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Tag: mess

  • Why policemen may continue to live in mess

    Why policemen may continue to live in mess

    President Goodluck Jonathan made an unscheduled visit to the Police College, Ikeja, Lagos after watching a Channels Television clip on the squalid conditions at the training institute. He was furious. But that was just a tip of the iceberg. What will he do if he visits the barracks? The condition of police barracks across the country leaves nothing to desire. Yet, there is a controversy over who should pay contractors to renovate the barracks, report Gbade Ogunwale (Abuja), Leke Salaudeen, Bisi Oladele (Ibadan), Kolade Adeyemi (Kano), Precious Dike (Port Harcourt), Yusuf Aminu–Idegu (Jos), Damisi Ojo (Akure), Tony Akowe (Kaduna) and Adekunle Jimoh (Ilorin).

    Littered in every available space, including under staircases, are various sizes of mattresses, sleeping mats, buckets and other personal effects belonging to stranded policemen attached to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Police Command. Many of these officers have been in Abuja for months and there is no accommodation for them in the barracks. So, they make the police command their squatters’ paradise.

    The situation is not peculiar to Abuja. In almost all the police commands in the country, from Lagos to far-flung Borno State, the situation is the same.

    For those who even have rooms in the barracks, they might as well be living in open-roof houses. The Nation’s investigations across the country reveal decay occasioned by years of neglect by the authorities.

    At the various barracks, the structures are dilapidated from foundation to the roof. Owing to wear and tear, one can hardly make out the original colours the weather beaten structures were painted in. The environment depicts a mixture of organic and human waste caked up by the harsh, blazing sun. Separating the various apartments are streams of dark coloured, viscous and slimy fluids oozing lazily by. The putrid stench that assails the nasal passage can constitute a health hazard.

    No rehabilitation has been done on many of the structures since they were built several years ago. The Presidential Committee on Police Barracks Rehabilitation seems to have gone into sleep. Contracts were awarded for the rehabilitation of the buildings, but the contractors do not seem to be making progress on the job, a development that has continued to be a source of worry to the policemen and their families living in such deplorable conditions.

    Contractors say the Ministry of Police Affairs and the Force Headquatres have been pushing them around over who should pay for the rehabilitation.

    Tale of neglect

    While the ministry and the

    Force headquatres seem

    confused about who should pay contractors for the rehabilitation, the barracks are sinking deeper into rot.

    The barracks at Ikeja are derelict, with the flats no longer suitable for human habitation. The walls are perforated. The pillars and deckings have signs of weakness written all over them. The plaster on the concrete is peeling off and the iron rods are becoming naked.

    The drains are silted, forcing waste water to find its level, thereby making the environment to stink. The sewage system has collapsed; the soak-away and septic tanks are not functioning; the pipes connecting the toilet with the chambers constitute an eye sore to visitors. Residents of the State Traffic Division (STD) B Operations Department Barracks are using pit latrines, which the Lagos State government outlawed over a decade ago. The facilities, built with iron sheets, could be taken for a shrine.

    There is no water supply into the quarters. The occupants rely on water vendors for their daily need. Overcrowding makes living in the barracks unbearable. Three families share a two-bedroom flat in some blocks, irrespective of gender and family size.

    The open gutters have become breeding ground for mosquitoes and this exposes residents to frequent malaria attacks.

    With no provision for the evacuation of refuse, the residents discharge their waste into the drains, thus clogging the channels. The stench oozing out of the drains is offensive to the nostrils.

    Despite the filthy environment, it is business-as-usual for the wives of policemen, who run restaurants and eating joints.

    The Iwo Road Barracks in Ibadan, located inside the Area Command, has cracks on its walls; the windows of the two-storey building are broken and the sanitation is appalling. The lack of routine maintenance makes it to look like a typical house in the slum. The barracks is home to the rank and file of the Force.

    The building, which houses no fewer than eight families on each floor, has an abandoned water tank in the front.

    At the Police Headquarters, Eleyele, where several of such buildings are located, the story is the same. The facilities are in a sorry state.

    For instance, the bathrooms in the two-room apartments are largely unkempt, making them to look like public toilets. Becuase the taps in the apartments dry, residents are left with no option but to go down the stairs to fetch water from a communal tap.

    It was learnt that occupants pay to fix facilities, such as electricity. Some of the vacant apartments have broken ceilings and their balconies stinks.

