The Nation Newspaper

Tag: perspective

  • Putting Egypt in perspective

    My earliest encounter with the nation of Egypt was not in Geography, not on the pages of the Atlas, not even through Al-haly of Egypt (Africa’s most successful football club), not in its pyramids but rather it was in the church. My encounter with Egypt was from Sunday School and Bible study. The narratives of the Egyptian nation by my then Sunday school teachers were gory in its simplicity and bizarre in its details, Egypt was narrated in awful pictures and colours. The demonization of Egypt was not disconnected from the despotic treatment of God’s people (Israelites, the progenitors of the Christian faith) by Pharaoh the tyrannical Egyptian monarch.

    Pharaoh’s insistence on enslaving God’s people despite several menacing miracles was an indication of a monarch oblivious of his cascade into precipice just like his modern day variants found in the Robert Mugabes and Laurent Gbagbos of this world (despotism is the art of Africans). All these terrible narratives were part of Pharaoh’s already ebbing reputation in my young church mind. Egypt is demonized in our thoughts and prayers, for instance it is not unusual to hear prayer points like this in a church circle ‘….and you would pray that every Egyptian troubling your life shall be immersed in the red sea’, ‘Egypt symbolises backwardness, retardation, struggle and hardship’ statements like these are commonplace in a church gathering.

    I grew with this knowledge and hence developed an animosity for the nation of Egypt on the strength of these bogus narratives.

    However, knowledge is power, knowledge breaks the stronghold of prejudice, I have since learnt to love Egypt given its cultural and scriptural significance, what my Sunday school teacher forgot to tell me was the transcontinental position of Egypt making it a court of two continents (African and South Asia), that its early and long history positioned it as a cradle of civilization in Africa was the part I had to learn on my own, its 93million plus population (the third in Africa and 15th in the world) makes it a sure investment destination for investors was the part I had to discover by study.

    Also from a biblical standpoint to demonize Egypt on the grounds of the despotic treatment of the Israelites would be an awry conclusion given that prior leadership in Egypt did not do the same. The part I was not taught in Sunday school was the fact that Egypt was a strategic nation whose positioning and hospitality midwive God’s redemption plan, it was to Egyptian Lords that Joseph was sold, it was his (Joseph) slavery and his incarceration that midwived his path to the echelon of Egyptian powers. Furthermore, it was through his leadership that he positioned Egypt as a lender of last resort to salvage the famine in Israel. It is also instructive to note that it was Egypt that preserved Moses, it was in Egyptian art and custom that Moses was nurtured and it was this nurturing that aligned him properly to God’s call and without the call of God and the nurturing of Egypt Moses would not have played an integral role in the emancipation of the Israelites.

    Egypt was the refuge destination of our lord Jesus Christ as Herod declared a genocidal killing of all male children. To totally demonize Egypt would be equivalent to the error of the blind who only touched the trunk of an elephant and concluded it was a snake. Also the Bible reflected it at sundry times that a land is not evil on its own but rather rendered evil by the inhabitants of such lands.

    Perspective is everything. Egypt is a historic nation with footprints of leadership, hospitality and civilization everywhere. Before you hate Egypt totally let me remind you that Israel and Egypt have long time ago signed a peace treaty that has overtime smoothen diplomatic relations between the two.

    • By Kehinde Oluwatosin Babatunde

    Abeokuta, Ogun State.

     

  • Our economic problems in correct perspective

    Nigeria is in recession is a fact. My prayer is that we do not transit from the present recession to depression. A cynic once defined recession as when your friend loses his job and depression as when one loses his job. Economics is a common sense science based on empirical but not experimental knowledge. The study of economics was for decades subsumed within the study of history until about the 19th century when in Scotland, it became part of what was called political economy.

    Many historians still approach the study of history from the angle of political economy. This is a hangover from the Marxist interpretation of history which sees political development from the prism of economic relations. Economics as we now know it became an independent field of study as late as the first decade of the 20th century. This means that the so-called utopian economists of the late 18th and early 19th centuries were strictly speaking not economists but philosophers. Neither can one also categorize Adam Smith the author of the “Wealth of Nations” (1776) and the father of free trade, political liberalism and perhaps an early prophet of globalization an economist in the strictest sense of the word.

    At the University of Ibadan, economics was first taught within the Department of History with emphasis on economic history. It was not until the late 1950s that the Department of Economics came unto its own. The debate is still out whether economics is strictly arts or science. Of course, economics is science just as history is also science, science here defined as knowledge. In fact, in many American and Canadian universities, history is taught within the faculty of social science because just like mathematics is the foundation for all the sciences both physical and biological, so is history the foundation of all social sciences. In fact history in the old Soviet Union and modern and successor Russian Federation, history is studied under the rubric of historical sciences.

    Pardon my long preamble. The reason for the recession in Nigeria can be explained easily. As a country, we were involved in harvest and over time we were eating not only our fruits, we also ate the seeds. The lack of savings led to the situation that when the price of our sole commodity – oil fell in the world market, our economy went into a tail spin. To compound matters, the militancy in the Niger Delta led to a 50 percent cut in production and consequent reduction in revenue.

    That is not all. The militants blow up of oil and gas pipelines including those carrying gas to electrical power plants led to reduction in power generation and distribution and reduction in industrial production and dependence on locally generated electricity by individuals. All this add to cost of production making prices of locally produced goods uncompetitive. This led to workers lay off and social disequilibrium manifesting in increased crime and criminality. The critical role of electricity is obvious when we compare electricity generated for a population of 180million in Nigeria being not up to 4000 megawatts compared to South Africa’s 150,000 megawatt for a population of less than 50million people. Industrialists in Nigeria say our minimum requirement is at least 100,000 megawatts

    Available policy choices in this circumstance are severely limited. We can solve our problems by increased production in the agricultural sector to cut food dependency on foreign countries. This is the reason for government through the Central Bank of Nigeria increasing support for rice growers since within a generation, Nigerians have suddenly become addicted to rice eating with the result that we are the second rice importing nation in the world. If India and China each with a population of around 1.3 billion can feed themselves, we should be able to do the same considering the fact of our vast arable land. This will require determination and serious planning by the state and federal governments and individual entrepreneurs. We should also find ways of abandoning the imports substitution wrong strategy on which our industries are based. We should plan to replace all imports in the food industries. The same should apply to all other industrial production as much as possible. The preferential allocation of foreign exchange to so-called industrial sector should stop. Industrialists after all these years should source for foreign exchange independently of the government or the central bank. Industries should export to source for their foreign exchange.

