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Tag: Goodluck

  • If President Jonathan were my father…

    If President Jonathan were my father…

    I have heard and read about people describ

    ing their parents as strict disciplinarians.

    But I often wonder if the disciplinary instincts of those parents were anywhere near my father’s. As a big time farmer and traditional ruler of my town for 42 years before he passed on three years ago, he could afford us some little luxuries, but he made sure that we got only things that were extremely necessary. Unlike many other children in the community, we hardly had time for leisure. We were woken up at 5 am for the morning devotion, after which we would perform some household chores or even visit the nearby farm before heading for school.

    And in spite of all that we had to do before going to school, we were in serious trouble if my father got a report that we got to school late. I remember a particular day we had to go to the farm after the early morning devotion. The farm in question was more than three kilometres away from home. By the time we returned to prepare for school, we were already late. As we made to depart for school, my father called the eldest of us and gave him a letter he addressed to the headmaster. Of course, we did not know the contents of the letter, but we were happy that he must have written to tell the headmaster that we were late because we had to visit the farm before going to school.

    Armed with the letter, we walked leisurely to school, believing that we were armed with a defence. But we had barely settled down in our various classrooms when the headmaster sent for us. On getting to his office, he read out the contents of the letter sent by our father and we were alarmed. He told the headmaster that we must be flogged because there was no reason for us to get to school late. While he admitted that we had to run an errand for him before coming, we ought not to have got to school late if we had not wasted time on the way. My father was highly respected by every teacher in the entire region because he had functioned as a headmaster and manager of primary schools in the district before he became a monarch. On account of the letter, we were so flogged that some of us had to be treated for minor injuries.

    But there was one among my elder brothers who suffered the most from my father’s intolerance for indolence. My father’s grouse with the elder brother in question was not just that he always got the last position in his class, but that he was not making enough effort to improve on his performance. At the end of each term, he was either scolded or flogged for performing poorly. Flogged continually by dad and derided by the rest of us, he decided to do something about the ugly trend. At the end of a particular term, he came 30th in a class of 30 pupils. He fetched a razor blade and scratched off the ‘0’ in 30th, but forgot to change the ‘th’ to ‘rd’, such that his position read 3th instead of 30th or 3rd.

    By the time he got home and presented his report card, the evidence that he had tampered with his position was so overwhelming that even a blind illiterate would notice. My father was too smart to know that there is no such thing as 3th position. Besides, the spot from which he scratched off the ‘0’ was not only rough, it also left a space that any blind man would notice. His aggregate score was simply too low to merit the third position. The remarks by the class teacher and the headmaster also did not help matters, as both of them described his performance as woeful. Convinced that my brother had compounded failure with forgery, my father could not resist the urge to flog him until he gasped for breath.

    I have not taken time to seek my brother’s opinion of President Goodluck Jonathan, but I am almost certain that he would wish the President were his father in those heady days. Were that the case, he would not have needed to go through the hassle of altering his position in such an untidy manner. Like Governor Jonah Jang did after losing the chairmanship election of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum to Governor Rotimi Amaechi, my brother would simply have gone home and claim that he came first from behind, and the President would have celebrated him the same way he is celebrating the man that claimed victory with 16 votes in an election his opponent scored 19!

    Indeed, given the way he has handled many critical national issues as the President, I am convinced that my siblings and I would have escaped many of the strokes we received as children, if President Jonathan were our father. A man who would indulge former Bayelsa State Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha with presidential pardon after he was tried and convicted for looting the state’s treasury, jumping bail in the UK and subjecting the entire nation to international disgrace will certainly bat no eyelid to overlook many of the offences for which our buttocks were whacked. If on the other hand my father were the one in Jonathan’s shoes, many of the characters who are flaunting power and parading themselves as the President’s men today would be rotting away in jail.

  • Jonathan okays DPR Director’s, Shippers’ Council boss appointments

    Jonathan okays DPR Director’s, Shippers’ Council boss appointments

    President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday approved the appointment of Mr. George Abiodun Osahon as the new Director of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and Mr. Hassan Bello as the substantive Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Shippers Council.

    President’s Special Adviser on Media & Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, disclosed this in a statement to The Nation.

    Osahon, who has over 30 years experience in the petroleum sector is to replace the incumbent Director of the DPR, Mr. Osten Olorunsola, who was appointed to the position in 2011.

    Previous positions held by the new DPR Director include Group General Manager – National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), Managing Director – Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) and Managing Director of Energia. He is currently the Managing Director of Geo-Concept Technical Limited. He hails from Edo State.

    Osahon is expected to reposition the DPR and enhance the department’s ability to address the critical challenges of regulating the upstream and downstream sectors of Nigeria’s petroleum industry, and enforcing the provisions of the country’s petroleum laws.

    President Jonathan has also approved the appointment of Mr. Hassan Bello as the substantive Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Shippers Council.