    In Kano, many officers elect to rent houses on their own, owing to dilapidated facilities within the barracks.

    A police officer attached to the Bompai Police Headquarters said: “Police men living in the barracks are suffering and smiling. In fact, apart from the security threat of the Boko Haram insurgence, I decided to park out from the barracks to rent an apartment for myself and family because I want to live long.

    “Our police barracks are in bad shape. They are an eyesore. They are practically inhabitable because of lack of maintenance and provision of basic facilities.

    “In fact, those of my colleagues still living the barracks do not have a choice, particularly the rank and file; because, there in the barracks, you still have the VIPs.”

    The MOPOL 9 Baracks at Hotoro Quarters is a replica of what obtains elsewhere, despite the fact that it belongs to the senior officers.

    There is not much difference at the Zone 1 Police Barracks. The structures are dilapidated and the roofs lick. Residents at the barracks complain of lack of access to potable water and epileptic power supply.

    In Plateau State, many of the barracks look like refugee camps. Yet, many officers do not even have space in the dungeon.

    The largest police barracks in Jos, “A’ Divisional Police Barracks” has been undergoing renovation since 2010. Some of the blocks at the barracks now have modern aluminum roofs and have been repainted. The other facilities, such as toilets are unsightly. The environment stinks.

    The situation of most police barracks in Ondo State is not different from what is obtainable in other states.

    The barracks could pass for ghettos and shanties, as they lack the basic amenities to make life meaningful for its inhabitants

    The ‘A Division’ and the MOPOL barracks along Oba-Ile in Akure are in a terrible state. For instance, the A Division Barracks in Akure is in a sorry state with no potable water. A large portion of the two-storey building is completely abandoned, after it reportedly gutted fire several years ago.

    In Kaduna, majority of police personnel live in rented apartments. Those who are privileged to live in the barracks, spread across the metropolis are not excited to live there. Many of the facilities cannot be described as habitable. The one located close to the St Gerard Catholic Hospital, in Kaduna, have recently received attention. Many others, including the Kawo Police Barracks, have not received any form of renovation for a long time. The Nation gathered that the barracks were supposed to have benefited from the barrack renovation scheme under the Presidential Committee on Police Barracks, but only a few of the houses and the institutions were actually renovated.

    A source within one of the barracks told The Nation that “some of these buildings were built before independence and many of them are just single rooms, while some others are two rooms. There was no provision for the extended family.

    “That is why you have a lot of makeshift structures within the barracks. If you go to the Gabasawa Police Barracks, you will discover that what would have served as the balcony for the houses have been converted to rooms constructed mainly with plywood and that is where the children of the policemen and their extended families are living. This is not healthy.”

    The J.P Clark’s popular poem on ‘Ibadan’ which reads “Running splash of rust and gold, flung and scattered among seven hills like broken china in the sun,” succinctly captures the pathetic state of the barracks in Kwara State. Many of the buildings have known better days. Stench wafting from silted drains and soak-aways assail the nostrils of visitors to the ‘A Division’ of the Police Barracks, on the popular Ajase-Ipo road in Ilorin, the Kwara State.

    Rehabilitation a huge joke

    One of the contractors handling

    part of the barracks rehabilita

    tion contracts said the project has become a huge joke. The contractor, who did not want his name published for fear of victimisation, said the Preseidential Committee has not been fair to the contractors. He said nothing would be achieved at the end of the day.

    Paucity of funds, he said, has been the major challenge. He added that some of the contractors, who borrowed funds to implement the project are alrready blaming themselves.

    He said: “The truth is that I don’t see the project achieving the desired results. I even doubt if the Federal Government itself expected any result from the exercise. They are not releasing funds to mobilise the contractors. Those who borrowed money to do part of the job are regretting our actions. As I am talking to you, some contractors have developed various kinds of ailments arising from the disappointment and the pressure being mounted on them by their creditors, including banks. As a matter of fact, I am aware that one or two of the contractors died while pursuing payments for the jobs handled by their firms.”

    Buck-passing game

    The Nation gathered that the rehabilitation contracts were

    awarded between 2009 and 2010. Curiously, the question of who is responsible for payments to contractors has become a subject of buck passing between the Force Headquarters and the Ministry of Police Affairs.