    All the four petroleum refineries should be given gratis, that is, free of charge to foreign companies with the only proviso that they should be made to function. This will end the corruption of annual budgets for repairs which in most cases are shoddily done or not done at all. Hopefully the Dangote refinery will come on stream early in 2019 and the combination of the production of all these refineries should turn us into refined petroleum exporting country like most of OPEC countries.

    The savings from the revamped agricultural sector, the now functioning refineries, and the refocusing of the entire industrial sector would release foreign exchange to lift up the value of our currency and impact positively on the growth and development of the economy to the extent that we will be in a strong position to rebuild the Niger Delta in a win-win situation for the whole country. But whatever it will require including handing over the power sector to foreigners for a while, we must fix the power sector so that power will be available all the time. Without power, we will be groping in the dark and our innumerable generators will continue to ruin our environment and our health. Regular supply of electricity is the key to industrial development and modernization of all vital sectors like transportation, communication, health, education and research.

    Lastly let us hope the current difficult situation would have taught us a lesson about prudential management of national resources away from squander mania of the previous regimes when our problem was not money but how to spend it. In this regard, I would like to advice the Lord Bishop of Ondo (Anglican Communion) to face his pastoral duties and not turn his pulpit into a political platform sermonizing about not probing previous regimes that may have been corrupt. Is the Lord Bishop totally ignorant of about almost 700 thousand dollars and billions of Naira seized by the federal government from members of the previous regime if as reported that the bishop said people are hungry while government is probing corruption. Can he not see the connection between a prostrate economy and the deleterious effect of corruption?

    No country is perfect and immune from the boom and bust cycle of economic life. What we need do is to put the economy of our country on an even keel so that we are able to absorb all future economic shocks. We should not continue in this current state of dependency on the West or on the East. No country is totally an island but total dependency is not healthy. I also do not believe that the management of the economy by the current government is the cause of the current recession. The problem began a long time ago. What has happened is the cumulative effect of years of bad management. There is enough blame to go round. Let us ensure that when next we are faced with economic problems, we will have the buffer which heritage savings like sovereign wealth fund will provide.

  • Economy: Perspective from the diaspora

    The Nigerian economy has been in a state of decline for a long time. It has been dependent on oil and the price we get for oil is not within Nigeria’s control. The problems we are experiencing today have been in incubation and are merely being made manifest at this time. It is tough, as most Nigerians struggle to live day to day. But Nigerians must take comfort in the knowledge that the fortunes of Nigeria can be turned around in a relatively short time. The reason is that Nigeria has a special appeal; Nigeria’s demographics make Nigeria a market that cannot be ignored. We have a government that is capable. We have a President that has made a stand against corruption; a President that stands for transparency. What the President stands for is what we need to build the business community. Generating more business opportunity within Nigeria will lift the economic fortunes of the country. That can be done and there are strategies for achieving that objective.

    The details of the investment strategy remain to be seen. The government seems to have the right objectives. The Minister of Finance has stated in recent public speeches that the government was committed to diversifying the economy to reduce the dependence on oil, investing in infrastructure and improving the business environment. The business environment is key. The next step for the government is to set out how these steps are to be achieved.

    The structure of the Nigerian government is what we have and whether it is appropriate or not, we must address the economic problems we have today. The Minister of Finance comes across as capable and as one who understands the issues. She should be asked to provide a blueprint for achieving the government’s declared objectives. In particular, she must specify where the money will come from to investing in infrastructure? What is the plan for building the business environment? Such detail will give the Nigerian public hope that things will get better. The situation can get better. As an example of how the situation can change, there is the case of a Chinese investor who came to Nigeria in December 2012 to establish a ceramics factory. It started operations in 2013 and in just about three years, the company has built a N30 million turnover business that employs 2,000 Nigerians, buys 95% of their raw materials from Nigeria and has become the largest ceramics tiles producer in Nigeria and probably in Africa. President Buhari should put his ministers to task. He should ask what made that investor come to Nigeria? What has been the experience of the investor in Nigeria? What challenges are they having? If that investor is happy, their recommendation will attract 20 more investors. If however the investor is unhappy and wishes to leave Nigeria then we will lose more investors. Another example id the announcement made in April that a USD 1 billion pharmaceutical park was to be established in Nigeria. That investor is now concerned about investing in Nigeria.

    The issues are lack of transparency, lack of respect for contracts, lack of predictability in our systems. If we fix these issues and start to create transparent and predictable procedures whereby investors can make their plans in the knowledge that their agreements with be honoured, the business will grow. The government’s fight against corruption should be commended. Corruption lies at the heart of Nigeria’s problems today and fixing it holds the key to our redemption.

    Nigeria’s problem is complex. The root of the problem is corruption. Unfortunately it is endemic. Corruption is serious and goes beyond government officials putting cash belonging to the public. Corruption robs us of our dignity and sets limits on what we can achieve. There two aspects to fighting corruption – a backward looking and forward looking aspect to the fight. The backward aspect involves catching those who have been corrupt, punishing them in order to deter others from being corrupt. The forward looking aspect is about creating systems that allow Nigerians to operate without corruption and allows wealth to be generated in Nigeria. It is the forward looking part of the fight that needs more focus. For instance, the President should look at the systems around him and ask whether they are transparent – is there a way for an individual to get the attention of the President without having to know the right people? Is there a procedure specified to be followed which will indeed yield the required results? The fight against corruption requires us to provide transparent and predictable systems in and around government. Within our communities and networks, we should come up with solutions which we should then pass on to the government.

    We must be careful not to neutralise the strength and attraction of Nigeria which is in its size. Whatever problems we have in Nigeria today will remain even if Nigeria is split into smaller units. The problem with Nigeria remains – the absence of transparent and predictable systems.

    It is an indictment of Nigerian society if our young people who should be full of hope are willing to abandon the country flee across North Africa and then to Europe on open boats. This is the reason that Nigerians must hold the government to account. If the government is failing, the people of Nigeria should take responsibility for that as well. Ask the government for answers in a supportive way.

    The government must focus on encouraging more investment into Nigeria. It must find ways to attract more foreign investors, it must not lose one foreign investor already in Nigeria and encourage Nigerians in diaspora to invest in Nigeria. The government must create the environment for such investments to thrive.

