Nigeria, Going , Going…?

 By Magnus Onyibe

Imagine a man standing at the edge of a cliff and a demon is standing behind him wielding a bazooka firearm menacingly, with the intent to blow the man off the cliff, or simply just give him a kick from behind so that he would fall to his death. That in my estimation,(and l believe in the assessment of most Nigerians)is the dire situation in which our country and indeed our compatriots are currently trapped.

No matter, how government spin doctors try, they can no longer pull-the-wool over-our-eyes with the false claim that since Boko Haram is no more holding swathes of Nigeria’s territory in the north which was the case before 2015,terrorism has not only been highly degraded, but it is in the throes of death and technically defeated.

In my view, Boko Haram and ISWAP are no longer interested in holding territories where they could be engaged in conventional warfare with Nigerian army that has superior fire power with which it could be defeated in direct confrontations or conventional war.

Rather, they seem to be more interested in what used to be referred to as guerrilla warfare, now known as asymmetric warfare whereby they come out of the shadows, make deadly strikes and run back into hiding.

And it is a warfare in which Nigerian military seem to be flat footed simply because it lacks the required tools like drones and other sophisticated weaponry to successfully prosecute it as the USA and UK armies have been doing to terrorists. Even then, terrorists have only been prevented from striking in the USA and UK territories and not in the Middle East or Africa.

In light of the recent violence that they unleashed in Abuja, it is my considered opinion that our men and women in the theater of war need re-training in asymmetric warfare, so as to be able to live up to expectations.

As l have stated in the past, it is the patent lies by government spokesmen that bandits have been defeated that is perhaps infuriating the outlaws to the extent that they have now become furious and more deadly in their onslaughts against government and what symbolizes it.

That is evidenced by their recent dare-devil attacks on president Muhammadu Buhari a fortnight ago, when his advance party to Daura, Katsina state which is his homestead was brazenly ambushed by the elements that have taken up arms against government.

Just in case anyone failed to notice how emboldened the criminal elements had become, after the Abuja-Kaduna bound train attack with multiple casualties and kidnap of victims for ransom, the subsequent commando style invasion of Kuje prison facility in the heart of Abuja to release their members that were being held in captivity, must have left no further doubt that Abuja is no longer impregnable to the bandits intent on not only rattling, but also unhinging the process of governance at the centre.

As if adding salt to injury, the nefarious ambassadors boasted in a trending video footage featuring some of the bandits freed from Kuje prison that they would kidnap the president and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, C-In-C, General Muhammadu Buhari and Kaduna state governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai with a view to ‘arraigning’ them in their own ‘court’ deep in the forest where they are operating their parallel government.

As comical as the threat appears to be, it should not to be taken with levity in view of the fact that the outlaws had made good their past threats to invade Abuja via the recent invasion of Kuje prison in the heart of Abuja and a follow up with another ambush attack on the military that resulted in the killing of some members of the elite presidential guards brigade who had responded to calls for help in the Bwari and Zuma Rock axis, in the outskirts of Abuja.
These proposed and executed threats are clear testimonies to how emboldened the armed malcontents have become.

It may be recalled that the clear and imminent danger to the security of lives and properties in Abuja compelled the authorities of Nigerian law school located in Bwari - the scene of the presidential guard and bandits bloody shoot out-to shift its annual ceremonies for the induction of fresh lawyers into the bar, to the International Conference Center, instead of the Law school auditorium.

But despite the precautionary measures of shutting down schools in around the Federal Capital Territory, FCT to avert further calamity, the tepid response by the minister of information Lai Mohamed to the threatening rants by the outlaws which should ordinarily have been deemed as heresy of some sorts, to the chagrin of most Nigerians, the minister seem to have deemed the threat as a bluff by dismissing it with a wave of the hand.

Thankfully, the military, which has my sympathy because they are fighting a war whose method they are unfamiliar with, is taking the threat more seriously.

Hence the national security council meeting called by Mr. president last week(July 28) has resulted in the recent reshuffling of the military high command with practically all the General Officers Commanding, GOCs being deployed to desk jobs in the military headquarters with the exception of one two that got swapped.

But is that measure, which appears to be cosmetic, drastic enough to mitigate or stymy the new aggression from the felons ?

