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Tag: nobel laureate

  • Malala launches school to mark 18 birthday

    Malala launches school to mark 18 birthday

    Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest-ever Nobel Peace laureate, Malala Yousafzai, on Sunday launched a Secondary school to mark her 18th birthday.

    Malala inaugurated the school as a way of supporting Syrian refugee girls in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, near Syria’s border.

    The Nobel Laureate, who survived a Taliban gunshot to the head in 2012 as she returned home from school on a bus with her classmates in northern Pakistan, has since become a female education activist.

    The newly inaugurated school has the capacity to serve more than 200 Syrian girls between ages 14 and 18, according to the Malala Fund, known as Yousafzai’s nonprofit organization, dedicated to supporting the school.

    Malala schoolAccording to information made available on the fund’s online platform, “The new curriculum will enable students to receive their baccalaureate or vocational degrees through the Lebanese Ministry of Education and Higher Education or the Syrian equivalent.

    “Students unable to commit to the four-year baccalaureate training will participate in skills courses intended to help them find work and generate their own incomes.”

    Today’s school opening in Lebanon follows Yousafzai’s appearance at a Summit on Education in Oslo about a week ago, where she noted that her birthday was approaching: “My life of being a child will come to an end,” she had said while promising to continue to fight for the rights of children: “I think there’s no limit of age … to speak of children’s rights.

    “My father has been doing it as a teacher and I will continue to do it as a woman. As an adult, you can be the voice of children,” the Pakistani activist said.

    “I am honored to mark my 18th birthday with the brave and inspiring girls of Syria. I am here on behalf of the 28 million children who are kept from the classroom because of armed conflict. Their courage and dedication to continue their schooling in difficult conditions inspires people around the world and it is our duty to stand by them.

    “On this day, I have a message for the leaders of this country, this region and the world — you are failing the Syrian people, especially Syria’s children. This is a heartbreaking tragedy — the world’s worst refugee crisis in decades,” Malala said during the inauguration.

  • Soyinka to EFCC, ICPC, INEC: probe Ekiti rigging plot

    Soyinka to EFCC, ICPC, INEC: probe Ekiti rigging plot

    •Nobel laureate calls on EFCC, ICPC, INEC to probe Ekiti rigging plot

    The controversy triggered by the audio tape of how some politicians met with an Army General to plot the rigging of the June 21, 2014 governorship election in Ekiti State drew the reaction of Nobel laureate Prof Wole Soyinka reaction yesterday. In the literary icon’s view, democracy does not begin and end with the ballot box. He says the admission by all dramatis personae in the plot is enough ground to spur anti-corruption agencies and the electoral umpire into action.

    The “Advertorial” – full front page of Punch, February 23, 2015 – sponsored by Mr. Ayo Fayose (aka “No Apology”) deserves to succeed in its aim of putting an end to all disputes surrounding the Ekiti elections of June 21, 2014. After all, its entire page is dedicated to a press statement from the US (United States) Department of State, which purportedly endorses the results of that election, congratulates the electoral organisation, the winner/loser duo, not forgetting the security forces – all for their laudable contributions. The release could not be more timely; what with the governor’s own exhortations on the virtues of credibility, avoidance of violence, and its special appeal to “ALL THOSE WHO HAVE NOTHING TO HIDE.”

    It is that last item in the advertisement to which I am especially drawn, in view of an audio recording that has now become the latest marvel of democratic exposes, internationally. For those who have nothing to hide, disrobing lies and forgeries and reinforcing truth is regarded as part and parcel of the obligations we owe democracy.

    The audio could well be one of such forgeries. We are daily inundated with allegations, evasions, distortions, image plundering and image laundering, all under the permissive canopy of electoral proceeding. Once in a while however, we encounter exposure of an exceptional dimension that appears to strike at the very root of democracy, questions the validity of an entire electoral system and even erodes confidence in the integrity of the state. Such an event need not be regarded as a repudiation of the formal mechanics put in place by an electioneering agency such as INEC (Independent National Electoral Commission), but nonetheless extends the scope of its responsibilities, including its projection of looming hazards of future electoral exercises.