     

    • Uwaifo is a Solicitor specialising in supporting investors in Africa.

  • The armsgate in perspective

    As the dragnet that seeks to catch all the fiends who bled the military of the vital funds required to buy equipment to fight Boko Haram expands wider to catch more big fish in this seamlessly wide ocean of corruption, one can’t help but sit back in bewilderment at the audacity and culpability of the principal actors in this slapstick comedy.

    But alas the signs were always there of the gross impunity being perpetuated by the criminal enterprise that chose greed over the lives of the nation’s gallant soldiers.

    This is neither a sudden flash in the pan but is a slow rumble of a volcano that has been coughing intermittently as the inferno clears its throat in preparation for the final eruption. Hence anyone who cries vendetta and political persecution is not true to oneself and is denying a chronicle of events that has led us to this disgraceful point in our history.

    It all started with a protest by Army wives on August 11, 2014 in which these women

    flooded the streets of Maiduguri lamenting the apparent policy of the military sending their husband’s to the battlefront with virtually their bare hands to fight a band of insurgents armed to the teeth.

    This was the first sign that something untoward was amidst, for the whole nation was awash with news that the administration of Goodluck Jonathan had spent billions of dollars equipping the military amidst propaganda machine that proclaimed that this was the first major arms procurement Since the Nigerian civil war that ended in 1970.

    Army wives are the most docile and understanding women in the land for the regimented lifestyle of their husbands restricts their public adventures hence this protest caught ones eye and proved that something sinister was amidst.

    But alas instead of the Army bigwigs, the Senate and the Presidency to embrace these women and investigate their claims, the Chief of Army Staff, Major General Kenneth Minimah, was mandated to mount the podium and make these infamous comments on August 20. 2014: “This is not a civil service organisation. This is not a Boys Scout organisation. Any repeat of such act, I will tell soldiers to use koboko (whip) on the wives and bundle them out of the barracks. This is even akin to mutiny which is punishable by death”.

    Alas the threat of a vicious flogging to death of these unarmed defenceless women was a ploy to silence the internal rumblings in the military and dim the searchlight on the mammoth corruption being perpetuated behind the scenes.

    But alas the smoke emanating from the smouldering embers refused to go away.

    Then barely a month later, the proverbial excrement finally hit the fan. On September 16, 2014, men of the 7th Division, the nation’s so-called premier division turned their weapons on their commanding officer in open revolt as the demand for better weapons to fight Boko Haram took a diabolical turn. And as if to buttress how ineffective their weapons were, their General Officer Commanding (GOC) escaped without a scratch running to the top brass in disarray.

    This was one act of mutiny the military could neither conceal nor tolerate, hence the Military Police was dispatched with extreme prejudice to round up the perpetrators of this dastardly act and bundle them off to face the stern faces of a General Court martial, destined to face the consequences of their insubordination.

    And in no time at all the death sentences and summary dismissals were dished out with aplomb. Meanwhile the criminals who stole the money to equip the military were shipping off their illicitly acquired wealth to foreign lands.

    On the same day Nigerian troops were turning their weapons on their COs, September 16, 2014, the news broke of $10 Million discovered in the private jet belonging to Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, President of Christian Association of Nigeria,  in far-away South Africa. It proved to be an illegal gun running operation cum money laundering enterprise whose money trail led to the heart of the Presidency with the then National Security Adviser Sambo Dasuki, pulling the apron strings.

    This was indeed a snapshot of the rot going on but once again the regime of transformation swept this pile of dirt under the carpet.

    November 10, 2014 began the final capitulation of the Nigerian military which had been stripped to the bare bones as the word “tactical withdrawal” became the new mantra of the military, a glorified name for retreat in disarray from the marauding Boko Haram. Hundreds of troops ran away from the theatre of war, fleeing into Cameroon, preferring to preserve precious limb than risk certain death. Never before had such disgrace befallen the Nigerian military that had proved it’s mettle times without number in various regional conflicts in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

    The giant of Africa was reduced to a helpless ant as the gravy train bleeding the military continued unabated.

    Major General Minimah was once again charged with the inevitable task of painting over the glaring cracks as he mounted the podium once more on December 15, 2014: “The Nigerian Army is not what it used to be. Soldiers run away from the battle front because they joined the military as the last option after years of unemployment or were hand picked by politicians to satisfy their obligations to their constituencies. These people have no zeal to fight hence run at the first sight of Boko Haram”.

    Meanwhile the court martial continued as the military deserters were rewarded with death sentences and summary dismissal. Three thousand soldiers were victims of the first mass court martial since the rise of the Fourth Republic. One was left wondering if Nigeria was back in the era of military rule when such was the norm.

    Later, Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh, would make a very revealing comment at his pulling out parade on July 10: “I headed an ill-equipped and poorly funded military. We were neglected hence we’re incapable of winning the fight against Boko Haram.”

    One was left flabbergasted. For the chief soldier in the land to make this confession was akin to a tsunami for on this same premise he had made Minimah the prophet of doom who prophesied lashings for soldiers wives and death to their husbands.

    The proverbial excrement was piling up, approaching the fan. August 6, Major General Minimah, like Saul on the road to Damascus, finally saw the light and repented of his sins for at his pulling out ceremony by singing the tune sang by Badeh: “It is true. The military was ill-equipped. Despite all the money spent we never got any new equipment”.

    This was the last straw that broke the camel’s back.

    How could this be possible? What about the billions spent to procure weaponry? This didn’t make sense at all.

    And immediately, on the same day, August 6, Dasuki, sought to douse the tension generated by Minimah and Badeh: “We bought equipment but alas it is still on the high seas”.

    The faux pas of Dasuki had become too glaring, sticking out like a sore thumb.

    Now, with the final unveiling of his alleged crimes by the panel set up to investigate his dealings, the clock may be ticking for Dasuki. The dragnet has started spreading its

    tentacles ensnaring a former governor of Sokoto State, Attahiru Bafarawa and Raymond Dokpesi the media mogul.

    The million dollar question is what part did President Goodluck Jonathan play in this sleaze? Can he claim to be unaware of the dealings of Dasuki?

    There is no witch-hunt anywhere; the events that has led us to this point is as clear as crystal as painstakingly outlined above. Justice must be served to all the principal actors of this absurd movie.

    No matter how high up the chain the trail leads, every goat in this food chain must be captured and made to vomit every last morsel of yam illegally swallowed.