    Deputy Force Public Relations Officer Frank Mba said he was not competent to speak on the matter. In a telephone conversation on Monday, Mba said his brief stops at routine operational and administrative matters concerning the Force Headquarters. He advised The Nation to direct its inquiry to “those whose responsibility it is to pay the contractors”.

    But a source at the Force Headquarters said payments for police contracts, including the ones for barracks rehabilitation, are being handled by the Police Affairs Ministry.

    The source said: “There is no office at the Force Headquarters that pays contractors. All contractors are paid by the ministry. Even petty contracts awarded by the Force Headquarters are verified by officials from the ministry before payments are made. It is the ministry that exercises absolute control over police contracts. Even allowances and estacodes of police officers going on courses are being processed and paid by the ministry. Only funds meant for salaries are disbursed by the Force Headquarters.”

    Last September, contractors under the aegis of the Association of Police Contractors protested at the Police Affairs Ministry over the N7.4 billion allegedly owed them by the police since 2008.

    The group, in a letter signed by its Chairman, Patrick Ojo and Secretary, Aloysius Okonkwo, asked the National Assembly and the Finance Ministry to prevail on Inspector-General of Police Mohammed Abubakar and Police Affiars Minister Caleb Olubolade to use their quarterly allocations to offset the debt.

    The group lamented that despite several appeals and meetings with Olubolade and the IG, “no concrete effort has been made to correct the unwholesome system of funds and project management in both the police force and the ministry”.

    The contractors said: “This action smacks of gross insensitivity, recklessness and an attempt to further impoverish and pauperise our members. The action of the Ministry of Police Affairs and the Nigerian Police in handling the problem is at variance with the Bureau of Public Procurement Act.”

    The contractors also claimed that two of their members died due to frustration-induced stress, high blood pressure and stroke.

    Police Affairs Minister Caleb Olubolade said the contracts were awarded by the Force Headquarters. He said: “We are not the ones that award contracts for the rehabilitation of police barracks. So, you are asking the question from the wrong person. You have to take that question back to the Force Headquarters.

    “The Police Affairs Ministry only serves as a clearing house because vouchers for payment to contractors are usually raised at the Force Headquarters. The Ministry only ensures that due process is followed in the award of the contracts and that the contracts are executed to specifications.”

    Olubolade added that the contracts awarded by the Force Headquarters are in excess of available funds, thereby creating friction between the anxious contractors and the paying authority. The minister said contrary to the general belief that the ministry warehouses the total police budget, every police formation controls its budget.

    According to him, the ministry only gets its own budget and funds meant for police intervention projects under the Reform Programme.

    Olubolade said the Police Reform Committee is chaired by the Vice President, Namadi Sambo. He listed other members of the committee as the Minister of Finance, six state governors, minister of Police Affairs and representatives of the police.

    The minister continued: “Authority for the distribution, approval and disbursement of all appropriations for the police lies with the IGP who is the accounting officer of the Nigeria Police Force. The Ministry does not tamper with approvals and disbursements of police budgetary allocations, but only carries out its supervisory roles of ensuring that all financial regulations and statutory due processes are followed in the award and execution of contracts and fund allocations”. The minister expressed worry at the non payment for contracts awarded for the rehabilitation projects at various police barracks. To address the problem, the minister said he gave a directive at a meeting with stakeholders in October 2012 that incoming funds for barracks rehabilitation should be split on 60/40 percentage. The directive was that 40 percent of the funds should be used in paying outstanding liabilities for contractors, while 60 percent should go into rehabilitation project. “I also directed that contracts should be awarded according to available funds. But what is on ground today is a situation where the amounts of contracts already awarded exceeds the available funds.”

    The minister, who spoke with The Nation yesterday, said the priority of the Federal Government for now was how to tackle the insecurity in the land. According to him, attention is focused on how to address challenges like bombing, kidnapping and other security challenges, saying it is a case of competing demands in the face of limited funds.

    His ministry, he said, does not have a subhead for barracks rehabilitation in its budget. The ex Naval Chief added that available funds are being complemented by funding from the Police Reform Programme which was established in 2010. He added that even at that, funding from the programme, which comes in trickles, is mainly for training of police personnel and police training institutions like the Police Academy and Police Staff College.

    “There is dwindling funding from the Reform/Intervention Programme, which is making things a bit difficult. For instance, the budget for the Reform Programme for 2012 is merely N22 billion and we are not sure how much we are going to get from that amount at the end of the day,” he said.

