The Nation Newspaper

Tag: wars

  • House wars

    You probably know Star Wars, particularly if you gobble science fiction. The Star Wars series resonate well in that genre, particularly in movies.

    But House Wars?  Probably not.  But that appears the latest hair-raising drama in Nigeria’s political space, with the ace dramatic personae priming their acts in the troubled Kogi State.  It promises turbo-charged drama!

    The House tango sprang from the March 9 reported House of Representatives takeover of the Kogi legislature, following a tussle over disputed speakership, with two claimants Momohjimoh Lawal (purportedly impeached former Speaker) and Umar Imam (purportedly elected new Speaker).  The House of Representatives declared it was taking charge because of the stalemate, in line with Section 11(4) of the 1999 Constitution.

    Trouble started on February 14 when a faction of the Kogi legislature, claiming it had 17 signatures (out of 25 members) to impeach Lawal, announced it had replaced him with Imam. But in a riposte at a news conference, Lawal claimed he remained Speaker, since he had the support of 20 members.  With the ding-dong, resulting in operational paralysis, Lawal took his case to the National Assembly, which, after charging a committee to investigate the crisis, handed down its March 9 decision, calling on IGP Solomon Arase to shut down the Kogi House, until the claimants resolved the problem.

    But on March 10, the Imam faction, with 10 members in attendance, poured cold water on the House of Representatives’ decision.  It convened a special valedictory session for James Ocholi, SAN, the minister of state for Labour and Employment, a Kogi son who just died in a tragic auto crash.

    The Imam faction even added a sheen of legalism to its rebellion, which many would regard as audacious.  “This Assembly is in session, transacting its legislative business at the plenary sitting and committee meeting,” thundered the factional Speaker. “I call on the Senate to discountenance the concurrence sought by the House of Representatives and direct same to re-examine the prevailing situation disinterestedly and with a view to finding a solution to this problem.”

    Talk of upping the ante!  Meanwhile, the Lawal faction scrupulously stayed out of chambers.  But a casual math.  Imam claims he has 17 members backing him.  But only 10 showed up at his rebel session.  Lawal too says 20 members still endorse him.  Could part of his 20 have attended his rival’s session, given the fact that five of the 25-member legislature had had their elections voided?

    It is well and truly a Kogi peculiar mess, that somewhat echoes the ace British TV comedy: Some folks do have them!

    Kogi’s controversial Governor, Yahaya Bello, faces intra-APC opponents at the election tribunal, who taunt him as “supplementary governor”; a Kogi version of the federal experience of Chief Ernest Shonekan, a fidihe (interim) occupier of office, soon to be judicially unhorsed.

    At the legislative front, the Kogi House appears split right through the middle, with a pugnacious Imam half, even upping the stakes! The big question is: who blinks first?  It is the making of a Kogi roforofo fight!

    Indeed, some Kogi folks do have them!

  • The poster wars

    SIR: The on-going poster wars going amongst various political parties across the country will not augur well for our democracy. The destruction of bill boards, burning of parties buses, removal of other political parties posters are the current trend witnessed across the length and breadth of the political landscape.

    Recently, it was reported a political party procured some vehicles for the February election and that nobody dared to drive the vehicles to its intended destination because of fears of attack to be meted to the drivers.  This is wrong.

    All political parties have the right to display their posters in any part of this country and to sell their candidature to the electorate without any intimidation and harassment. The various political parties should call their supporters to order to eschew any form of violence before during and after the elections.

    Nigeria has come of age to allow issues of posters war to becloud their sense of judgment. We should not allow the posters war to disturb our quest for positive change that we desire in our lives.

    I call on relevant stakeholders and security agencies to be proactive in dealing with any form of

    disturbance that would adversely affect the smooth conduct of the general elections barely few weeks away.

     