    All involved must be made to feel the full weight of the law and any judge who wishes to facilitate an escape route for these criminals should be unmasked and made to join his benefactors in the gulag.

    This is a test case for the anticorruption war of this administration and if they fail in this, then they will fail elsewhere as well.

    • Usman writes from Lapai, Niger State.

     

  • Perspective on Saraki’s intransigence

    Senate President Bukola Saraki could be regarded as a man of destiny. He, today, presides over the senior chamber of the National Assembly where his late father, Dr, Abubakar Olusola Saraki, was once the Leader. The younger Saraki is obviously an ambitious man. This is no sin. As a matter of fact, anyone without ambition is a man without vision. He is doomed.

    I have no problem with his ambition; what I quarrel with is his mission. He seems to be a man in a hurry and thus desperate to arrive at his destination without taking steps. Those who trod such a path in the past ended up ruining their career. They may record victory or even victories; they are pyrrhic. Such men are usually left bruised, dejected and frustrated at the end.

    In the beginning, like the grass, they blossom. People wonder how they seemed to be making it despite the obstacles. But, in the end, they get so used to shortcuts that they permanently ignore the straight path whereas only the straight path could lead to peace and good success. The choice by the Senate President to ignore his party’s position, strike a deal with the opposition and damn the consequences is tantamount to subverting the logic of human existence if he were to succeed in the long run. It would mean treachery could sometimes triumph over faithfulness; and pride over humility.

    It has often been said that there is no morality in politics and that only the tough survive. Or that politics is the art of the possible where, like the Hobbesian state of nature, the fittest survive.

    But, those who trust in and believe in God know that whatever you do disregarding the good order is like a house built on sand. It does not even take a storm to pull it down. While the foul could perch on a thin rope for a short while, it must fly off in no time because for the period it enjoys the limelight, it is at a great cost. It is a painful experience.

    It is doubtful if the banana peel at the entrance and along the corridor leading to the office of the number three citizen of Nigeria has been swept away. That seat has remained hot since Chief Evan(s) Enwerem took it at the inception of the Fourth Republic in 1999. Enwerem, Wabara, Okadigbo, Anyim and Nnamani rotated the authority of the King of the Senate in the first eight years of this Republic. The man who had the guile, cunning and understanding to withstand the gale and walk the slippery corridor was David Mark. Before Mark mounted the saddle, he had watched and been part of the proceedings for two full terms. He took time to study the politics and dynamics of legislative business. He was also lucky to have been produced outside the Obasanjo regime. In any case, he survived. He belonged to the majority party and managed to give the impression that he was a loyal party man and one who would not betray the President, whatever might be his cause.

    But, the setting is different now. The All Progressives Congress is now the leading party. It ought, by tradition, if not ordinance, to produce the leadership – President and Deputy President of the House. But, desperate to make the mark, Saraki repudiated tradition and convention. Like Afonja of Ilorin, he chose to strike a deal with the opposition, daring his party to do its worst. While the President meant well when he said he would not interfere in legislative affairs, Saraki seized on that to subvert logic and commonsense. The coup he plotted led him to the podium.

    It is surprising that he has continued with the perfidy; choosing his own Senate Leader and other APC principal officers over and above the party choice conveyed to him in writing. Now, he believes he is sitting pretty. While a common ground was found in the House of Representatives where there was a similar (not exactly the same) crisis, Saraki, a former Kwara State governor and ex-chairman of the Governors’ Forum, has been intransigent. Now, the President has awakened to the reality. The party is affronted and yet Saraki believes he could contrive some funny Vote of Confidence to deceive Nigerians into accepting him as leader of the legislative arm of government. This is an error. First, the Senate Leader is supposed to bear some moral weight. He is expected to be respected whenever he speaks. This is not the case. Unless he makes up with the President who is seen as the nation’s Moral Ambassador and Mr. Integrity, whenever he kicks, he would be doing so against thorns. For now, President Buhari has not swung into using the weight of his office overtly or covertly against the unwanted Senate President. It is yet early days. The music would soon change and Mr. Saraki would find himself alone in the boat. Those who know him should advice the man to brace up for the storm on the high sea.

  • Gaining perspective

    Gaining perspective begins when we realise that even the hottest ambitions still end on the deathbed; and many such beds are made hotter for the regrets that flow into them from lips confessing missed opportunities and wrong fisticuffs

    One foreign commentator said long ago that the sad thing about Africa is that her political leaders never seem to get the total picture: that they are expected to lift their countries up by leading the development drive. I added that the leaders apparently don’t even want to get the total picture, until they reach their deathbeds. Oh, you should visit some deathbeds — full of stories, confessions, or even fights with the Grimm Reaper – you know, that skeleton that myths say goes around with a scythe. So, like Sisyphus, people scream, ‘it is not yet my time; I have just been made a senator! It is not fair; can’t you take someone else who is poor?’ They might even attempt to bribe their way out, trust your Nigerian. So, most go protesting noisily, like Italian tenors forced to sing operas they hate. Very few go quietly or peaceably, like.

    For many, especially those who have held one position or the other, the deathbed is the time they suddenly become full of regrets about the opportunities and chances they squandered and frittered away in mundane bodily enjoyments or squabbles about trifles which do nothing for their communities, nation and the world. I say, that is when you hear them mutter with hoarse, dying lips, ‘Please, help me up so that I can write a check of restitution to the people…’

    Unfortunately, that is also the time that relatives in the form of children, nephews, nieces, friends, helpers, hangers on, strangers, etc., are many, and extra sharp. They are also especially cooperative with each other. Jointly, without any prompting, they hold the dying one down firmly on the bed and ask him to get some rest while they also hold the check as far from him as possible. Restitu ko, restiti ni, they mutter as the unearned, stolen billions fall on their strange laps. And when fortune falls indiscriminately on one’s laps, what is a man, or woman, to do?

    The reason, like you and I already know, is that more than ninety-nine per cent of Africa’s political leaders seek posts for the sake of it, and yes, to escape poverty. Who can blame anyone for wanting to escape the mercilessly grinding teeth of poverty? I can’t. The only problem now is that there is this vast field of socio-politico-economic development challenges gripping the average African, and our politicians are only stopping at helping themselves. I believe the main reason is this failure to gain the correct perspective.