Given the puerile outcome of the change of military service chiefs a couple of years ago when Nigerians vigorously clamored for it, would the current exercise of shuffling G. O. Cs not be tantamount to treating leprosy with medicine meant for eczema?

On the strength of the above narrative, and in the event that the new measures towards improving our internal security architecture prove to be inadequate, would a continued downward slope of the security situation not be indicative of the fact that Nigeria is going, going …?

It goes without saying that insecurity and poverty are bedfellows as they co-mingle, with the former feeding into the latter or vice versa.
Hence they are both acknowledged to be mutually reinforcing malaise.

And they are elements that astute leaders of countries constantly strive to prevent from taking hold under their watch.

But dismayingly, that is the combination of destructive factors that have become entrenched and are on the verge of strangulating our country.

The above assertion is underscored by the fact that, apart from the threat of insecurity wracking the polity, the pang of hunger is wreaking its own type of havoc on the critical mass of Nigerians as earlier illustrated in the opening paragraph with the man on the tip of a cliff about to be kicked off into the abyss.

The metaphorical presentation of the man standing at the edge of a cliff and the demon that is anxious to knock him of the face of Mother Earth is a mental illustration of how precarious the life of an average Nigerian has become ,and which is a damning testimony that our country men and women are under siege and there seem to be no respite or breathing space for them.

Could a word or two of encouragement and assurance from the president and commander-in-chief, C in C of the armed forces of Nigeria not have boosted the morale of Abuja dwellers, in particular and Nigerians as a whole, in this present time ?

As things currently stand, life in Nigeria is such that if one is fortunate not to die in the hands of the merchants of death now ruling the roost by manifesting in many guises-Boko Haram, ISWAP, Herdsmen militia, Bandits, known and unknown gunmen and kidnappers as well as money ritualist-then hunger and starvation may finally do the job of killing the masses, if the current monsters that have converted our country into a killing field and strangulating are economy are not neutralized, literally and otherwise.

The absurdity of the atmosphere of strife in our polity that has rendered her comatose or turned it belly-up is even made worse when one remembers that our beloved country that was so rich that it once loaned money to Saudi Arabia several decades ago, has become such a pauper that it is currently the poverty headquarters of the world by the sheer number of the populace living below poverty line.

What a classical case of a drop from Olympian heights!

While the natural disasters which Haiti in North America regularly experiences is the reason that it is the poorest country in that region, Nigeria is the new poverty capital of the world, due to poor management of ethno-religious relationships and its natural resources.

Now, it is estimated in some circles that about nineteen(19.9) billion United States dollars had so far been expended by Nigerian authorities in prosecuting the war against insecurity in our beloved country.

If that mind blowing figure is correct,(and l have no reason to doubt that it is) then apart from the loss of limbs and lives by innocent Nigerians and our gallant men and women in uniform prosecuting the war, the battle against insecurity is undoubtedly a major drain pipe and therefore a vicarious cause of the financial hemorrhaging of our scarce financial resources going on in the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN epitomized by the galloping rate of inflation and free fall of the naira.

Put succinctly, battling insecurity is one of the main demons sucking the financial blood of our country, hence it is now anaemic, having been drained of most of its resources and the reason the naira is currently like a yo-yo, and basic commodities-food and medicine – are now beyond the reach of a critical mass of Nigerians.

The other epidemic ravaging Nigeria is the amount of money that is believed to have been lost by our leaders via their unbridled commitment to funding petrol subsidy with a whooping four (4) trillion naira, just in 2022 budget, which is unsustainable.

In my view, pouring such humongous amount into subsidizing petrol is actually a loss simply because it is like pouring water into a basket.
Obviously, petrol subsidy gambit is an investment in consumption with negative effect on the economy, as opposed to subsidizing production that could have boosted the Gross Domestic Product, GDP via students loan, skills acquisition and other youths empowerment initiatives including supporting private sector investments in strategic sectors that would attract Foreign Direct Investment ,FDIs and boost employment that would lead to improved standard of living.

In the light of the above, subsidizing petrol pump price is also a culprit in the collapse of the naira and the descent of our country into an Intensive Care Unit, ICU where majority of our hapless country men and women are currently not only facing the scourge of insecurity that has consigned so many to their early graves, and those lucky to be alive, are detained in Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs camps.

Hitherto, it was assumed that it is only the unprecedented and monumental volumes of funds dedicated to petrol subsidy that had mainly been responsible for the financial dire straights that our country has been forced into.