    • Bala Nayashi

    Lokoja, Kogi State

  • Unequal wars in Ukraine and Palestine

    Wars are terrible things to happen in the lives of anybody. Human beings right from the time Homo sapiens evolved from ape men have been in a struggle of survival of the fittest. Stone Age men fought with stones and sticks but from the Iron Age onwards, wars have become destructive to the point of the nuclear age when wars between nuclear powers would lead to the total annihilation of life as we know it. Albert Einstein, the father of the atomic age famously said he did not know what would be used to fight the Third World War but that he knew that the fourth would be fought with stones and sticks, indirectly affirming the fact that nuclear holocaust would end human life as we know it. Some scientists have argued that rats could survive a nuclear holocaust and they will inherit the earth after man must have willingly or unwillingly self-destruct. During the 19th century, the century full of wars in Europe, there began an argument about “just” or “unjust” wars. This was in reaction to certain ideas of some philosophers who argued that wars were a cleansing process for national resurgence and that triumph of a victorious country over another constituted an advance of civilisation and that this was the march of God on earth. Of course, it can be argued that wars of defence were just wars whereas wars of aggression were unjust wars but then military strategists would argue that offence is the best form of defence in which case the margin of difference between wars of aggression and wars of defence is very thin. But at the same time, there are wars that are unequal between bullies and weaker countries. American invasion of Panama, Grenada or even Vietnam was unequal war between the combatant nations. Whereas, wars between the British Empire and the German empire in the early 20th century between 1914 and 1918 were wars between equals. In fact it used to be said that a war between the British Empire and the German empire was like a struggle between a hippopotamus and an elephant. The British were supreme on the sea and the German on land. When the forces of the third Reich invaded Russia in 1941, the two powers were equally matched.The Germans had an edge over communist Russia and Germany seemed to have bitten more than it could chew by fighting wars on two fronts- the eastern and the western fronts.

    The nuclear age has led to proxy wars in which surrogates backed by rival powers fight each other without the nuclear powers being directly involved. In spite of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1994, the spirit of the cold war is still much alive. The Russian federation always appears to take a position opposed to whatever position the western powers take on any given issue and conflict. In Syria and in Libya, these antagonistic positions are manifestly clear. Russia supports the Bashir al-Assad’s regime in Syria while the west is opposed to that regime. In Libya, Russia was slow to make its position clear thus allowing the west to walk over the Colonel Muhammad Gaddafi regime. The ideological differences in today’s global conflicts are not as sharp as before. The Russian federation is no longer a communist state. It is practising some form of guided democracy in which Vladimir Putin is acting like a Romanov Czar wanting to recover all the so-called lost territories of Russia. This is the only way one can understand why Russia annexed Crimea and it is prepared to dismantle what is left of Ukraine. Russia is arming the rebels of Ukraine with lethal weapons one of which has been used to bring down the civilian Malaysian plane killing almost 300 souls most of who are from Holland and a substantial number of these are children. This terrible disaster has happened to the Malaysian airline, the second such disaster within six months. The search for the disappeared Malaysian airline in the Indian Ocean is still on-going. The tragedy that has befallen the Malaysian airline would definitely lead to the bankruptcy of the airline, because it is inconceivable that anyone would board that airline again. While it is understandable that Russia may want to protect the rights and lives of ethnic Russians in Ukraine, it is dangerous for Russia to make the protection of Russians in all former Soviet bloc countries a state policy. A policy of this sort will lead to wars in almost all the 15 republics into which the Soviet Union dissolved. A full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine will be a tragedy because it will be an unequal war and the result will be so horrendous and there will be nothing anybody can do about it because western intervention will spark a nuclear war. The wars in Iraq and northern Syria with so-called Islamic caliphate of Iraq and the Levant for now can be seen as an internal war with possible serious consequences for peace and security in the entire Middle East.

    But the war between Israel and Hamas calls for sober reflection. This is a human tragedy of immense proportion. The war is totally unequal and by the time this war is brought to an end, hundreds of Palestinians would have been murdered while a few Israelis would have died. The Israelis have total control of the sea and the air.They are shelling from the sea and bombing from the air and lobbing artillery shells into a piece of territory in which human beings are packed like sardines. Palestine for almost a decade has been totally hedged in by Israeli blockade on one side and surprisingly by Egyptian blockade on the other because Hamas and the dreaded Muslim brotherhood are allies. Israel claims it is fighting a just war because since its creation in 1947, the Arabs were committed to its destruction. Most of the Arabs have backed away from this position but the Palestinians particularly Hamas have refused to recognise the right of Israel to exist in old Palestine. While their position is understandable, it is not realistic. Israel has come to stay and any force on earth that is determined to bring Israel down would go down with Israel in a nuclear incineration. But at the same time, should humanity just watch Israel using mostly American weapons and political support from the USA to slaughter hapless and helpless Palestinians who driven to the wall have been sending to Israel, ineffective crude missiles from the Gaza strip. For every Israeli citizen killed, the Jewish state is not only able and willing to inflict retribution based not only on an eye for an eye, but the life of an Israeli for hundreds of lives of Palestinians. Ideally, a two-state solution which the superpowers say they are committed to would be the best way out but the fear in Israel is that if a viable Palestinian state were to be created with full right of sovereignty over its waters and airspace, it will perpetually arm itself for a future showdown with Israel. On the other hand, a totally disarmed independent Palestine would be an easy target for Israeli aggression whenever there is a problem between the two countries.Yet a way must be found out for these two ancient suffering peoples to live together. Some have suggested a secular state of Palestine bringing back old Palestine in which Jews and Arabs live together which would be an ideal situation. This kind of proposition is not based on political realism yet Israel and Palestine is home to the three monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam with the holy sites of the three religions in the two countries. The eternal city of Jerusalem is also claimed by the two communities. The international community must step in and find a way for future peace between Israel and Palestine and if the problem is left to fester, the wound being inflicted on the Palestinians may again lead to a major confrontation between Israel, the Arabs, the Persians and other Muslim powers one of which is now a nuclear power thus cancelling out the nuclear advantage of Israel