    It’s easy to gain perspective. Let me illustrate. Once, this very busy motorist was stopped at a traffic point for exceeding the speed limit permitted on that road. After the policeman had told him the reason why he stopped him, the motorist was incredulous. ‘The earth is going round the sun at the velocity of 107,000 km/hr, and the solar system is moving round the galaxy at 901,000 km/hr; and you are booking me for driving at 60 km/hr in a 45 km/hr zone? Are you serious?’ Now, that is what I call perspective.

    Let me tell you what someone else did. This youngster had failed mathematics, and some other subjects. In fact, his report card appeared to be bad. Well, he took it to his dad and began the conversation. ‘Dad, what would you do if I had a life-threatening sickness?’ His father said he would have to run around getting the best medical help he could find; and that would naturally take a toll on his and the mother’s own health. ‘Would you have the money for it?’ Well, there is the insurance and the family savings, but we cannot know how far both will go. The father then became suspicious. Are you trying to tell me something? Do you have a life-threatening disease? The young one replied that what he was about to tell him should be put in its proper perspective, considering he, the son, was thankfully in good health and sound mind.

    Yes, you are right. The life of the country is hanging in the balance, grown men and famous fathers are fighting in the House of Representatives and here I am running around with my usual jokes. Never mind. The point we are making is that gaining perspective requires one to take in the entire picture. Take Nigeria and our politicians as an example. Do they have the whole picture of the place of their country in the world in their view? I would say not quite. If they did, they would know they have an enormous task before them but too many of them are too easily satisfied with obtaining and enjoying their material gains, hence the fisticuffs.

    If our politicians had a true perspective of their role as the nation’s leaders, I do not think members of the House of Representatives would have taken to using fists to settle points in the view of the entire nation. I do not also think that a politician would desperately take thugs to the courthouse to intimidate court witnesses or judges as has been happening in Ekiti State. I do not think any politician would consider the life of someone else so worthless that it can be sacrificed ritually or metaphorically to their ambition. I do not think that any politician would actively seek to promote two nations in one Nigeria: the nation of the haves who trample on the rights of others, and the nation of the have nots whose rights are trampled upon. I say, if Nigerian politicians had a true perspective of their role, the crisis precipitated by the elections in the national assembly would not exist.

    Let’s wax a little philosophical here. I have always held that there are three basic things a man would do well to remember that he can choose: to live well (in contentment), to do his best (in strength), and to die well (in peace). Don’t bring up any objections now; just accept. Thank you.

    It will not do to begin to seek to write a check of restitution on one’s deathbed to the millions of Nigerians that have been defrauded by one’s diversionary antics. Many have sought, in vain, to return such stolen opportunities (whether in funds, positions or objects) because they have caused greater losses in the end. Too late, they realised that nature is one wicked paymaster: what is taken by force or contrivance, nature will deduct by force or contrivance.

    It is important that each Nigerian, to the last man, bears the whole picture in mind. To seek the development of the entire landscape of Nigeria where everyone can have access to basic things that make life possible – affordable food, shelter and clothing – is the responsibility of everyone. It is important then that we all should seek to lift off the veils of religion, tribe or language which are hanging in front of all of us and determining our many actions. For instance, I have noticed that nearly all the appointments made so far by our president have been of people from his corner of the earth. That should not be so because the corners missed out in appointments or opportunities are only several boko haram spots waiting to happen in future. As the father of all, the president is expected to ensure that no corner of the country is left behind.

           Gaining perspective begins when we realise that even the hottest ambitions still end on the deathbed; and many such beds are made hotter for the regrets that flow into them from lips confessing missed opportunities and wrong fisticuffs. As passing ships on this benighted earth, let us all, our politicians especially, get our perspectives right on the whole picture: which is to help the country gain earthly paradise.

  • Terrorism: A historical perspective – 4

    In order to put these movements in perspective, it will be clearer if one looks at religious movements in the Sudan broadly defined as a whole. In the modern history of the Western and Eastern Sudan stretching from the Senegal valley across to the upper valleys of the Nile, Islamic fundamentalism has played a very important role. The most well known of Islamic revolutions in the Western Sudan is that of  Usman Dan Fodio, whose son Muhammad Bello and brother Abdullahi founded the Sokoto caliphate. Usman Dan Fodio was an itinerant preacher against syncretism, corruption and misrule among apparently Muslim rulers in Hausaland.

    Islam had been well planted in Hausaland since about the 8th century A.D particularly in Kano and Katsina with many clerics from North Africa visiting Kano and Katsina to lecture at mosques there. But over time, the Muslim rulers of these areas became more materialistic, corrupt and dictatorial in the conduct of state affairs. Taxes were arbitrarily levied on and collected from the peasants and the Nomads. It was these grievances that Usman Dan Fodio exploited to lead a rebellion against the Habe rulers between 1804 and 1808.

    This movement succeeded beyond his wildest dreams and drove away from their thrones Hausa, Nupe rulers and the Yoruba ruler of Ilorin. There is no doubt that Usman Dan Fodio was a pious man but one needs more than piety to found an empire. The political and military prowess of his son Muhammad Bello and Abdullahi his brother facilitated the emergence of the Sokoto caliphate. By the time the British overthrew the caliphate; almost all the evils of the Habe rulers had resurfaced in the caliphate and had undermined the moral fabric of the state. This point was proved by the Satiru revolt of 1905/1906 led by the blind cleric Saybu Dan Makafo who was able to mobilise people against the corrupt practices of the caliphate leadership and its English and French successors both in Sokoto and Dosso.

    The example of the Fulani-led revolt and the creation of the Sokoto caliphate were followed by fellow Fulanis in Massina now part of Mali and led by Sheikh Amadu Bakr Lobbo El-amin in 1810 and between that time and 1845, an ascetic type of Islam was imposed on the community and the Sharia and Islamic jurisprudence were strictly followed. A much wider movement in the Western Sudan was led by Al-hajj Umar Tall. He was a Tukolor, a group closely linked with the Fulani who also established along the upper Nile valleys, a so-called Segu-Tukolor empire in which he imposed himself on the largely Malinke ethnic groups in those areas.

    Al-hajj Umar is well known in West African history as the man who was responsible for spreading the Tijanniya brotherhood, a revolutionary form of Islamic tariqa that preached equality of all peoples. These three Islamic revolutions by and large purified the society and brought new regimes based on the Sharia that were more favourable to the ordinary people. Although over time their decline and eventual fall became inevitable. These movements had positive impact on the Western and Central Sudan. Even though they involved some element of violence, it was violence with a positive purpose.