    The sum of N65, 6 billion was budgeted for the Reform Programme in 2010; N17. 1 in 2011; and N12.3 in 2012 out of which only a fraction was released in all the instances. In view of the perennial shortfall in budget releases, the minister urged the Force Headquarters to prioritise its projects, stressing that the Force Headquarters has its own budgetary provision for the rehabilitation of barracks. The ministry put the total outstanding liabilities of the police to various contractors, including rehabilitation, at N26 billion.

    He attributed the distortions in funding of police projects to shortfall in budget releases, pointing out that just like other ministries and departments, both the police and the ministry do not get their full annual budgets released to them.

    By way of filling the resource gap in the funding of barracks rehabilitation project, the minister promised to make case for the project whenever the 2013 budget for the Reform Programme is released. He said: “If the police table barracks rehabilitation as their priority in the current year, we will make a case with the committee headed by the Vice-President for more funding in that direction. This will be in addition to the police budget for rehabilitation of the barracks. But let me make it clear that contrary to what members of the public believe, this ministry does not decide the fate of the police. They turn to us whenever they have specific challenges and we support them according to what available resources permit.”

    A document obtained by The Nation shows that budgetary allocations for police formations and commands are released directly to the Force Headquarters and that the budget section of the IGP’s office handles budgetary matters of the police, including allocation of funds and distribution to heads and sub-heads. The document also stated that capital budget allocation, distribution and utilisation are the sole responsibility of the Force Headquarters where approvals and contracts are carried out in line with extant rules on thresholds (approval limits). Payments are processed at the Force Headquarters accounts department after due approvals by the IGP.

    The document states that the IGP, through the budget section of his office, issues fund allocation instructions on overhead and personnel costs, which are decentralised to formations and commands.

    It was also discovered that approval limits for the Force Headquarters Tenders Board are N50 million for supplies of goods; N250 million for works; and N50 million for non-consultant and consultant services.

    These approval limits are said to be in line with the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF).

    “The authority for the distribution, approval and disbursement of all appropriations for the police lies with the IGP who is the accounting officer of the Nigeria Police Force.

    “The Ministry does not tamper with approvals and disbursements of police budgetary allocations, but only carries out its supervisory roles of ensuring that all financial regulations and statutory due processes are followed in the award and execution of contracts and fund allocations,” the document reads.”

    When reporters asked Abubakar on February 14 why the rehabilitation of police barracks could not be done through direct labour, as being done in respect of the transit camp around the Force headquatres, the IGP kept mum.

    Instead, he said the police institution under his leadership, will continue to ensure decent accommodation for police personnel.

    For now, the bad times for the officers who live in the barracks continue.

     

  • Making a mess of Mali

    Making a mess of Mali

    •In the space between Hades and Hell lies the reality of war

    Landlocked and straddling the edge of subsistence in the best of times, Mali has slipped into the lap of chaos. Trapped between the evil of the past and that of the present, the sleepy, bucolic state has transmogrified into a battlefield between the West and that which the West dreads: violent radicals seeking to establish a society based on a mutant understanding of Islam on any inch of dirt to which they are able to stake claim no matter how wretched the soil. Bit players in this showdown are the Malians themselves. The sad motif recurs. Once again, Africans become the dangling branches of a strange tree planted on their land. They are the recipients, not the makers, of their destiny.

    For decades, Mali complied with the neocolonial instructions of the western powers. The nation was heralded as a model of African development and democracy. Little of this was African and not too much of it was development or democracy. Having invested significantly in Mali, the West had to proclaim Mali worked well in order to vindicate the neoliberal molding of that nation’s political economy. The West dubbed the country a resounding success; the West was guilty of false advertisement. The nation’s progress was shallow and transient. Even this progress in miniature was not a homegrown, organic occurrence; it was imported in the briefcases and tutorials of Western subvention. In effect, Mali stood on borrowed legs. Borrowed limbs are never enough to prevent a tumble for the limbs always return to their master.

    The nation’s slow descent would have gone unattended by foreign hands but for the Libyan crisis. Libya represents an abject lesson in foreign policy humility. Libya should have remained an internal affair. Western claims that Gaddafi was intent on massacre in Benghazi is not substantiated by objective evidence. Gaddafi never threatened such a thing. The claim was a manufactured pretext for Western intervention to oust the hated dictator though he posed no threat beyond his borders.