    Bello, who held the position in an acting capacity until now, was the council’s Director of Legal Services.

  • Jonathan mourns late national anthem composer

    President Goodluck Jonathan has commiserated with the family, colleagues, associates and friends of the composer of Nigeria’s National Anthem, Pa Benedict Odiase, who died on Wednesday.

    In his condolence message,  President Jonathan said the late police officer, who was the Director of the Nigerian Police Band until he retired in 1992, will always be remembered and honoured whenever the National Anthem which captures the vision of Nigeria as a great nation is played.

     He urged Pa Odiase’s family, former colleagues in the police and friends across the country to be consoled by the knowledge that the late police officer lived an exemplary life, and in passing on, bequeathed an indelible legacy to the nation.

     

  • Silence without peace

    Silence without peace

    How did it happen that when President Goodluck Jonathan announced a state of emergency in three states, we as a collective did not ask if it already existed?

    Did we ponder the meaning of the term in law and even in common parlance? Or did we queue behind him simply because we believed that an urgent step was required and so we fell prey to a language that obfuscated the facts?

    Did the President take advantage of a fretting people, famished for some kind of final solution to the Boko Haram problem? So, was it a new state of emergency or was it a deft political move to entrap an alienated citizenry in thrall of a ruthless answer couched in theatre?

    These are emotional times for Nigeria. Chambers of reason are frying thin from the embers of passion. Before the presidential broadcast, the presupposition was that he would slam the emergency and dislodge the governors. He has not tempered with the democratic structures, although he sounded an ominous note that pundits and the political class have ignored. He said the governors would remain in the meantime. We hope, for the sake of democracy, that he does not extend his now-excited fangs to defy the constitution that grants him no such powers.

    So, the only thing the President has done that defines this version of a state of emergency is to increase the troop presence and extend the curfew time. Otherwise, nothing has changed in essence. The Joint Task Force has been as ruthless in hounding the fanatical hoodlums. Now, the intensity has gone up some notches.

    So, let us not be hoodwinked by any sort of rhetorical change. What is important in the war against the tyrants of spirits, as I characterise the wayward insurgents, is the primacy of intelligence. Right from the outset of the conflict, we have failed to do two things. One, the Federal Government has never addressed the issue of the killing of the founder of the lethal group, Mohammed Yusuf. Two, and more importantly, the government has failed to put in place, in spite of huge budgets for security, a viable and working intelligence network to root out the vermin at the bottom of the crisis.

    The consequence has been serious. If Yusuf was killed, and no court has received and adjudicated on the matter, how do we expect the group, vicious as it is, to feel entitled to justice? In its alienation, it has decided to take justice in its hands. This explains, in part, their primitive rages, although it does not justify it.

    Partly related to this is the hysteria of vengeance during the 2011 campaigns when threats hit the air that if a northerner did not win, the nation would know no peace. This has shown a northern elite encouragement, if not complicity, in the sectarian outrage in the past few years. The complicity – of men like Muhammadu Buhari and Adamu Ciroma – has not been proved. But that was the anchor of the reprisal comments from special adviser to the president, Kingsley Kuku, and ex-militant Mujahid Asari-Dokubo. They had warned that if Jonathan did not win, peace would not be guaranteed in the land. The hoary and bemused illogic of E.K. Clark followed with his reference to the northern threat in 2011 as excuse for the rants of the two men. This was a case of foolishness answering to foolishness. Neither side had wisdom, but a rascally display of street urchin thirst for chaos.

    The point is we did not as a people address the issue of the northern threat in 2011. Was it a lack of political will, or was it the failure of the President, after assuming power, to address the subterranean malice from the North? President Jonathan failed to do two things. One, he did not attack the threat head on; rather he hid under a horrendous fatalism when he asserted that Boko Haram would disappear someday.

    Two, after a self-proclaimed pan-Nigerian mandate, the President did not extend an olive branch to the North. That is the spirit of victory. As Churchill famously asserted, “In war, resolution; in victory, magnanimity.” There was open gloating from Clark and some Jonathan court jesters.

    In the intervening period, we saw that monster of violence grow. Rather than act, the Presidency became wrapped in fear, shutting inside Aso rock all ceremonies of symbol and grandeur, including the Independence day celebrations.

    All these while, we expected the Presidency to ensure a working intelligence team. We cannot wage a successful war without intelligence. No war, whether between states or between a state and insurgents, ever succeeds without intelligence. In fact, superior intelligence bests superior weapons.

    The northern elite kept mum while it grew, hoping it would cripple the Jonathan administration. After a while, they themselves saw that the Frankenstein wonder had morphed into a Frankenstein monster. They, too, were hostage. Mary Shelly’s novel, Frankenstein, produced a more humane monster than this one. The northern elite did not understand that even if the North had power, it needed a country to govern.