    This is why, in the absence of a constitutional court or its equivalent, one is left with no other course than to call on INEC to also take formal charge of the recorded incident of this alleged conspiracy to pervert the course of democracy. For those ‘who have nothing to hide’, it is a call that deserves unstinting support. They should not hesitate to assist in calling on the same U.S. expertise to assist us in exposing a forgery. We are speaking here of a development that implicates not only products, beneficiaries or would-be constitutional guardians of the electoral process – that is, an elected governor, a governorship aspirant, but also state agencies – the military, two serving ministers – that is, members of the executive arm of government, one of them in charge of the nation’s defence portfolio – and others.   In addition to the logical role of the police, the nation’s electoral commission should undertake an independent investigation and make its findings known to the nation. Is this perhaps something INEC can undertake while the nation waits out its suspended electoral sentence? It only requires repudiation – or validation – of the findings of an already advanced forensic enquiry.

    So also should the two anti-corruption agencies – the EFCC (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission) and the ICPC (Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission) – since material corruption is also implicit in the present instance.   At the fount of all electoral manipulation is the grim facilitator – money!  Here, for instance, is a lesson drawn from the travails of a former Inspector-General of Police in recent history.

    That scandal happened to coincide with a barely concluded electoral exercise, considered by some as a strong contestant for one of the most blatantly manipulated election in the nation’s history.  A number of bulging accounts had been traced to that Inspector-General of Police (IGP). During private discussions, I exhorted the then director of the EFCC to go beyond the sensational monetary finds and track each of them painstakingly back to source.  “If you succeed in that”, I urged Nuhu Ribadu (former chairman of the anti-graft agency), “you would have done more than merely expose institutional police corruption, you would have done inestimable service to the cause of democracy.

    “The IGP”, I insisted, “was a mere bag holder for electoral manipulators inhabiting the most rarefied levels of governance!”  I therefore pleaded with him not to stop at the prosecution and conviction of the sacrificial face – in effect, a scapegoat, albeit most willing – of that operation. This was equally my prayer to the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) during an Abuja lecture at the time.

    Anyone who disputes a robust connection between material and political corruption should reflect on the mild slap on the wrist that the IGP received for charges of misappropriation of such staggering dimensions.  Now it is the turn of the Army as facilitators for the alleged political crime.  Allied to this elite criminal corps – again, as alleged – was a former Chairman of the Senate Appropriation Committee turned governorship candidate. The evidence resides in the recording of a conspiracy against free and fair elections, later reinforced by a televised interview with the whistleblower – a military intelligence officer. That recording has been heard by millions all over the world – governments, human rights organisations, election monitoring groups, business individuals, and even those merely seeking real-life variants on improbable Nollywood fare. The alleged crime is in global domain.

    Let no one attempt to facilitate the rampaging course of impunity by brushing this aside as just another electoral malpractice – no, in my layman estimation, this approaches criminal subversion and treason.  The accusation is blatant and the demand for rigorous investigation must remain unrelenting. The accounts of the inculpated General and others should be subjected to the same scrutiny as those of the earlier cited IGP. And so on, and so clamorous! Those who have nothing to fear can sleep easy.

    If the formal agencies fail, then citizens must learn to assert their right of access to truth. As is the practice in other societies, a citizens’ trial can be instituted, experts co-opted, and both accusers and accused invited to testify. Even the venue does not have to be internal, since witnesses may require protection. Democracy does not begin or end with the ballot box, nor is it confined to national boundaries. There is no assertion anywhere yet of a “Case Proven”, no rush to judgment, simply a craving – as urged in the said governor’s advertorial – to let “facts speak for themselves!”

  • Nobel laureate playing the ostrich, says Presidency

    Jonathan’s Special Assistant on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, described Prof. Wole  Soyinka’s allegations as ”sad and unfortunate”.

