Nnamdi Kanu, Biafra And The False Premise

By Femi Fani-Kayode

In a short contribution titled "Biafra Without Our Consent?" which appears to have gone viral on social media, a social commentator wrote as follows:

*Nnamdi Kanu

"I think the current generation of 'Biafrans' are the most funny people I have ever seen. How dare you sit in your home or offices and draw your Biafra map and include places like Rivers, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, etc as part of your empire? Did you consult them? Did you seek their opinions? You are forcing people to join a country whose commander in chief you have already anointed- Nnamdi Kanu; whose currency you have already decided- Biafra Pounds; whose official religion you have already adopted- Judaism; whose God you have already chosen- Chukwu Abiama? Do you not realize that you are doing to those people the same thing you accuse the British and Nigeria of doing to you? For carving my state into your 'Biafra' and renaming it without my permission and consultation, I have a moral duty to stand against you with everything I have. I am not standing against you because I do not want your freedom; I stand against you because I love mine too. I don't stand against you because you don't have a right to your country; I stand against you because I have the same right. I stand against you because your map is an insult to me and my freedom to choose were I belong. Be warned!"

This commentator who I shall refer to as Miss X and those that think like her are being disingenious and unduly hostile to Nnamdi Kanu and the concept and spirit of Biafra.

She has made a point that appears to be valid but that point is based on a false premise. That premise is that the southern minorities would be compelled or obliged to be part of Biafra without their consent. This is false. It is not true.

The truth is that each of the bordering ethnic nationalities, and even the Igbo themselves, must and will have their own referendum before going anywhere. It is entirely up to them what they do and where they go.

They cannot and will not be forced to go with Biafra if they choose not to do so. And neither can they be forced to remain in Nigeria if they choose to leave.

Everything that is done must and will be based on the free and fair expression of the will of the people.

That is the basic point that needs to be grasped and clearly understood. Miss X's fear is therefore baseless.

Yet we cannot leave it there. We must consider the wider issues that her concerns have raised. We must learn to be clear-headed and strategic in our thinking and actions. We must know what we wish to achieve and we must learn from history.

The cost of petty bickering, division, undue rivalry, pettiness and age-old suspicions amongst the southern ethnic minorities and southerners generally is extremely high.

It has cost us virtually everything and it has stripped us naked and bare before our enemies and adversaries.

Osinbajo’s Fantasy Of Presidential Infallibility

By Paul Onomuakpokpo

Weighed down by a lack of direction and adherence to constitutionality that is a high point of fidelity to democratic norms, the President Muhammadu Buhari government keeps on spawning despair in the land, with massive economic collapse leading to rampant suicide.

*Osinabjo

Amid this, Buhari’s deputy Professor Yemi Osinbajo appears to represent an illustrious exemplar of sanity in this government. Although decades of serial disappointments by political leaders have made the citizens to cease trusting them, there has been the hope that Osinbajo could be a different kind of political leader who is only actuated by a desire to serve the people and improve their lot.

But at first, Osinbajo proved not to be different from other politicians. The citizens wondered why some illegalities like the government disobeying court rulings and sacking university vice chancellors before the end of their tenures could take place while he is the vice president. He has been silenced by the perks of public office, so the citizens thought.

Yemi Osinbajo As Argument

By Dan Amor

Against the backdrop of palpable apprehension in high places over public appreciation of the enduring leadership qualities of the Acting President Professor Yemi Osinbajo, it is necessary to pontificate on some critical underpinnings in the relationship between leadership and followership as a philosophic construct. The fact that President Muhammadu Buhari officially handed over the reins of governance to his deputy, as required by law, before proceeding to the United Kingdom on medical vacation on January 19, 2017, need not delay us here. It is obvious that the All Progressives Congress (APC) won the presidential election on a joint ticket of Buhari/Osinbajo, from campaign to inauguration. 

*Osinbajo 

This, also, need not delay us here.  But what has generated more heat than light in recent times is the concept of delivery and appreciation. Whereas Nigerians overwhelmingly believe that a messenger who delivers neatly and squarely must be roundly appreciated or commended for a job well done, a cabal which is jittery over the messenger's looming popularity and sturdy bulwark does not. That is the crux of the matter. Yet governance is a contract between the government and the governed. We give you our mandate to deliver our needs and security. If you deliver, we applaud you; if you don't, we murmur. 

So far, since he mounted the podium of leadership of Nigeria as Acting President, Prof. Osinbajo appears to be performing. From his body language, his utterances and his actions, the Ogun State-born professor of law is not prepared to hoodwink anybody. His rapprochement with the Niger Delta, the goose that lays the golden egg, is legendary. The oil-bearing region had experienced leaders or rulers who wielded the big stick thereby amplifying their restiveness. Abacha militarized the Niger Delta and murdered their agitators. Obasanjo spent over N200million daily for eight years to maintain the Joint Task Force in the region and ordered the extermination of Odi and Odioma communities in broad daylight pogroms. 

Yar'Adua it was who brandished the carrots because he recognized their anxieties. Buhari had mobilized troops to the region and talked tough with unpretentious swagger before the current intervention by Osinbajo. Whether or not he ordered the latter to do what he is doing, or whether Osinbajo's shuttle diplomacy in the Niger Delta is part of their party's manifesto, the truth is that the messenger deserves applause. It is not only that we should complain when our leaders are not leading welł; we must also show some appreciation when they are doing well enough.