    So confident in their superior power, Western nations believed they could firmly control the crisis and its aftermath. They were wrong. In operation were complex undercurrents and riptides the West did not even recognize, let allow comprehend. Gaddafi was a ruthless man whose rule constituted a grave disfavor to his people. A man who cannot govern his impulses cannot wisely govern a nation. Yet, he served as warden in a harsh, parlous neighborhood. His demise loosed destructive forces which he had contained despite his long tryst with mental derangement. These forces would leave Libya to find homestead in weak, decaying Mali.

    On one hand, Taureg irregulars from Mali had allied with Gaddafi. The dictator’s relationship with the Tauregs served both countries. It shored Gaddafi’s security machinery while being a release valve for Taureg separatist pressure in Mali. When Gaddafi fell, the Tauregs went home with war hot on their minds. Their return transformed meandering separatist activity into a purposeful, well-armed independence movement.

    So eager to undo Gaddafi, the West allied with radical Islamists to reach this goal. The union dissolved as quickly as it had come. With Gaddafi, the West was assured extreme Jihadists were not welcomed in Libya. Now that he is gone, violent radicals who once had no say now seek to control Libya and have poured into Mali for the same purpose.

    Although foes in Libya, Tauregs and Jihadists joined hands in Mali. Mainstream news reports claim the Jihadists have taken over the insurrection, embittering and sidelining the Tauregs in the process. These reports must be taken with a grain of suspicion. Dissension between the two groups has occurred but probably not to the extent the media claims. Reports of Taureg-Jihadist scrimmaging are infrequent and do not imply a total split. Moreover, it seems unlikely that ad-hoc contingents of foreign intruders could advance so adroitly over unknown terrain without significant local help.

    War often is bought on the cheap but its end always is a costly purchase. In this exchange, the world purchased war with Libya and acquired an unwanted one in Mali. For the West, this is a considerable mistake causing its nations to expend resources they would have rather kept inactive but on the ready. For Africa, the crisis is a bulging error. Supporting the West in a war that did not need fighting, sub-Saharan Africa has brought to its doorstep a war it must fight but one for which it is ill-suited.

    Opportunistically focusing on Mali, the Jihadists realized the country was a chicken ready for plucking. The government was in disarray and the army in tatters. Key Taureg commanders and soldiers had defected from the army to join league with their brethren returning from Libya. In an instant, the balance of military power had shifted in Mali. Regional and domestic dynamics had suddenly turned the low-simmering Taureg revolt into the dominant power. When Jihadists entered the fray, the balanced tipped more unfavorably against the demoralized government. In short order, the rebels seized the northern half of the nation and advanced toward a strategic airfield, important water and agricultural installations and ultimately, toward the capital. The demise of the government in Bamako seemed ordained. Enter the French to save its former ward.

    The previous years of western investment in Mali have come to naught. America has engaged in the unreliable business of training West African militaries for years under the Trans-Saharan Counterterrorism Initiative, the precursor to today’s AFRICOM. Until the coup, the Malian army was considered one of its achievements. The coup calls into question the utility of American military training to the goal of democratization. After all, the putsch was engineered by a captain who had been one of the primary beneficiaries of intensive American training. Sad coincidence? Perhaps. More likely it is form of caveat emptor regarding struggling African nations and Western military training. Upon purchasing a rabid wolf, one must not be surprised or declaim too loudly when it rips at your leg.

    The struggle for Mali is now portrayed as one of democracy versus religious intolerance, the West against the Jihadists. This portrait ignores the genuine internal fissures that afflict Mali. Tauregs ignited this rebellion for reasons they believe important. Land and water grabs by Western and Libyan firms linked to the West threaten Taureg economic interests. Without settling these issues, the crisis in Mali will not be resolved. As long as Tauregs are disgruntled, Jihadists will find an alcove among them just as they do with frontier tribes in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen. Sadly, events have taken on such a martial trajectory that political discussions will be precluded for the time being.

    The French have rapidly deployed well over a thousand troops and have commended daily bombardment of the Islamists’ forward positions. This decision was not a sudden one. The French had a counteroffensive contingency plan on the ready. Paris hoped the Malian army would have been better at self-defense, thus making French direct intervention unnecessary. When the army crumpled like a cheap box, the French were forced to act.

