Ethnic Profiling In An Imperiled Republic

 By Hope O’Rukevbe Eghagha

Nigeria is currently plagued by a myriad of debilitating problems – insecurity, hunger and poverty, rights of minorities, economic mismanagement and exploitation, corruption, myopic leadership, and a weak governance structure. Some of these directly threaten the corporate existence of Nigeria.

There are too many unsettled issues about the conditions for mutual coexistence of the different ethnic groups in the country. There is a perception that the basis for national unity has not been negotiated and accepted. A master-servant relationship between a parasitic majority and the minorities is troubling the new generation of Nigerians.

Frank Mba In Ogun: A Take From Jose Mourinho

 By Banji Ojewale

Jose Mourinho is the unpredictable, irritable yet unforgettable Portuguese soccer coach renowned for a host of feats confounding forecasters. He took clubs to great heights in his in-form days. Few tenderers of his era have matched his history: he has won a domestic title record in four different countries; he is one of only three managers to have lifted the UEFA Champions League twice with two different clubs; he is the first manager to clinch a European hat-trick, after winning the inaugural 2022 Europa Conference League with Roma, having previously secured the Champions League and the Europa version.

What’s the magic, if there’s any, that earns you prized international accolades in such a gritty sport? Once, in the newsroom of a popular TV station in Lagos, I listened as an analyst previewing a Mourinho match, attempted an answer; he sought a ‘’demystification’’ of the ways of the 60-year-old who calls himself the “Special One’’. He said all you needed to second-guess the Portuguese in a game was to look closely at his starting selection; it would lead you straight into his secret.

The ‘Avengers’ And The Future Of The Niger Delta

By Simon Abah

Medical persons attribute man’s thinking capacity to the balance between the neurons and synapses in the human brain. A normal human being thinks before he acts but in Nigeria, it appears we suffer from a frontal-lobe crisis which makes us act before we think. The Niger Delta Avengers may begin to blow pipelines anytime from now like pyromaniacs and if what I read in the papers is correct, they may also blow up any human being who stands in their way to actualise their bombing campaign. Like Boko Haram, they don’t strike me as a thinking group.

Relationship-building between and among people in the Niger region is abysmal. It has reached the stage that politics in the Delta is war. Is this region the only one in Nigeria where politics is played? Why are they always pointing fingers at other people but themselves for all problems? Why aren’t politicians crying in the pool of democratic baptism? Why have they allowed certain people to give the Niger Delta a bad name by allowing them to be as wild as un-dipped devils?

Nigeria: Badoo At The Gate

By Paul Onomuakpokpo

It is far from reprieve for the citizens as the country lurches from one dismal failure to another. While they are still choking under the weight of an economic recession, their miserable existence has been further blighted by worsening insecurity.

Of course, it is not for nothing that the citizens loathe the country’s security agencies. It is just a way of their expressing their outrage at the incapability of the security operatives to deliver on their mandate of protecting life and property.

But in some rare moments when the security operatives exude flashes of professional brilliance and depart from the path of turning their guns on the citizens, they often get well-deserved accolades. This is why the police who have succeeded in smashing the kidnap syndicate led by Evans in Lagos have rightly been lauded for their courage and professionalism.

Yet, the praise is subdued. It is drowned in the phalanx of posers their success has triggered. Why did it take so long to get him? Why are kidnappers still on the prowl? And why are the pupils of the Lagos State Model College, Igbonla, Epe, still being held in captivity over 40 days after their abduction?

These are questions that the security operatives are not likely to provide answers to soon. In other words, the citizens are still haunted by insecurity. This is despite that even soldiers have been heavily deployed on the streets to boost security. The House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara who was recently alarmed by this heavy deployment declared that the country was under a state of emergency in peace time. In fact, the citizens have lost confidence in the ability of the security operatives to protect them.

Moving Against Land Robbers in Ogun State

By Banji Ojewale

An insurance executive in Lagos who sought to relocate to Ota, Ogun and probably bring along foreign partners for a new firm was held back by reports of the violent activities of land speculators. He gathered that these land grabbers otherwise called Omo onile were a force to reckon with if you wanted to develop your legitimate property either for business or for residential purposes. He told me he had acquired the land and was ready to move to Ota but was scared that heavily armed rival gangs of these indigenous speculators would stall the project and frustrate his expatriate partners. Eventually he spiked the idea.

*Gov Ibikunle Amosu 

Who lost? A superficial verdict would be that our man lost the opportunity to open new frontiers in business in Ogun. Really? The ultimate loser was the Ogun State government which had left the vandals unchecked. It lost the taxes that the projected insurance firm and its employees would have paid into its treasury; it also blew the chance to depopulate the labour market; it gave the impression Ogun was not habitable nor was it safe for investment, business and tourism, all massive revenue earners and employers of labour.

But last week good news came when Governor Ibikunle Amosun took a firm step to outlaw that perception of his state as the den of the criminal activities of the Omo onile. He signed the anti-land grabbing bill into law with quite stiff penalties for its infringement. Imprisonment for 25 years or death sentence awaits anyone found guilty of the offence of land robbery.