Now, it is known to all of us that apart from Petrol Subsidy the other culprit is the obscene amount that government has been ploughing into trying to quell, with military force, internal ethno-religious violent conflicts fueling the crisis of insecurity, which has all the trappings of a civil war, but it can not be referred to as a full scare war, since it is asymmetric, rather than conventional.

The assertion above is underscored by the fact that, costs estimated to be up to nineteen ($19.9) billion dollars are believed to have so far been applied in funding the armed forces to end with brutal force, the internal war being waged against our country by multiple anti government gangs and sects.
If the trend of committing such huge financial resources into purchasing military hardware continues, the future of Nigeria and Nigerians maybe doomed unless, there is a paradigm shift or rethinking by our leaders.

In my considered opinion, one of the triggers for the calamity that has befallen Nigeria is the decision to apply only military force in the attempt to eliminate insecurity that is being driven by- Boko Haram, ISWAP, bandits and herdsmen Militia in the north, and environment rights agitators/militants in the Niger delta, as well as the so called known and unknown gunmen in the south-east, including money ritualist and kidnappers springing up in the south-west.

Due to the militarization of Nigeria via the policy of responding to violence with violence by government and which is being driven by the military that has received nearly twenty (20) billion dollars in funding, with no end in sight: it is disappointing that very little funding is going to the police force which is constitutionally entrusted with handling internal security.

It seems to me that there would not be any viable pathway out of the insecurity imbroglio in our country unless we resort to the traditional ways of maintaining internal security, which is by the police force- of the hue of community and state.

A justification for the assertion above is the fact that in Nigeria of today, it is basically the south west region that is relatively free of insecurity issues.
And that is largely owed to the work of AMOTEKUN - a south west region funded vigilante group that operates at community level.
With the exception of the dastardly Owo church massacre allegedly by herdsmen militia, and skirmishes around Oyo and Ekiti states forests, Yoruba land has not been be-spoiled by the marauders.

Of course, local policing which AMOTEKUN is all about also requires funding, and it makes combating security a drain pipe on the region’s resources which could have been channeled into improving on the provision of infrastructure such as education and other social services whose foundation was laid by the late sage Obafemi Awolowo, renown for his adeptness in human and material resource management.

But as long as insecurity remains the reason for the arrested development of Nigeria, in the absence of state/community police which the federal government and National Assembly, NASS have failed to introduce or endorse, relying on pseudo state police such as vigilante groups as fall back position, becomes magnified as a viable option, especially owing to its success in the south west.

Make no mistake about it, It is the twin policies of dealing with violence with violence instead of combining it with good old policing; and the continuous subsidizing of petrol pump price which amounts to subsidizing consumption, as opposed to subsidizing production activities like education, facilitating the use of alternative power sources like solar and wind energy, that are like two stones tied on the neck of Nigeria, after which it is pushed into the ocean of life in which it is expected to swim or sink.

Unsurprisingly, instead of swimming, our country is sinking to the bottom of the sea due to the burden or consequences of the wrong headed policies of its leaders.

So that we can all see and appreciate the gargantuan financial burden weighing our country down ,allow me make it more stark with the statistics below:
A breakdown of figures released by National Economic Summit Group, NESG, indicates that the cost of petrol subsidy annually rose from N307 billion in 2015 to N1.77 trillion last year and for 2022,there is a provision of N4 trillion, which is more than a quadrupling of last year’s N1.77 trillion last year.

By the same token our country reportedly increased its military spending by a massive 56 per cent in 2021, to $4.5 billion.
That means that from 2016 to 2022, Nigeria spent over $19.9 billion which is approximately eight (8)trillion naira in total on security alone.

Which third world country can sustain such profligacy without going down ?

According to Finance minister Mrs Zainab Ahmed, the ECA -Excess Crude Account-that was in excess of $3 billion in 2016 shortly after the current regime took over the reins of government is currently down to a little over $300 million.

Its depletion has been attributed to the deployment of the funds into purchasing arms and ammunitions for the military with a view to eliminating insecurity – a monster that has its knees on the neck of our beloved Nigeria such that it is literally on the verge of asphyxiating it, in spite of the massive financial commitments so far made by the authorities.