    Jonathan did not understand that he was not only President, but the commander in chief. It was a lack of vision of his office, a pathetic surrender that allowed the monster to burn churches, slay priests, burn police stations, murder marquee personalities and subaltern citizens.

    The President, corralled in Aso Rock, would not travel to the trouble spots. He only did that recently. When he did, he failed to make an inroad into their hearts. A nervous president bullied his hosts. He did not take advantage of the chance to empathise with the disinherited and wounded in the place. Rather, he celebrated improvements in Yobe and Adamawa, two states where he has now slammed the emergency.

    This is the story of how the matter degenerated to have ‘warranted’ the declaration of state of emergency. So, whose fault was it that the matter came to this sanguinary pass? While we can blame many forces – the northern elite and politicians, etc – we also know that the leadership was absent or inept while the monster got out of hand. Security is not a governor’s responsibility but the president’s, according to the constitution. He declared the emergency because he had failed. It was a nervous statement of impotence.

    The President does not have all the blame, but the greatest chunk of it lies at his doorstep. He it is who should provide intelligence. He has failed there. In the early days of the insurgency, the intelligence community would have played a role in distinguishing the insurgents from the society. They would have befriended the community early. They failed there. Rather, soldiers became another monster, working without knowledge but fear. So they attack innocents and culprits alike. The result is alienation of those who would have helped to provide the right information to the problem.

    So, the declaration was, as this paper noted in its editorial, Jonathan’s last card. But he is still working without any improved intelligence. So, what we shall see is force without knowledge. Will that solve the problem or pacify the community, where the majority sees both Boko Haram and the JTF as problems. They see the JTF as neither kin nor kind but kindlers of fear. Boko Haram is kin but unkind.

    My fear is that this might achieve quiet without peace. After the state of emergency, shall we find love in that community? Or else, we want the emergency to last forever, which is impossible.

  • The changing face of terrorism

    The changing face of terrorism

    President Goodluck Jonathan has declared a state of emergency in three north-eastern states as militant Islamists intensify their offensive against the government.

    The insurgency, led by Boko Haram, has killed some 2,000 people since 2009. It has spread across the mainly Muslim north and central Nigeria.

    With the attacks becoming increasingly sophisticated, there is growing concern that Boko Haram is receiving backing from al-Qaeda-linked militants in other countries.

    Here, we focus on the changing nature of the conflict.

    May 2013

    Boko Haram has increased its focus on smaller towns in north-eastern Nigeria in recent months after the military drove many of its fighters out of Maiduguri – the capital of Borno State, which was the group’s main base.

    Boko Haram militants have since infiltrated nearby towns, with little resistance from the army.

    In a well-planned attack on 7 May 2013 in Bama, some 70km (44 miles) from Maiduguri, about 200 heavily armed men stormed a military barracks, police station and government buildings.

    Five-five people were killed and 105 prisoners were freed in the raids. Significantly, the militants launched the attack in armoured vehicles mounted with machine guns.

    It suggests that they are becoming better-resourced and they can adapt to the changing terrain. Easy to use motorcycles are the trademark for Boko Haram attacks in cities.

    The Bama violence came a few weeks after Boko Haram attacked a military patrol in Baga, a nearby town in which it is said to have also built a presence, forcibly recruiting youth into its ranks.

    The military retaliated by launching a raid on the town, accusing residents of harbouring the militants.

    Nearly 200 people died in the raid, and thousands of buildings were destroyed, leading to claims by rights groups that the military had used excessive force – an allegation it has repeatedly faced as it tries to quell the insurgency launched in 2009.

    The army denied the allegation, and blamed Boko Haram for the deaths of 37 people.

    First ‘slaves captured’: May 2013

    Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau released a video on 13 May 2013, saying Boko Haram had taken women and children – including teenage girls – hostage in response to the arrest of its members’ wives and children.

    It is unclear whether the hostages are the relatives of government officials or civilians.

    Mr Shekau said the hostages would be treated as “slaves”, fuelling concern that Boko Haram is adhering to the ancient Islamic belief that women captured during war are slaves with whom their “masters” can have sex.

    First cross-border raid and kidnapping: February 2013

    Now established in remote areas close to Nigeria’s north-eastern border, Boko Haram launched its first operation in neighbouring Cameroon in February 2013.

    ts fighters abducted French nationals as they were returning from a visit to Waza National Park.

    The French family of seven, including four children aged between five and 12, were freed some two months later.

    A Nigerian government report, seen by Reuters news agency, said Boko Haram was paid a ransom of more than $3m (£2m) to release the hostages.

    The French and Cameroonian governments denied any ransom was paid.

    This was the first time Boko Haram had said that it had taken hostages. Another northern Nigerian Islamist group, Ansaru – which was formed in 2012 and is believed to have links to al-Qaeda – has been involved in abducting foreigners.