    Once France made its dramatic entry, African nations were duty bound to follow. Yet, this situation gives sad testimony to the present state of many African nations. Instead of looking toward an independent future where the nation can plot its own way, Mali is left with the choice of falling into the hands of its colonial master or of falling prey to the excesses of vile zealots. No doubt, the former comes with strings attached. The latter comes with the danger that one’s head might be detached at the slightest perception of heresy.

    Consequently, the nation is left to choose between bad and worse.

    All of this places African nations in a diplomatic bind. The French objective is to stop extremists from gaining a toehold from where they can hatch plots against France. While this may give respite to Malians, French concern s more to stop the extremists than to help Mali out of the bog. However, ECOWAS’s objective is to restore the American dream of constitutional democracy and free markets to Malian soil. The French have firepower but a limited objective. ECOWAS has less firepower yet the larger objective.

    There will be friction between the two allies. This will be resolved to France’s liking. The military division of labor will be that France controls the airspace. French troops will protect Bamako and other strategic points. Some French troops will engage as skirmishers to halt radical advances and to probe for alleys of counterattack. The French are unlikely to commit themselves to a significant ground assault. In essence, the French are in a holding position. They are biding time for ECOWAS to deploy. Once deployed, ECOWAS troops will be expected to take the frontline to spearhead the decisive counteroffensive with the aid of Western aerial support. This accords with the division of labor used in Libya. Just as in Libya, the conflict in Mali will take months to determine if this truly becomes the division of military labor between the West and Africa. Such gradualism will heavily test the capacity of African nations but suits Western interests. The longer the war, the larger the profits for the Western military complex. Moreover, the weaker other African states become due to this exertion, the more leverage the West will have over them.

    Already, the trouble in Mali has not stayed in Mali. Mayhem has spilled into Algeria in dramatic and lethal fashion. The deadly hostage episode there will not be the last in that nation. Ironically, Libya announced it had closed the border with Mali due to the unrest. Tripoli apparently feared the desert winds would blow back into Libya the unrest Libya had chased into Mali. As such, the border closure is a sad joke. Additionally, the weakling Libyan government does not control the streets of its own capital. How does it think it can regulate a distant border separated by hundreds of miles of desolate sand, heat and lawlessness?

    Perhaps the most salient news this week was a CNN report confirming United States Defense Secretary Panetta’s previous statement that American unmanned drone bombers may soon fly Nigerian airspace. This confirms America sees a direct, growing link between Al Qaeda and Nigeria’s Boko Haram. Given the violence Boko Haram has unleashed on innocent people, the American position incites an emotional appeal. Hardliners and Old Testament, eye-for-an-eye apostles will applaud this move. Yet, the logic behind it is deceptive and dangerously so. The policy’s bottom line is to kill Boko Haram leaders in retribution for their murder of the innocent. This is easy to conceive but nigh impossible to implement simultaneously with precision and decisive effect.

    Pakistan and Afghanistan are the laboratories were drone experiments have been conducted the longest. The drone campaigns have succeeded in killing thousands of people, many of them the intended terrorist targets. But many have been unarmed innocents whose only crime was to reside in close proximity to the bombs’ targets. Despite the years of strikes, neither Pakistan nor Afghanistan is better off. Both are rife with violence. For every terrorist slain, another is recruited. The same goes for Yemen and Somalia. While effective tactical killing machines, drones have demonstrated only negligible strategic value in defeating the organizations of terrorism.

    In Nigeria, terrorist leaders hide in more urbanized, densely populated areas than in Pakistan and Afghanistan. If drones are used in this environment, more innocents will be killed here than in the other nations. Yet, like Pakistan and Afghanistan, it is unlikely the drones will decapitate the target organization.

    Resort to drones only makes strategic sense based on the conclusion that Boko Haram will collapse if a few key members are silenced. However, if Boko Haram is an amorphous affiliation of gangs and sub-sets, drones will do no better in Nigeria than in Pakistan. Instead, constant bombings will raise anti-Western sentiment to a higher pitch. For every innocent person killed, two will come to sympathize with or join Boko Haram. The empirical evidence indicates that drones contribute to a war of attrition where the thing mostly attrited is peace. Drone use tends to radicalize populations affected by the bombing. Tactical kills are registered but the objective of ending terrorism grows more distant because bombing is reviled by the people on the ground. This is the human factor that drone advocates ignore. Ending an insurgency is predicated on shifting the goodwill of the people away from the insurgents. Yet, assassination by drone is a campaign more vindictive than victorious. If drones are deployed, America would have tossed the hearts and minds of the people into the gutter.