Imagine what difference $3 billion could do in boosting the development of infrastructures like more railway lines and Spaghetti like network of road bridges recently showcased by our fellow African country in Accra, Ghana.
Would the colossal twenty (20) billion dollars sunk into combating insecurity not be enough to construct the type of spaghetti like bridges in Nigerian metropolis such as Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt and Kano?
Such construction work could also create employment as opposed to exporting scarce funds abroad to acquire arms and ammunition?

Earlier, the apparently overwhelmed finance minister had also informed bewildered Nigerians at the beginning of the year, that the 2022 appropriations bill with about N400b provision for petrol subsidy was being reviewed upwards to a colossal sum of N4 trillion.

A back of the envelope calculation would reveal that when that monumental amount estimated to be nineteen billion dollars or eight (8) trillion naira invested in fighting insecurity is added to the four (4) trillion naira budgeted for petrol subsidy in budget 2022 alone,(without factoring in the allocations for petrol subsidy in the previous budget circles)the trouble with Nigeria would come into greater relief.

That is because it would dawn on all of us that if the amount spent on insecurity and petrol subsidy are added up, at least N12 trillion might have been misapplied and therefore gone down the drain due to policy failures in the past seven (7) years or so with respect to managing our natural resources and ethnic and religious diversities.

In the light of the fact that no where is safe and farming which is the main source of employment for Nigerians can no longer be practiced freely, just as other existential aspects of life such as attending school in the northern parts has become an anomaly,(as the shut down of educational institutions in north west and north east is currently being extended to some parts of north central particularly the FCT) our country can no longer be said to just be on the way to becoming like Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya, Venezuela and Sri Lanka, where life is brutish with violent non state actors contesting the control of the country with legitimately elected leaders of government.

If the truth must be told, life in our beloved Nigeria has already become what it is like in all of the countries above listed hellish countries.
That is simply because Nigeria is exhibiting all the characteristics inherent in the aforementioned failed states.

And it is embarrassing and jarring to know that our dear country is in the doldrums owing to leadership miasma as reflected by the diversion of critical resources of the state into subsidizing petrol and combating insecurity which are avoidable, since there are alternative pathways to solving the seemingly intractable challenges ,if our leaders were to think out of the box.

Without a doubt, leadership and management of resources, require dexterity and astuteness, which are not rocket science.
And it has been proven in the days of parliamentarianism by our leaders of yore such as chief Obafemi Awolowo in then western region, sir Ahmadu Bello in Northern region and Micheal Okpara in eastern region, who effectively and efficiently led their compatriots in their respective regions to attain higher standards of living that we are always romanticizing .

Why are the leadership excellence exhibited by our past leaders no longer attainable in in Nigeria?
Where did we go wrong? Is there anything in the archives that can guide us on how, when and why ,as a nation, we have derailed, and with a view to retracing our steps?

Why is it that the celebrated leader, Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore was able to move his multiple islands country from third to first world, and our quest to move Nigeria forward has remained a mirage after over sixty two (62) years of independence ?

Surely, it is not that that God did not bless Nigeria with natural resources enough to make it a part of the first world.
But the country has lately been unlucky to be bereft of patriotic leaders.

Instead, the truth is that Nigeria is less fortunate than Singapore, which is why it has been inflicted with a disease known as leadership myopia.

It needs being emphasized that, the humongous amount of financial resources being channeled into buffeting an unsustainable petrol subsidy regime and tackling insecurity by investing massively in the acquisitions and deployment of highly expensive military hardware ,(take for instance the $500m super Tucson helicopters purchased from the United States of America, USA) are self inflicted consumption oriented activities, that could have been saved in human and physical.

From development economics point of view, petrol subsidy and acquisition of military hardwares are avoidable wastages, if our leaders were more dexterous in the management of the challenges of nation building by being more proactive by thinking out of the box in the way they deal with the multi ethnic and multi religion nature of our country and extracting as well as deploying our God given resources .

And it is doubtless that Nigeria has the potential to be in the first world.

The composition of our country comprising of three major ethic nationalities-Hausa/Fulani, Yoruba and lgbo is not too dissimilar to the combination of the English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish nationalities that make up the United Kingdom, UK.
Yet, the people of UK are religion and tribe neutral, simply because each region has autonomy.
That basically means that the laws that are used in governing each of the autonomous areas reflect their peculiarities in terms of culture, religion and environment.