    A much bigger and militant movement employing modern methods of warfare as well as sophisticated arms took place in what was then known as the Egyptian Sudan in 1881. This has gone down into history as the Mahdia or the Mahdist state which lasted between 1881 and 1898.

    The Sudan was for several decades under Turko-Egyptian control and oppression in the form of arbitrary taxation, corruption and inept rule was characteristic of the regime. It was not too difficult for a millenarian movement led by Mohammed Ahmad who proclaimed himself Al mahdi in the tradition of Islamic thought prevailing in that area. This was based on a doctrine that in difficult times, an “Imam of the age” would come and take over rulership of the state, purify the society and bring the society nearer to God.

    Sheikh Mohammed Ahmad declared himself this “Imam of the age” and the Messiah ‘Mahdi’ the people were waiting for. He was able to found a state between 1881 and 1898 before the combined forces of the Egyptians and the British defeated him under a Bible-waving General Charles Gordon, whose death aroused national sentiment in England. The man who later became British Prime Minister and Second World War hero, Winston Churchill took part in the fighting against the Mahdist leadership. The Mahdia has left an indelible imprint on Sudan even up till today and the Umma, a political party led by the grandson of the Mahdi, the Oxford educated Sadek el-Mhadi has been in and out of power several times.

    It is quite clear that any movement claiming to be an Islamic movement should aim at purifying society and since Islam generally does not separate politics from religion, such a movement must have a plan of creating a state in which the Sharia would be the law and some kind of theocracy would be the mode of governance.

    The closest thing we have to Boko Haram therefore was the Maitasine uprising in Kano in 1980 and its blind fury and murderous campaign against the society generally did not conform to any reformist paradigm of Jihad. It did not appear to have had a programme of creating a state or replacing the then political status quo. It was also secretive and syncretist in nature. It mixed Islam and traditional African religion. The Maitasine revolt however was on such a scale that a division of the Nigerian army had to be deployed against it. Muhammad Marwa its leader was apparently killed in the campaign against them.

    This Maitasine revolt later reared up its ugly head in 1982 in Yola, Adamawa state and Bulunkutu, Borno State at the outskirts of Maiduguri. It was also on the same level of violence as the one in Kano and thousands of people perished in Yola and Maiduguri. This latter offshoot of the Maitasine was apparently led by Musa Makaniki who after the violence in Yola escaped to Gombe and from there to the Cameroons before he was caught in 2004.

  • Oyo governorship in perspective

    Naturally, when elections draw near in Nigeria, the polity is agog with a flurry of activities. All manners of human beings masquerading as politicians will be on hand selling their dirty wares to the unsuspecting masses. So, the emerging situation in Oyo State today is the usual hallmark associated with politics in this part of our world.

    Ironically, what motivates politicians in other climes to offer themselves to serve their people are most often than not in low quantum or non-existent in our own case.

    Politicians, who by their background, exposure and other known or hidden factors, qualify to aim to be councillors, will aim for the highest political position in the land. In our own system, acquisition of money, irrespective of the morality of its sources, were the only yardsticks either on the part of contestants or their supporters who are largely made up of rented crowd. So, altruistic factors for leadership do not matter in political calculations, as long as the would-be contestant has a deep pocket. The sad result of poor ascendancy in our political system stares everyone in the face. Even, in circles and quarters where one would have expected the stakes to be high and optimum standards put in place, what we get, shockingly, are pedestrian and self –serving yardsticks.

    It is against this backdrop that one views the on-going melodrama in the build-up to who becomes the governor of Oyo State next February, as most unfortunate. It is worrisome that such things are happening in a state reputed to be the pacesetter in the country and the political headquarters of the Yoruba race. Or how does one fathom over 15 people jostling for the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) ticket in Oyo State? Could serious minded people who are desirous of serving their constituents genuinely be this blinded by ambition? Even if PDP has no opponents to contend with in the February, 2015 elections, it is very clear that the bickering and backstabbing that will follow the emergence of one of the palace jesters called aspirants will take another four years to contend with. Where then lies the interest, well-being and future of the hapless electorate on the chessboard of politicians who are rabid opportunists?

    If you look in the other directions, it is only Rashidi Ladoja of the Accord Party that could be said to have a semblance of political choice available for the people of Oyo State. That option on its own carries a lot of precarious liabilities that make the choice suspect. The other political gangs, looking for recognition and relevance daily to cover their treacherous past, could not be seen as a united force that could assuage the feelings of the larger percentage of the electorate in Oyo State.

    It is saddening if sharing of political lucre among party members is the main reason for disagreement among politicians elected to serve the people and protect their interests. It is equally uncharitable if the rivalry of who becomes a party’s flag-bearer in the governorship race were the raison d’etre for dumping a political party that brought one to limelight. The electorates who toiled day and night laboriously to ensure that today’s gladiators in Oyo State politics came to power no longer count. It is ego on display, backed by ill-gotten wealth. This kind of behaviour and the negative use of money to confuse the electorate may not achieve much this time around because the voting public is wiser than it used to be.

    Evaluating Abiola Ajimobi’s administration in the last three years, it is crystal clear that he has raised the bar of governance from the pedestrian level of yester-years to an Olympian height, that has made Oyo State an investors’ destination of choice. The fact that the governor, unlike his contemporaries in other states, is peace loving, gentle and humane cannot be denied, even by his political foes. Consequently, a man who loves and protects his people, irrespective of political affiliations, and who treated them fairly and equally, to all intents and purposes, remains the best man, still, for the job.

    The Ajimobi administration’s footprints are spread across the state. Most of his policy thrusts are products of painstaking research and planning, with a photo-finish implementation strategies. Examples abound in his ground-breaking infrastructural development and beautification, youth empowerment, provision of portable water and maintenance of peace and security.

    Looking for a man who thinks outside the box, Ajimobi is it! The Ajimobi administration’s giant strides in the area of quality road construction and expansion, resuscitation of the moribund Agodi Gardens and the introduction of modern management of refuse, establishment of a Technical University, among others are quite commendable.

    The administration has changed the face of the state through heavy investment in provision and maintenance of social infrastructure, as exemplified by the Mokola Fly-Over, the first of its kind in the history of any civilian administration in Oyo State. Unlike his predecessors, Ajimobi’s insistence on quality road jobs and fitting drainages that will stand the test of time, stands him out as a man of vision. If the assessment of experts were anything to go by, the road projects across Oyo State were done in line with best practices for the government to ensure value for money and the road users to enjoy a long lasting road network, geared towards improving the state economy.