  • Wars without end… Victims without end…

    Wars without end… Victims without end…

    What is with men and wars, I’ll never know, but records show that over ninety per cent of wars in this world have been initiated and executed by men. No, no, I am not starting an argument, just stating a fact. Just think, in the lifetime of any given male, the chances that he would initiate or help to execute a war is close to fifty per cent. Imagine that! I know that when they were little, my children initiated many wars against each other, mostly over nothing, but that doesn’t even count. The fighting gene nevertheless appears to run true and deep in all men.

    Most worrisome, however, is the fact that somehow, the fighting genes running loose in men are now being transfused into women and other things. Women, knowing no better and no different, proudly don the togas of war, supposedly for love and country and head out, leaving behind tearful babies, crying children and baffled husbands. Tch, tch. If those women only knew the truth – that they have been infected by the blood running in men’s veins – they would know better where to direct their heaving chests of indignation. All together, mankind has become like a couple of pigeons which seems to do nothing but flap their wings in real antagonism towards each other three mornings a week behind my fence. What the bone of contention is exactly, no one can tell, but all we seem to get from them are their emotions all flapped up.

    Actually, nothing excuses mankind’s behaviour which seems to stem from the belief that only the fisticuffs can settle any and all matters. This is why we now have community, civil, international, cyber, psychological and, most worrisome of all, domestic wars. And with the match of science, those simple fisticuffs have been translated into the rat-ta-tat-at-tat of machine guns or the booms of cannons aimed at other human beings just like them. I don’t know about you but anytime I have stumbled across TV programmes depicting war scenes, I have been struck by one question: to what purpose?

    Just recently, I read the story of a soldier who was shot at the war front but instead of falling and dying quickly, he got caught on the barbed wire that separated the two sides in the war. The war continued around him however with shots from the guns but now punctuated by his own groans of pain as he slowly bled. His own friends could not come to his rescue for fear of being hit. Finally, a soldier from the side which had hit him in the first place could stand the groans no longer so he put down his gun and ran towards the dying man. Both sides, seeming to realise what he was going to do, ceased firing at each other and watched him in disbelief as he gently disentangled the wounded man and carried him across to the enemy line and gave him to his friends. As he turned to go back to his side of the war, he felt a hand on his shoulder. It was the commanding officer of the enemy troop who removed a bravery medal from his own uniform and pinned it on the rescuer and saluted. Both sides then waited for him to run back to his side before they resumed their insane game.

    Today, the world remembers the millions and millions of victims of the World War 2 Holocaust but we are expanding it here to include all victims of the insane thing called war all over the world. Sources say that presently, there are one hundred and forty-six wars being fought and from these, over one thousand people are dying yearly. This gives us a very frightening picture indeed considering that it shows a considerable build-up of victims of war who are mostly women, children and the aged. The worst part is that these victims, and the wounded and dead soldiers, have no clear understanding of what caused the war in the first place.

    So, who declares a war and why? As a member of the human race, and a national of a country located somewhere on this planet, I think I have the right to know. Who the deuce feels he is obliged to declare a war where he does not often go to fight but only the young and able-bodied men (and now women) are obliged to go and be killed? I ask this because our lives, planet, children, and whether or not we wake up tomorrow depend on the answer. I believe that, and you can check this out, whoever declares a war must have a very little brain indeed, even tinier than mine, and he would be the kind of person that cannot even get along with his neighbour. Just watch out, next time someone declares a war around you, first interview his neighbour.

    There is a line that says that ‘Love has no religion, only God’. I don’t know exactly what that means but I can extrapolate that humans can choose the Christian, Muslim, Animist, Atheist, or the Love religion. Clearly, most people have not been choosing the Love religion because all wars in history have been started by someone from the other religions. This is quite different from the poster that reads ‘Make Love, not War.’ Again, I don’t know what that means either but I would guess that it still borders on what choices we make.

