, ineffectual and seemingly clueless. To worsen matters, the Boko Haram naturally perceived the reticence of the Federal Government as a sign of weakness. The extremist sect was thus encouraged to step up the tempo of its violence – seizing women and children, escalating its attacks on security agents and increasing the venom of its mostly irrational rhetoric. It surely would come to a point when any state worth its salt as the legitimate custodian of the monopoly of instruments and methods of coercion within a given territorial jurisdiction would be forced to defend its integrity and authority.

    As the President rightly put it in his well- written even if intemperately delivered address to the nation, the insurgents had virtually declared war on the Nigerian state. He thus had the constitutional and moral responsibility to restore normalcy, protect lives and property and maintain the cohesion of the nation. It is, of course, plausible as has been argued with considerable force in some quarters that the President could have taken all the actions in the three states without formally proclaiming emergency rule. However, I guess his military strategists wanted to score a massive psychological advantage over the insurgents by maximum show of force.

    Again, by its very nature, the envisaged scale of military operations in the affected areas would necessarily involve the curtailment of some basic rights which would only be tenable under emergency rule- a departure from normality. It is also not impossible that in the run up to the 2015 election, and President Jonathan’s undisguised ambition for a second term, the strategy in opting for emergency rule in the three states was to seize the opportunity to emphatically assert his authority and showcase the immense powers of Nigeria’s imperial presidency to overawe potential opposition.This seems to be a throwback to the regressive era of the Obasanjo presidency and a sad commentary on the state of democratic development in contemporary Nigeria. However, this does not obviate the fact that deployment of massive force had become imperative to rein in the insurgents and restore normalcy in the North. There must first of all be peace and security before democratic structures and processes can function for the benefit of the people.

    However, to argue that the tough measures that President Jonathan has taken to contain the Boko Haram insurgency are necessary does not mean that this entire situation could not have been avoided if the country had been steered in a completely different direction over the last 14 years of civilian rule. In other words the degeneration to emergency rule in parts of the north is a culmination of the failure of the Peoples Democratic Party to guide Nigeria aright since 1999. This is not just a failure of the Jonathan presidency. It is a result of the incompetence and lack of vision of successive governments in control of power at the centre since the inception of this democratic dispensation. The inevitability of emergency rule almost one and a half decades after the exit of the military is clear evidence that Nigeria’s malformed federal structure has virtually broken down under the watch of the PDP and there is the urgent need for the country to try leaders and parties with alternative ideas at the centre in the next polls. In the last election, many Nigerians claimed that they voted for President Jonathan and not the PDP. Now, it is obvious that the difference between the two is that between six and half a dozen. Both have sorely failed the nation as the sheer anarchy across the country today demonstrates.

    Now the people of the North East are forced to live with all the negative consequences of emergency rule including abridgement of human rights, possible military excesses and the conversion of democratic structures into nothing but hollow shells in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa. The large scale military action attendant on emergency rule will further affect the economy of the region negatively. Innocent lives will almost inevitably be lost and thousands of people displaced. The situation in the north further reinforces Nigeria’s unflattering negative image as an insecure entity headed dangerously in the direction of state failure. Surely, those responsible for the deterioration of affairs in the country to this extent must be made to pay the electoral price for their incompetence and irresponsibility. They must not be allowed to beat their chests heroically and claim the imposition of emergency rule as an achievement when their actions and inactions are responsible, in the first place, for the deplorable security and socio-economic situation in the country that fuelled the insurgency.

    For instance, is there any excuse why we have maintained the archaic and ineffective security architecture that has rendered most of our communities vulnerable to sundry criminal elements including religious extremists, cultists, armed robbers and kidnappers? Why do we still maintain a system where state governors are Chief Security Officers only nominally and lack the capacity to effectively secure lives and property within their respective jurisdictions? If we had more effective, decentralised policing at state level, couldn’t many of these criminal gangs have been nipped in the bud before they became veritable monsters? Why haven’t we since 1999 been able to organize a national conference to enable the component parts of the country re-negotiate a more acceptable pact for our mutual and more harmonious co-existence? Why have we not fundamentally restructured a federal system that, for instance, prevents the northern states from developing their rich solid mineral endowment for the benefit of their people?

    Why have we continued to implement the same ineffectual economic policies that promote growth without development, under-develop agriculture, undermine manufacturing and breed the mass youth unemployment that fuels criminality? How do we explain our inability since 1999 to generate up to 5000MW of electricity despite the colossal amounts that have been hurled at the power sector and the negative implications of this for the economy? Of course we can go on and on raising pertinent questions about the total mismanagement of Nigeria that is at the root of insurgency and the current unfortunate but inevitable state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states. Emergency rule will most likely restore law, order and stability to the affected states in the North. The massive deployment of irresistible force may ‘persuade’ the terrorists to be more amenable to dialogue. However, emergency rule or all the force in the world cannot lead Nigeria in the direction of fundamental, positive change that can liberate her potentials and result in rapid development, peace and stability. If Nigeria continues to be run the way she is currently administered, we will only be postponing the evil day of a more virulent, more insidious insurgency that will be even more difficult to contain.

  • ‘Emergency rule’ll yield fruits’

    President Goodluck Jonathan’s emergency declaration in three northern states – Borno, Yobe and Adamawa – last week, will prevent Boko Haram insurgents from overrunning the machinery of government in the affected states.

    The view was expressed by the President/Chairman of Council, Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators of Nigeria (ICSAN), Mr. Teslim Busari, at the 39th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Institute in Lagos.

    He said: “The steps taken by the President through this emergency rule will not allow government machinery in the three states to be hijacked by terrorists. We thank President Jonathan for wielding this big stick to further prevent loss of lives and property in these states and other states where the sect is planning to unleash terror.”

    “The emergency rule will definitely work because it will lead to restriction of movements in the affected areas. And when people’s movements are restricted, the activities of these terrorists will be well-monitored and curtailed; this will further prevent bloodshed.”

    Busari added: “The President has acted well by declaring emergency rule in the three states. This is because the activities of Boko Haram have remained a national nightmare despite the federal government’s gesture of amnesty offer and the planned dialogue with the insurgents.”

    He also frowned at the nation’s rising debt profile, saying that there is nothing bad in securing foreign loans. He, however, urged the federal government to ensure that such loans are used for providing people-oriented developmental projects.