    It is against this background that eminent citizens of the state and beyond have been associating with the Ajimobi phenomenon in Oyo State. The endorsements from the late Alhaji Abdul-Azeez Arisekola Alao, Aare Musulumi of Yorubaland, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Dr. Olapade Agoro, notable individuals and groups, foremost traditional rulers, members of the academic community could only be symptomatic of the handiwork of a performing governor. The question that readily arises is: What can Ajimobi offer this cross section of the people that would make them a rented crowd or campaign instruments? Give it to them, they must have seen what God had used Ajimobi for in the lives of the Oyo State people, who in their estimation, deserved the best this time around, after many years of crass opportunism, maladministration and neglect by the erstwhile lacklustre political class.

    As it is customary, politicians at a time like this, will engage all manners of campaign of calumny, character assassination and diversionary tactics. One thing that should be paramount in the minds of the good people of Oyo State, as the election draws nearer, is to evaluate all those who will genuinely serve their interests. Political jobbers, opportunists and discredited politicians, particularly those standing trial for criminal charges, should be rejected at the polls, lest the people be taken back and the hope of a better tomorrow for themselves and their children will continue to hang in the balance.

    Since a bird in hand, is worth more than 10 in the bush, Ajimobi, who has been tested and seen to have a clear vision and rare commitment, should be trusted to complete his good works. It is precarious to gamble with today’s disgruntled elements who have no clear record of public service, and who are better known as cobweb politicians with no clear-cut political pedigree and belief. Politicians that  oscillate like an Ibo fan, are not the right class Oyo State requires to go to the next level.

    There is no gainsaying the fact that Abiola Ajimobi’s passion to serve, commitment and deliverables on his electoral promises in the last three years should earn him a second term without fuss. It is apparent that Ajmobi’s rare achievements as governor are the major albatross around the neck of opposition politicians in Oyo State today. They have a Herculean task of convincing people of throwing away a jar of honey in place of a piece of bean cake. However, the final decision of the good people of Oyo State is in the belly of time!

     

    • Oluwa, a Public Affairs analyst writes from Ibadan, Oyo State.

  • Enugu impeachment saga in perspective

    Expectedly, the impeachment proceedings commenced by the Enugu State House of Assembly against the Deputy Governor of the state, Mr Sunday Onyebuchi, have continued to generate much attention and attract sundry reactions in both the regular and the social media.

    Much of the frenzy as usual, is easily attributable to the perennial mischief-makers and detractors of the government whose attempts to distort the facts and demonize Governor Sullivan Chime and some of his principal officers notably, the Chief of Staff, Mrs Ifeoma Nwobodo, have gone rather psyschotic.

    Despite the fact that the House of Assembly gave express and explicit reasons for its action against the deputy governor, these fellows would have none of it, instead they have continued to generate and circulate fairy tales claiming them to be the real reasons behind the Assembly’s move against Mr Onyebuchi.

    For purposes of clarity, the House upon a motion signed by 22 of its 24 members directed the Clerk of the House to serve an impeachment notice on the Deputy Governor for abuse of office and disobedience to the lawful directives of the governor. The House went ahead to give the particulars and details of the offences. In the first instance, it stated that the Deputy had in flagrant disregard of an existing law in the state, continued to maintain and operate a commercial poultry farm within the premises of his official residential quarters; and further refused to carry out the directives of the relevant officials of the government, including the governor himself, to remove the poultry.

    Instead of carrying out the directive, the deputy governor invited the press to ridicule his own government and its principal officiers. On the second charge the Assembly had this to say, “The deputy governor habitually refuses, fails and or neglects to carry out and or perform the functions of his office as directed by the governor  pursuant to section 193 (1) of the Constitution, without any excuse. Details of this manifest breach of the Constitution as aforesaid include the following:

    (a) On the 11th day of March, 2014, the deputy governor was directed by the governor to represent him (i.e. the governor) at the flag-off ceremony of the construction of the 2nd Niger Bridge in Onitsha by the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federation of Nigeria, His Excellency, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan; but the deputy governor refused to attend the ceremony.

    (b)    The deputy governor also blatantly refused to represent the governor at the South-East Governors Forum, held at The Lion Building, Enugu on Sunday, 6th of July, 2014, despite the express directive of the governor to represent him at the Forum.

    (c)    The deputy governor persists in his defiance of lawful directives issued to him by the governor, which defiance has adversely affected and will continue to affect the smooth running of the government; and he will continue to do so if not removed from office.

    Still, the Assembly, accorded the deputy governor his statutory right to fair hearing by giving him 7 days to respond to the charges.

    However, even as unambiguous and explicit as these charges are, the hack writers would rather chose to claim that the deputy governor’s impeachment woes are a result of his intention to contest the Enugu East-Senatorial elections against the Chief of Staff, Mrs Nwobodo.

    This claim is as nonsensical as it is puerile and clearly portrays the hollowness and pettiness of its creators. Aside from the fact that it would have been the first time that many people, including the electorate in Enugu East, were to learn that the deputy governor was interested in the senatorial contest, one would find it difficult to understand how his removal from office would stop him from participating in the contest-assuming he is really interested.

    I refrain from making judgment on the political heft of the deputy governor in the state (as to warrant a sinister plot to stop him)  but suffice it to say that whether  or not he remained in office as deputy governor, he cannot be prevented from pursuing his ambitions if any. Therefore, seeking to remove him for the said reason would only amount to chasing shadows or window dressing.  I don’t believe that the Chime administration and its officers have time for such frivolities.

    Rather than shadow boxing and trying to dodge the real issues, any reasonable person would rather be concerned about the veracity or otherwise of the charges against the deputy governor.

    Did he or did he not commit those offences and are the offences not enough to warrant his removal?  Could anyone in all honesty expect that a principal would continue to trust a second in command who flagrantly disregards laws and his own instructions.  Could any responsible House of Assembly sit by and watch such impunity and impudence fester in the executive arm to such extent as to threaten the government’s relationship with other governments, including the Federal Government? Could anyone imagine what questions could have assailed the mind of President Goodluck Jonathan when he discovered that Enugu State was not represented at the flag-off of the second Niger Bridge?Or could one imagine how the governors of other South-East states would have felt when they attended a meeting in Enugu only to discover that their hosts were absent?