    I honestly don’t know what war-mongers are really after: plunder, fame or power. Whatever it is, I think we should all accept right now that none of that stays if built on the sacrificed blood of innocent men and women. One can get better plunder by raiding a rat’s hide-out. They are the only creatures I know who gather what they don’t need. Fame can come from a variety of other activities. Try calling the press to witness as you jump down from a ten-story building unto a bed of hot coals and sharp nails. I tell you, you will be toasted at every gathering in the country for years without end. And power? Why, have you tried to imagine a king testing his power by standing without his aides in the path of a herd of rampaging elephants? Again, should that king survive, he will be toasted for ever as a very powerful man indeed. That takes me to a second line I found: ‘We should realise that we have not been put here to rule the world – God does’. Anyone who feels compelled to test that theory is free to because my third line has the answer for them: ‘Those who thought they did had to leave it’.

    Most people agree that wars have never solved any problem; they are only indulgences for old men looking for their manhood. They do not consider that wars without end only create victims without end. They also do not consider that the only things that wars leave behind are victims who do not even understand why they are being called on to be victims. They are helpless against the insatiate appetites of men to seek and create drama everywhere. This column commiserates with all victims of war today; they are the ones who have to deal with, and pick up pieces of lives shattered by, the insanity of war.

    The long and short of it is that wars are not good; let us stop them. Only God himself can put out the flame of domestic wars, but we can try our best with the rest. Those do nothing but point to the failure of human intelligence. Nothing succeeds as much as good governance, fairness and justice. A good mixture of those elements can give us a world without wars, Amen.

     

  • Budget wars

    Budget wars

    For many months before President Goodluck Jonathan finally read the 2013 budget estimates, the National Assembly had been squirming over what they described as poor implementation of the 2012 budget. The legislators became so angry that for a time it was believed they were unwilling to have the president present the budget. There were even parliamentary discussions suggesting the National Assembly would first undertake a tour of the country to assess how well the president implemented the outgoing budget, before he was given a hearing. Eventually, the budget was presented last week, but not without its dramatic moments, some of which were captured by the press. The president, it was reported, uncharacteristically and directly requested for copies of the scathing speeches made by the Senate President David Mark and Speaker of the House of Representatives Aminu Tambuwal on the federal government’s indefensible budgetary habits. A surprised and embarrassed Tambuwal was said to have demurred, but finally surrendered his copy to the president.

    In their remarks, Mark pledged to Jonathan and all Nigerians that the legislature would not “robotically pass the budget estimates as presented,” while Tambuwal groaned that the president had not impressed anyone in implementing the 2012 budget. These remarks have in turn triggered another firestorm. Heralding the storm was the veritable storm trooper himself, aka attack dog, Dr Doyin Okupe, a presidential assistant newly recruited and dying to prove himself and justify his wages. He berated both Mark and Tambuwal for nursing unrealistic expectations of the 2012 budget, and for speaking, according to him, indecorously to the president. In any case, he summed up patronisingly, the remarks were not necessary, for the president had presented a “masterly” budget.

    Had the cantankerous Okupe remembered that neither Mark nor Tambuwal suffer fools gladly, perhaps he would have been more restrained in waving a red rag to two bulls at the same time, with Tambuwal even more bullish than the average. Predictably, the two top legislators have taken up the challenge with alacrity and have thundered their own replies. Mark described Okupe as meddlesome, acerbic and dedicated to making enemies for the president rather than friends. It will be recalled that on an earlier incident, in which Okupe spoke defiantly to the Senate leadership, Mark had characterised the presidential assistant as someone who spoke before thinking. With his latest attack on the National Assembly leadership, that unflattering impression of Okupe will now naturally endure in the Senate. On his own, Tambuwal described Okupe as ignorant, uncouth, disrespectful and overzealous. That image of Okupe will not change in a million years in the House of Representatives.

    If Okupe’s manners grate on the nerves of the National Assembly leadership, it is probably music to the ears of his employers who recruited him to pep up the communication world in the presidency, a world that had threatened to mummify in airy intellectualism, somnolence and pacifism. Aah, that sanguine feeling; there is nothing like descending to the mire and becoming down-to-earth pugnacious. For the presidency, here at last was their Java man, the missing link whom archaeologists describe as Pithecanthropus erectus. If his employers are satisfied with his combativeness, who cares what anyone thinks?

    Among other issues, the real budget fight will be over the $80 oil benchmark proposed by the National Assembly, as against the $75 suggested by the Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. Her arguments are simple but apocalyptic. If $80 benchmark is used, she warns, it will fuel inflation, devalue the naira, lower savings, and reduce investments. She has not offered convincing proof how these scary scenarios will come about, or why it has to be $75 benchmark and not $70 or even $60. All she knows is that the wizards who drafted the budget used realistic economic model and standard technique common to commodity-dependent countries. So far, the legislators are unimpressed. More, they have threatened that the budget dispute would not be considered as a family affair. Read that to mean war – a war Tambuwal cheekily suggested should help the president to be a better man in delivering the dividends of democracy and implementing budget proposals.