    It is unclear where Boko Haram held the French family captive; some analysts believe it was in one of the towns which fell under the militants’ control this year.

    First mosque bombing: 2012

    A suicide bomber detonated himself at a mosque in Maiduguri in July 2012, after Friday prayers. His target was believed to have been the most senior Muslim cleric in Borno, Alhaji Abubakar Umar Garbai El-Kanemi. He narrowly escaped death, but five other worshippers were killed.

    Boko Haram did not comment on the attack, but many residents believed that the suicide bomber came from its ranks and the attack was aimed at eliminating or intimidating moderate clerics opposed to the group.

    In a second attack a few weeks later, a suicide bomber tried to kill the traditional leader of the Fika emirate in Yobe state, Alhaji Muhammed Abali Ibn Mohammed Idrisa. The bomber blew himself up after he was confronted by bodyguards.

    The attack on Mr Idrissa did not come as a surprise, as he is a former state security officer.

    In January 2012, Boko Haram carried out its bloodiest assault in a single day – the killing of about 185 people in co-ordinated bombing and gun attacks across Kano, the biggest city in the north with a majority Muslim population.

    First suicide bombing: 2011

    In June 2011, a suicide bomber rammed a car into the police headquarters in the capital, Abuja, killing eight people.

    The bomber is alleged to have joined the convoy of then-police chief Gen Hafiz Ringim, before detonating himself.

    Gen Ringim was later sacked, as critics rounded on him for his failure to protect the heart of Nigeria’s security establishment, let alone the rest of the country.

    Some two months after the bombing, Boko Haram attacked the UN headquarters in Abuja, killing 23 people.

    It was the first time the group had hit a foreign target. It released a video, describing the UN as a “forum of all the global evil” and offering praise for Osama Bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader killed by US special forces in Pakistan.

    This was the clearest indication that Boko Haram saw itself as part of a global jihadist movement, though some analysts believe its roots can be traced to 2001 when a group calling itself the Taleban emerged in northern Nigeria in response to the US military campaign in Afghanistan following the al-Qaeda-linked attacks in New York and Washington in the same year.

    First Christmas bombings: 2010

    At least 32 people were killed in bomb blasts targeting churches on Christmas Eve 2010 in central Plateau state, which straddles Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north and the Christian south.

    Christmas Day services were also targeted in 2011, killing dozens of people just outside Abuja and other cities.

    There have been many other attacks on churches, including an Easter bomb attack in the northern city of Kaduna in 2012. At least 41 people were killed.

    The attacks have forced many churches to tighten security, and some have even banned women from carrying hand bags.

    In June 2011, a suicide bomber rammed a car into the police headquarters in the capital, Abuja, killing eight people.

    The bomber is alleged to have joined the convoy of then-police chief Gen Hafiz Ringim, before detonating himself.

    Gen Ringim was later sacked, as critics rounded on him for his failure to protect the heart of Nigeria’s security establishment, let alone the rest of the country.

    Some two months after the bombing, Boko Haram attacked the UN headquarters in Abuja, killing 23 people.

    It was the first time the group had hit a foreign target. It released a video, describing the UN as a “forum of all the global evil” and offering praise for Osama Bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader killed by US special forces in Pakistan.

    This was the clearest indication that Boko Haram saw itself as part of a global jihadist movement, though some analysts believe its roots can be traced to 2001 when a group calling itself the Taleban emerged in northern Nigeria in response to the US military campaign in Afghanistan following the al-Qaeda-linked attacks in New York and Washington in the same year.

    First Christmas bombings: 2010

    At least 32 people were killed in bomb blasts targeting churches on Christmas Eve 2010 in central Plateau state, which straddles Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north and the Christian south.

    Christmas Day services were also targeted in 2011, killing dozens of people just outside Abuja and other cities.

    There have been many other attacks on churches, including an Easter bomb attack in the northern city of Kaduna in 2012. At least 41 people were killed.

    The attacks have forced many churches to tighten security, and some have even banned women from carrying hand bags.

    Launched in 2002, Boko Haram – which in the local Hausa language means “Western education is forbidden”, a reference to the initial focus of its Islamist agenda – became a force to be reckoned with in 2009 when it raided police stations and government buildings in Maiduguri, and other northern cities.

    Hundreds of people were killed in the ensuing clashes between the security forces and its members.

    Soldiers raided Boko Haram’s headquarters, an Islamic centre in Maiduguri where children from poor families, including those from neighbouring Chad and Niger, enrolled for religious studies, only to be recruited as fighters.

    When the security forces seized control of the centre, they captured its leader, Mohammed Yusuf, who then died in police custody.

    The military declared victory over Boko Haram, only to find the group reorganising itself under the leadership of Abubakar Shekau, who took it on a more militant path in the campaign to establish a puritanical Islamic state across Nigeria.

    •Source:BBC