    Ever since he became the governor of Enugu State, Sullivan has shown himself to be a very tolerant and patient man even  to his own detriment. He has weathered all manner of plots, abuses, insults and assaults from his enemies but had rather than join them in the trenches, remained true to his mission of transforming the state. He has endured treachery and subterfuge from close associates but remained ever focused on his job.

     

     

  • International relations in historical perspective – 4

    The outcome of the politics of balance of power and realpolitik was the First World War which for the first time involved practically the whole world in what began essentially as a European conflict but which eventually ended as a world cataclysm and conflict. In ending the war, the traditional American idealism was brought into play when President Thomas Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), 28th president of the United States (1913-1921), enunciated the famous Fourteen Point Programme. Chief among these programmes were the ideas of open covenants openly entered into, self-determination for all peoples and the idea of international government as seen in the League of Nations. American idealism was supported by Soviet socialism since the collapse of Tsarist Russia in 1917. In this way, for purely ideological reasons, the principle of self-determination enunciated by President Wilson was supported by Soviet Russia as a way of removing the cause of wars which socialists generally saw as the struggle for market and raw materials among the industrialized countries of Europe.

    There was a campaign against previous diplomatic practice characterized by secret treaties that eventually led to the First World War.

    Apart from the idealism of President Wilson for ‘open covenants’ and the ideological opposition to secret deals by Soviet Russia, there arose in England particularly within the Labour Party a “Committee for democratic control” of foreign policy. But the tradition of secrecy surrounding diplomacy was so strong that things continued as before until the greater cataclysm of the Second World War of 1939 to 1945. These revolutionary ideas had no chance of surviving in a world still dominated by Europeans who were married to their age-old ideas of territorial conquests, and aggrandisement, reparations and politics of national interests. The idealism of Woodrow Wilson was stopped in its track by the politics of bitterness and revenge of the French Statesman George Benjamin Clemenceau (1841-1929) and the traditional British politics of maintaining a balance of power in Europe as seen in the Versailles peace settlement of 1919, of which the British Prime Minister David Lloyd George (1863-1945) was one of the architects. International relations was dominated by the attempts by the post world war government of Italy and Germany to undo what was regarded as a primitive diktat imposed on the vanquished nations by the victorious powers at Versailles in 1919. The new world order which Woodrow Wilson had attempted to build never really took off because of the territorial avarice of France and Great Britain and the unchanging nature of international politics. Professor A.J.P. Taylor in his brilliant book, The Origins of the Second World War, directly linked the rise of Adolph Hitler (1889-1945) to the short-sightedness of the architects of the Versailles peace settlement.

    In spite of America’s traditional commitment to a policy of isolation, she was forced into the Second World War when imperial Japan attacked the American pacific fleet at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii in 1941. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945), the 32nd President of the United States, brought the weight, resources and Wilsonian idealism of America against the Axis powers of Hitler’s Germany, Hirohito (1901-1989), and Hideki Tojo’s (1884-1948) Japan and Benito Mussolini’s (1883-1945) Italy. The collapse of the axis powers became only a matter of time when one realises that the linchpin, at least in Europe, of the Axis powers, Germany was at the same time engaged in a life or death struggle with Soviet Russia under Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (1879-1953). Eventually Germany was brought to its knees and Adolph Hitler committed suicide in 1945 rather than be captured by Russian troops. The Japanese surrendered to General Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964) later in the year after America exploded the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki following the successful Manhattan project led by James Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967) which resulted in building the first atomic bombs.

    The introduction of this weapon of mass destruction changed international relations for all time. Politics among nations was now dominated by serious attempt at avoidance of wars between the major powers. Although, as much as America struggled to uphold her policy of collective security through the new institution of the United Nations, traditional politics of national interests and territorial aggrandisement dominated the politics of the Soviet Union which combined traditional Tsarist policy of pan-slavism with the politics of balance of power. America later succumbed to the politics of balance of power when it formed, in the face of Soviet constant expansion in Europe, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to serve as deterrence against Russia in 1948. Russia was of course driven by her national interests. Having suffered about 20 million casualties during the Second World War and suffered another 20 million because of starvation and forceful collectivisation of agricultural production, she could hardly afford the idealism of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The death of Roosevelt in 1945 and the ascension to power by Harry S. Truman (1884-1972), 33rd president of the United States (1945-1953), brought more realism into American foreign policy and set in motion the so-called Truman doctrine of the policy of containment of communism, through regional military pacts and alliances in Europe, the Middle East (Baghdad Pact) and Asia (SEATO), in which the United States and the Western alliance were determined to oppose communism, where Western interests were threatened.

    The division of the world into two rival camps was made permanent by the victory of the communists in China in 1949 under Chairman Mao Zedong (1893-1976), the same year in which the Soviet Union acquired the atomic bomb. The splitting of the atom and the development of hydrogen bombs by Russia restored the balance of power between the United States and the USSR. It was however not until 1955 that the Soviet Union developed the strategic bomber force that had the capacity to deliver nuclear bombs on American cities. From this period began the concept of balance of terror or Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) a scenario in which in the event of nuclear war there would be neither a victor nor a vanquished. J.F. Kennedy (1917-1963), 35th president of the United States said in the case of this eventuality, “the living would envy the dead”. The explosion of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki shook the world to its very foundation and finally changed the way mankind previously used war as one of the options of state policy. The total destruction brought by nuclear weapons made Albert Einstein (1879-1995) to say that he did not know what weapons would be used in the third world war, but he was sure that sticks and stones would be used in the fourth world war. This is to say the third world war of thermonuclear exchanges would so obliterate civilization that man would go back to the Stone Age. This certain suicide by humanity has never dissuaded the Russian and the Americans from contemplating the use of theatre nuclear weapons, the so-called neutron bombs that would kill man without destroying property. It is nevertheless quite clear that if and when mankind again passes the threshold of military use of nuclear weapons that would open a Pandora box and would in the words of Winston Churchill (1874-1965) constitute the beginning of the end if not the end of the beginning.

    This thought of Armageddon has remained a factor of deterrence since the beginning of the cold war and up till now. The awesomeness of the destructive force of nuclear weapons has led to the various international disarmament conventions, treaties and protocols and to the permanent meeting of the U.N. disarmament conference in Geneva for almost six decades. This is an institution which has taken on a character of its own and to which all nations including our own accredit ambassadors and diplomats. In short, an uneasy modus Vivendi was established in the way each of the super powers related to one another.