That is also possible in Nigeria with parliamentarianism which is the system the Uk bequeathed to our forbears as our last colonizer. But after practicing it for only six (6) 1960-66,it was jettisoned in preference for a presidential system of government. Is that not a point at which we derailed as a nation?

Obviously, all the major ethnic nationalities in Nigeria prefer their autonomy as reflected by the struggle by the Hausa/Fulani promoters of Boko Haram and ISWAP, who fighting for governance via sharia legal system, and the lgbos via IPoB who are seeking autonomy to do their thing in their preferred way of republicanism, as well as the Yorubas who are agitating for their autonomy to operate their own system, perhaps in the manner of Oyomesi political leadership system practiced back in the days of Oyo Empire, even as we remain one country.

Being held together in a federal government, without practicing true federalism, yet insisting that the unity of Nigeria is not negotiable is obviously what is causing the friction and hullabaloo in Nigeria.

Like Christianity and Islam which are dominant religions in Nigeria, the UK also has multiple religions -- Anglican and the Church of England.
And they have developed the wisdom to give to Caesar what is Ceasar’s and to God, what is God’s.
Why we are mixing religion with politics in our country still boggles my mind.

Think about the United Arab Emirates, UAE.
It is a country formed out of the unification of seven (7) Emirates including Abu Dhabi, Dubai and five others. The UAE is Islamic and progressive.

Why can Nigeria not learn from the countries profiled above ?

Why do our leaders have such dog-in-a -manger type of attitude of unwieldy and visionless approach to governance that has imperiled a nation blessed with massive human and material resources, yet it is wallowing in abject poverty?

In the sixteen (16) years of the twenty three (23) years that the practice of multi party democracy has returned to our country since 1999 till date, two (2) former military heads of state-general Olusegun Obasanjo and Muhammadu Buhari have been at the helm of affairs in the governance of our country via democracy.

As a matter of orientation, the first instinct of a man with military orientation is to return fire-for-fire.

That explains why our country has become so militarized as we have been trying to achieve peace through the barrels of the gun without success.

To appreciate the palpable difference in the reign of our leaders with military orientation, we only need to compare the period of stewardship of Obasanjo and Buhari to the other two past presidents of Nigeria who are civilians with no military background.
Take for example ,the reign of Umaru Yar’adua(2007-10) and Goodluck Jonathan (2010-15).
They both introduced amnesty program that was offered to Niger delta militants and the erstwhile insecurity in the Niger delta area which is the treasure trove of our country got drastically reduced.

And it is a no brainer to realize that it is the USA’s resort to using extreme violence to manage conflicts in their society that is responsible for Americans becoming very angry and violent people.

Do Nigerian leaders have to wait to get afflicted by the epidemic of gun violence rocking the USA to realize that our country is on the nihilistic path to perdition due to the militarization of our society by deploying mainly military force in conflict resolution?

In conclusion, allow me remind you, dear readers of a concept commonly known as the ‘law of instrument’
It goes thus:
“If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.”
This is a famous quote by Abraham Maslow which refers to an over-reliance on a familiar or favourite tool.

Our current president who is an ex soldier, may unbeknownst to him be succumbing to the unconscious bias of his military instincts, as propounded in the ‘law of instrument’.
Hence it appears as if it is the policy of the government of Nigeria that the insecurity being experienced in the country, without exception, is a nail that must be hit with a hammer.

In other words, it is that mindset that is probably driving the tunnel vision of our government that appears to be determined to only apply military force as the solution to an obviously complex matter of religious fanaticism and ethnic supremacy?
Are our leaders not aware that insecurity in our country can not simply be settled through the barrels of the gun, because it has to do with ideology and religion which run deep?

As Karl Marx-German philosopher and political theorist famously stated: religion is the opium of the people.
That implies that it is ingrained and can be intoxicating, therefore it can not be eliminated by sheer force.

Hopefully, our leaders would soon come to the realization, perhaps the hard way, that religious Insurgency and ethnic nationalism wracking our country require winning the hearts and minds of the disgruntled and misguided by bringing them to a negotiating table.

That is because the notion that we can blast all outlaws out of Nigerian cities and forests is clearly unrealistic.

In the light of the above, it is time for our leaders to try to imbibe the virtue and philosophy of non violent settlement of conflicts as expounded by Marthin Luther King in the USA, Mahatma Grandi of India and Nelson Mandela of South Africa.