    The Presidency said it had observed that the close relationship between Soyinka and Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi has beclouded Soyinka’s contributions to national discourse.

    “Our eminent professor also sadly plays the ostrich as he failed to reprimand Governor Amaechi, who is the ‘national champion of impunity and official recklessness’.

    “The administration of President Goodluck Jonathan prides itself as the most liberal, keeping faith with adherence to rule of law and tolerance,”  Okupe added.

    He said  Soyinka chose to ignore what he termed the immoral, indefensible and unlawful attitude of House of Representatives Speaker Aminu Tambuwal after his defection.

    He accused Soyinka of maligning Inspector General of Police Abba who, he said, only discharged his lawful duties.

  • Of the nobel laureate and the emerging emperor

    Of the nobel laureate and the emerging emperor

    From Adamawa to Nasarawa, from Edo to Rivers, and presumably to many other destinations yet unknown, President Jonathan’s paid agents are on the loose

    “Amid the swirling mess in Berlin of political intrigue, rumours, and disorder, the SA, the Nazi storm troopers, stood out as an ominous presence. In the spring of 1932, many in the German democratic government came to believe the Brown shirts were about to take over by force’.

    The last time I saw Professor Wole Soyinka, the Nobel Laureate, up close, was when he visited with his young protégé, the Ekiti State governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, at Ado-Ekiti sometime in 2011, shortly before the general elections of that year. Naturally in tow, were his younger friends – Drs Yemi Ogunbiyi and Olu Agunloye. As we sat at breakfast that morning ra-con-teur-ing over a wide canvass, a lot was going through my mind. Suppose the Nigerian  military buccaneers had seen the last of this gem of a man;  suppose he had not survived his many incarcerations, suppose Abacha had been able to feed his flesh to marine creatures or just suppose that goggled butcher  had succeeded in making ‘Beokuta, in  faraway West Indies, his resting place as he once conjectured. Suppose, suppose, suppose. My reverie was interrupted when his son showed up with dad’s coffee which has to be ‘cooked’ in a special way and I just wondered which of his wine or coffee he liked better the way he relished and doted on it.

    At 80, Professor Wole Soyinka, a world citizen in his own right, can be said to have seen the world, if you will pardon the tautology.  He is every mother’s child, the type a father goes on his knees everyday praying to sire. He could also, with ample justification, be said to have impacted life to the limit though the way Nigeria is going, with the president eagerly being made into something of a rambunctious  emperor, we may still, and very soon too, see the Laureate again at the barricades.  In the hope that good sense will prevail and the president will himself see the rocky road selfish politicians after their own ‘stomach infrastructure’ are egregiously dragging him, and beat a retreat for the sake of Nigeria, here is wishing the Lion a happy birthday and many happy returns.

    No two historical epochs are exactly the same but events in our country in recent times have sent me hurrying back to my history books to familiarise myself again with the history of Germany, especially between the years 1932 -34; a period which saw a former Austrian Corporal become the Führer of Germany, with dire consequences for Germany and the entire world.  When at a church service in September, 2011 President Goodluck Jonathan told Nigerians he was neither a Pharaoh nor a General, little did we know that the pious product of the ‘doctrine of necessity,’ for whom democracy activists lined the barricades when he was being severally upended, would one day mutate to worse, to become like the proverbial bull in a china shop.  And to imagine that Nigerians are only just beginning to see the very genesis of a metamorphosis that has the distinct possibility of atomising this country beyond recognition!