    Should Defense Secretary Panetta have his way, planes dispensing death will soon be overhead in northern Nigeria. These planes belong to a military superior to any in Africa. That foreign military will decide which Nigerian is a terrorist and will make the decision based on secret factors of which no Nigerian will be aware. This will take place in the skies over Africa’s strongest nation. To say that colonialism is dead is to mouth one of the world’s seven greatest fables and no one presently remembers the other six.

    In the early 20th century, the gunboat was the preferred instrument of strong-arm diplomacy. In the early 21st century, the gunboat has been supplanted by an unmanned aerial assassin, the drone. While the devices have changed, the mean calculations rationalizing their usage remain constant. Scientific man has advanced but political man remains a beast that prowls on all fours. He perverts science to create machines that fulfill selfish objectives more incarnadine than intelligent, more feral than fine.

    Africa has entered a dangerous period. Mali is the first nation forced to walk the slim precipice between the neocolonial interests of the West and the rapine ways of extreme Jihadists. Instead of determining its own fate, an African nation once again has become the playground for the machinations of others. Sadly, Mali will not be last of our nations made to take the dire walk. The weaker the nation and its institutions, the more likely it will be to fall into the swell. This is a moment for the nations of the continent to marshal their scarce resources to take the lead in rescuing Mali and not merely trying to hold the extremists to a stalemate. It is beyond time for the nations to marshal their diplomatic courage, wisdom and foresight to forge a coordinated, strategic response to the twin dangers (neocolonial encroachment versus jihadist chaos) made manifest by the Malian crisis. The time is late. Soon the clock strikes twelve.

     

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  • Nigeria is in a mess, says Emir

    The Emir of Zuru in Kebbi State, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Sani Sami (Sani Gomo II), yesterday gave a damning verdict on the state of the nation.

    He said: “Nigeria, in reality, is in a mess and is plunging into confusion.”

    The monarch spoke at the palace of the Otaru of Auchi, Etsako West Local Government in Edo State, during the 16th Auchi Day celebration.

    He noted that all aspects of Nigeria’s existence, including its peace and unity, are under threat.

    The retired general said nobody can predict what will happen to the nation if Nigeria is allowed to break up.

    According to him, the derailment from the cardinal principles of the nation’s foundation plunged Nigeria into socio-economic and political upheaval.

    Gen. Sami said the socio-economic and political atrophy weighing down the nation was not sectional but the result of parochial selfish interest.

    He added: “I do not understand why Nigerians should try to destroy Nigeria and believe erroneously that God will save Nigeria. We Nigerians try to wreck Nigeria. We should also know that only us can salvage Nigeria.

    “The sorry state of the nation, or its perilous state, can only be traced to ourselves. We neglect the fundamental reasons for the existence of Nigeria as a country. We threw away the binding principles that brought us all together.

    “We must change our attitude and resolve to respect the principles that gave rise to the emergence of the Nigerian experiment. Our leaders and the led should humble themselves and avoid being guided by corrupt and nepotism.”

    The emir urged traditional rulers to call Nigerian leaders to order to ensure better governance.

    According to him, it was monarchs that cleansed the nation’s mess, which has enabled the government of the day to survive.

    The Chief Imam of the Lagos State House of Assembly’s mosque, Sheikh Abdul-Lateef Abdul-Hakim, in a lecture, entitled: Programming a community for eternal purity, progress and prosperity, urged religious leaders with the fear of God to participate in politics.

    He said those killing in the name of religion are ignorant of the teachings Islam.

    The Imam said Nigeria could be prosperous without reviewing the current constitution.

    According to him, Nigerian leaders only need to abide by its content and implement it with the fear of God.

    Abdul-Hakim said only Section 6 (6c) of the Constitution needs a review.

    Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole said Nigeria has a leadership challenge.

    The governor said it is unfortunate that Nigerians lament their woes instead of tackling them.

    He noted that Nigeria can achieve greatness as a nation, even if some people cannot see the way forward.

    Oshiomhole promised to focus on politics of progress and development and not divisive politics.

    He added that his administration would bring more development to Auchi kingdom.

    The Otaru of Auchi, Alhaji Aliru Momoh, said the celebration was to bring the people together to praise God and plan the growth of the community.