The law prohibits “forcible entry and occupation of landed properties, violent and fraudulent conducts in relation to landed properties, armed robbery, kidnapping, cultism and allied matters incidental thereto…” According to the law, death sentence applies when a life or lives are lost in such forceful take-over of land. Kidnappers also risk life sentence.

After signing the bill into law, Amosun said the state would not be a “comfort zone for criminals.” He had tough words for them. He declared: “We want to let people know that Ogun State would not be comfort zone for any criminal or so-called Omo onile (land grabbers). They have engaged in maiming, killing and lawlessness. But now the law will go after them. We are now having enabling law to prosecute and anybody that runs foul of this law of course will have himself or herself to blame… I want to believe that with the operation of this law, criminals will run away from the state.”

Who Murdered A Seven-Year Old Kid?

 By Fred Nwaozor 

If the news that’s currently making rounds on the social media holds water, then Wednesday, 16th November 2016 – a day that reportedly claimed the life of a 7-year-old boy owing to alleged attempted misdemeanour – was another day Nigeria, and mankind at large, would live to mourn; a day that would cease to rest until justice is duly done to wickedness; a day that would stop at nothing to ensure that humanity is separated from insanity. 

 On that fateful day that could be best described as unfortunate, the said kid was reportedly set ablaze by a so-called angry mob at a locality in Lagos State for allegedly attempting to steal ‘Garri’ from a trader’s shop. He was caught by dwellers cum passersby, brutally tortured to stupor, and therein burnt with fuel and condemned tyres. The report equally had it that, while in the hands of the monsters, he pleaded for freedom, for the umpteenth time, still the vulnerable plea fell on cancerous and deaf ears. 

Even if he was more than seven years, or involved in felony as claimed by the police, did it call for such reaction? As I sat soberly and tried to recall the news, my emotions kept burning until I ostensibly lost my senses that I could not see nor hear anything, not even the like of the horn of a moving train. Whilst in the tattered mood, my utmost worry remained that, the public kept watching the scene until the fire engulfed that helpless ‘kid’; probably they were deriving pleasure from it. Worse still, the scene was videotaped, perhaps having been considered a mere melodrama. 

Any sane and rational since takes a closer look at these two observations would begin to wonder how wicked the heart of man is, as well as in whose image he was really made of. It is even more overwhelming to realize that the police, or any other law enforcement agency, was nowhere to be found throughout the incident that lasted for over an hour. I am yet to believe that while the duration of administering the obnoxious jungle justice lingered, no bit of notice got to any security outfit within, in spite of the obvious fact that the arena in question is urban. 

One More State For The South East

By Dan Amor

 To all intents and purposes, the position of the Igbo socio-cultural group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, that at least one more state be created in the South East geo-political zone is most appropriate. In a recent statement, the group renewed its call for a balanced federation for the sake of equity.

Pressing the demand further, the group enthused: “Nobody can say we are asking for too much because we are demanding for the creation of one or two more states in the South East. North East, North Central, South-West and South-South all have six states each. North-West has seven. Why should South East have only five?” In fact, this position is sacrosanct. If the Nigerian state were founded on justice and fairness, the South-East deserves more than five states. The statement credited to the Deputy Senate President and Chairman of the Senate Committee on the review of the Constitution, Ike Ekweremadu that the path to the creation of new states was tedious is unacceptable. The restructuring of this lopsided federation must begin with a new state for the South East geo-political zone.

Indeed, it is glaring that for so long, the ugly phenomenon of injustice has been institutionalized in the country. But for how long must the people continue to endure the unnerving weight of this hydra-headed monster? The quake of apprehension and insecurity enveloping the country is the outcome of several decades of injustice inflicted on certain groups in the country by others. It is now as though the nation is still under colonial bondage whereby almost all the ethnic nationalities are agitating for political autonomy and liberation. The truth is that the North used the military to internally recolonise the country. With what we have been witnessing, it is evident that the communal bond that once held the various component parts together has been rendered taut and things are beginning to fall apart. The obvious is that in today’s Nigeria, there is enormous bad blood amongst the various brother nationals making up the concocted union. Yet, it is most annoying that this embarrassing situation is a deliberate creation by those who think that the entire country is their bona fide property.

Or else, how does one rationalize the process whereby Lagos State which hitherto had nine million population was given only twenty local government areas while Kano State that had a population of six million was given forty-four local governments after Jigawa was carved out of it? Now, with more than twenty million population, Lagos is still officially recognized as having a paltry twenty local councils while Kano has forty-four plus the number of local councils in Jigawa state. It will therefore be sheer pretence and active game of the ostrich to behave as though nothing is wrong with the soul of the nation. Isn’t it imperative that after several years of trying to paper over serious cracks on the nation’s body politic the present administration should recognize the need to heal old national wounds as a prerequisite for the much-needed national reconciliation? Yet, unfortunately, the Buhari administration has even aggravated the situation with his one-sided ethno-religious-induced appointments.