In the absence of the required paradigm shift in the management of the ethnic, cultural and religious diversity of our country, the conflicts would persist and
our leaders may continue to be distracted.
As a result,the management of our economy could continue to suffer, even as the issue of consumption would persist and assume a worse crisis dimension with scotch earth poverty becoming the lot of Nigerians in the manner that it has happened in Sudan and Somalia .

It needs not be repeated that, were it not for the mundane issues of ethnic and religious fundamentalism that are arresting the attention of our leaders, our unbridled consumption attitude could have by now been replaced with productivity generating initiatives such as construction of roads, railways, sea and airports, hospitals, educational institutions and homes that would boost the Gross Domestic Product, GDP of our country.

And as a result, a critical mass of Nigerians would have been lifted out of poverty via the huge employment opportunities intrinsic in a production rather than a consumption based economy.

In any which way we look at the current insecurity in our country and the economic imbroglio that have literally brought it to its knees,the tragedies of the naira currently being on a free fall,while our country is on a slippery slope into the control of outlaws could have been averted,if our leaders were to think more strategically and act less impulsively.

So, the unfolding sordid situation is a fall out of the failure of imagination and the inability,perhaps even incapacity to act by our elected leaders.

Evidently, the scenario described above is a justification for the title of the article: “Nigeria, Going, Going …?”

For those who have not already figured it out, the title is symbolic the pronouncement that follows while awaiting a raised gavel to land signifying a finality, either by a judge in a court of law, or an auctioneer in an auction exercise,

Before going into recess, the National Assembly, NASS issued president Buhari a notice of impeachment as a consequence of his inability to safeguard the lives and properties of Nigerians.

In six (6) weeks time when the notice expires, the NASS would likely do nothing, but propose another vote of more money for security purposes.

It may recommend that the funds should this time around, be invested in the police force which is better trained to handle internal security.

By and large, that may not really be a bad idea.

But NASS may not recognize the role of our the traditional rulers and faith based institutions like churches and mosques, in conflict resolution.

It may not also be interested in studying how the UK resolved it’s challenge with the Irish Republican Army, IRA whose violent activities at a point in time had a crippling effect on UK government; and the measures and actions that Brazil took in ending a similar state of insecurity in that country ,may not be of interest to NASS, with a view to adopting some of the strategies.

And l would not be surprised.

Nevertheless, my fervent wish, desire and prayer is that the ‘Gone’ that is missing in the title of this piece: Nigeria Going, Going …? will remain a question mark and not a manifestation .

Clearly, l loathe to endorse the title of the controversial book by the late literary giant: Chinua Achebe: There Was A Country.
A tome in which he lamented the degeneration of our beloved country, Nigeria into a shadow of its old self and predicted a scattering.

As readers may already be aware, media columnists/public intellectuals, who are members of the fourth (4th) realm of the estate, engage in the thankless and risky job of calling out people in authority, when they are aberrant in the discharge of the responsibilities which they swore an oat of office to uphold.

Invariably, public intellectuals (unlike members of the three other realms -executive, legislative and judiciary, who do not get paid with public funds) assist in the onerous task of governance by apprising public office holders of the feelings of the proletariat with whom they are in touch regularly by virtue of which they are the voice of the voiceless.

It is the lack of real connections between our political leaders and the followers that could have provided the nuggets of wisdom from the masses to their leaders through the coterie of apparatchiks in the bureaucracy, that is the barrier to good governance.
Without the grassroots intelligence that is supposed to be distilled and applied in formulating public policy, the malady of policy failures ensues, and it is the bane of our country.

To get out of the current bind in which the nation finds itself, l would like to propose that it is time to dialogue with the aggrieved members of our society.
Normally, after the shooting battle, conflicts are always resolved with the protagonists and antagonists seating around tables.

And I think that time has come.

Otherwise, our beloved country could go into blazes or oblivion, either as a result of religious and ethnic supremacy conflicts as is the case in Sudan, Libya and Somalia or due to complications arising from financial insolvency, like Sri Lanka.

*Magnus Onyibe, an entrepreneur, public policy analyst ,author, development strategist, alumnus of Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, Massachusetts, USA and a former commissioner in Delta State government, sent this piece from Lagos.