    From Adamawa to Nasarawa, from Edo to Rivers,  and  presumably to  many other destinations yet unknown, President Jonathan’s paid  agents  are  on the loose, feverishly  impeaching state governors, dismantling  settled  state structures, misusing sensitive  agencies of state like the military and the entire security apparati,  all in  the attempt to whip everybody into line ahead of the 2015 presidential elections.  October 1931 marked the beginning of the political intrigues that would destroy the young German republic leading to the emergence of the Führer. In circumstances which so uncannily mirror today’s Nigeria of Boko Haram,  of several presidential infractions, among them deliberate,  state-sponsored  disruption of  other tiers of  government,  murder and violence as we saw in Nasarawa this past week, Germany  soon erupted into  a scale of lawlessness never before experienced. Roaming groups of Nazi Brownshirts walked the streets singing Nazi songs and looking for fights. “Blut muss fliessen, ‘Blut muss fliessen! Blut muss fliessen “Knuppelhageldick! Haut’se doch zusammen, haut’se doch zusammen! Diese gotverdammte Juden Republik!”, they sang, meaning: “Blood must flow, blood must flow! Blood must flow as cudgel thick as hail! Let’s smash it up, let’s smash it up! That goddamned Jewish republic!” That was the circumstances that led to the event which came to be known as the ‘Bloody Sunday’ which resulted in the death of 19 and about 300 wounded. Today in Nigeria, the military is involved in all manner of things  which bear no relevance  to securing the territorial integrity of the country: closing down airports, swarming  and putting under siege states where elections are being held thus  diverting soldiers from the ferocious  terrorist  war in the Northeastern corner of the country where over 200 young Nigerian girls are in captivity,  and putting a major Lagos road to rout because of an unfortunate fatal accident, smashing cars and causing more fatalities. Not even in the dark days of General Abacha were soldiers brought into such odious duties  that has made the  Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) to cry out warning President  Jonathan  against using the security establishment to persecute Nigerians; a situation  which it says has the capacity to completely demystify the military. It was good news, however, seeing the Chief of Army Staff this past week deprecating indiscipline in the military which this also constitutes. Nigerians can only hope it won’t happen again although it will be very much unlike this government not to go back on its word.

    As Vice President  Sambo predicted, elections have since become war as we saw in Ekiti even  before the election day and despite the pillory  and citizen’s overwhelming disapproval of such extreme militarisation,  everything  points to  Osun State being put under no less a suffocating siege on 9 August. It should therefore be expected that, as in Ekiti, these men, paid from the public treasury, will again be used to arrest and incapacitate APC chieftains. And this by an insecure government that claims its party is the choice of the people!  Apparently unknown to President Jonathan, the Nigerian army, as well as the entire government, will continue to lose respect both here at home and abroad as we recently saw in its complete put down by the United States.  Nigerians can only hope that this eager, and unnecessary involvement of the army in matters that should not in any way concern it will not lead to elements within it getting other ideas because Nigerians will, to the last man, reject any military misadventure.

    It is gratifying to note that at a time when elders, especially former Heads of State have become so tongue tied  they cannot utter a word of caution against PDP’s continuing  endangerment of the polity,  the Catholic Bishop of Abuja, Cardinal John Onaiyekan, has again cried out asking  the Goodluck Jonathan administration to be tolerant of opposition. Said the Bishop: ‘the politicisation of Boko Haram, in which the government in power sees anybody who disagrees with it as a Boko Haramist’ (as it has done futilely concerning the APC) ‘is very serious and dangerous’.  Indeed, with Modu Sheriff who has severally been invited by security agents on matters relating to Boko Haram now firmly settled in the PDP, it will be interesting to hear its loquacious Publicity Secretary’s new slant concerning APC and Boko Haram. After all, Sheriff was considered that important that the president had to order the re opening of the Borno airport for him even if it was denied to intending pilgrims who had to undergo what the NSCIA described as a ‘tortuous and agonising journey by road to Kano on top of their being subjected to physical and psychological grilling by security agents.’

    If President Jonathan, in his second coming, does not intend to rule over a conquered territory  of a supine and contrite people, if he does not intend to transmogrify into His Imperial Majesty of an unknown, endless tenure, if he sincerely craves a country where not only he, his wife Patience and members of his ubiquitous demolition teams will be able to freely express themselves, then he certainly must soft pedal, climb down  from his high horse and allow his campaign to spread and showcase what he considers the good works of his transformation agenda to Nigerians because, without a doubt, he will have to run on his record, and not on how far he can mollify us. We pray good counsel prevails.