Pitting Buhari Against Osinbajo

By Wale Sokunbi

The Presidency on Monday raised an alarm on what it believes to be a plot to cause a division between President Muhammadu Buhari and Acting President Yemi Osinbajo. The Special Adviser to the President on Political Affairs, Mr. Babafemi Ojudu, described the trending comparisons of Buhari and Osinbajo as the handiwork of those who do not wish the country well.  He also said it was a ploy by the opposition to cause unnecessary division between the two men who share a joint ticket.

*Osinbajo and Buhari 

He was quick to say that Osinbajo was only carrying out the economic policies of the government which the public was only now beginning to feel their impact. As he put it, “it is not a question of one person being better than the other.” Even Osinbajo’s visit to the Niger Delta, he said, is an initiative of the president, and the attempts to divide the two men can only rob Nigerians of the dividends of democracy.

The concerns of the Presidency over what appears a direct effort to pitch Buhari against Osinbajo are well placed. The gambit has apparently been seized by well known Buhari naysayers who have started praising Osinbajo to the high heavens for his modest and sincere efforts at governance, while painting Buhari as lacking in ability to solve the nation’s problems.

For those who have immersed themselves in this worrisome narrative, Buhari is a non-performer while Osinbajo is the magic wand that is gradually making a difference in governance and solving some of the nation’s problems, especially the nation’s forex woes, which has seen the naira appreciate from N520 to N420 to the dollar, while electricity supply is improving with the reducing militancy and bombing of oil pipelines in the Niger Delta area of the country.
Vice President Osinbajo has, undoubtedly, been playing his role well but that is no reason for tattling tattlers to seek to draw a wedge between him and his principal, Buhari. Those who cannot appreciate the wisdom of allowing Osinbajo to do his work as Acting President in peace, while Buhari attends to his health in London, will do well to reread the story of David and Goliath in I Samuel, chapters 17 and 18 , of the Holy Bible.

The young boy, David, killed the giant, Goliath, and King Saul was, indeed, happy to have such a young man who could help the nation get rid of the vaulting Goliath (economic recession and forex woes?) from his nation. The king, initially, harboured no evil at all against David.

Buhari And The Trump’s Call

By Paul Onomuakpokpo

At a time Donald Trump is grappling with an increasing low approval rating at home and abroad, Nigerians really made his day last Monday. That was the day that the United States (U.S.) president made a call to his Nigerian counterpart Muhammadu Buhari who is on a sick leave in London.

*Buhari 

It is outside our remit here to probe whether the presidency grovelled to have that call made to Buhari, or whether the call was made at all. We limit ourselves to the notion that Nigerians were elated that their president was not vegetative after all; he was mentally alert to hold a conversation with Trump. Again, they were excited because this call indicated the high acceptability the president enjoys before the leader of the greatest nation on earth. If Trump who is incurably narcissistic could call Buhari, that means the latter has some value to add to the world, so goes the argument ad infinitum.

Yet we must not forget: the excitement that the call has generated harks back to the elation of a plebeian who was shown a little favour by a medieval potentate. For, there is an unequal relationship between the West and Africa. It is a relationship in which the West constructs Africa as its other. Thus when the West courts Africa, it is not for the good of the latter. It is either to keep the African in a subservient position or to remould him or her to be able to take the role of a less significant party. Remember, Shakespeare’s Prospero boasts that he endows Caliban with the power of language. But unlike Caliban, our leaders neither seek to explode this myth nor use whatever they have apparently got from the West to destabilise it to their own advantage. They rather internalise the myth of their benightedness and the notion that it is only through the West that African nations can become aware of their inherent potential and realise it. This is why they often seek developmental aid from Western institutions.

But the stark reality is that the interactions between Africa and the West do not produce any positive result for the former. Are we now saying that we should be isolationist in a globalised world? No! Rather, we should bring our own values to the table of globalisation. We should not allow the values of the West to define ours. For what the West wants to do is to make us to accept their values and keep us obligated. In most cases, these values are not useful to us. This was why the U.S. under President Barack Obama wanted Nigeria to ratify its misbegotten homosexuality. Even if Goodluck Jonathan is considered not to have achieved any other thing, it is to his eternal credit that he did not succumb to the pressure of Obama to legalise same sex marriage. After all, nobody needs to wait for a legislation to gratify their homosexual tastes.

Who Is Importing Arms Into Nigeria?

By Anthony Cardinal Okogie

It was reported, a few days ago, in almost all the national dailies, that the Nigerian Customs Service seized 49 boxes containing 661 pump action rifles unlawfully imported into Nigeria. The rifles were said to have been concealed in a container of steel products and other merchandise. Three suspects were said to have been arrested. According to retired Colonel Hameed Ali, the Comptroller-General of Customs, the arms were cleared at the port with the assistance of two customs officers who have since been apprehended and are now being investigated.

This is the latest in the series of unlawful importation of arms into Nigeria, and it raises a number of issues. First, who are those behind unlawful importation of arms into Nigeria and what are their intentions?

At a press conference, in which Colonel Ali triumphantly reported the arrest of three suspects, he also informed the Nigerian public that a team of customs officers on intelligence patrol had, on Sunday, January 22, 2017, along the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway in Lagos, intercepted a truck whose registration number he gave as BDG 265 XG, purportedly conveying the arms in a container whose number he gave as PONU/825914/3. Such news would have been sweet in the ears but for the fact that nothing was said of the owner of the truck and nothing was said of the owner of the container. That raises further questions: In whose name was that truck registered and in whose name was the container registered? Are they registered in the same name? Have their owners been investigated? When shall they and their foot soldiers appear in court?

Not to raise these and related questions, and not to address them, will leave us where we have always been, that is, a place where a criminal act is committed but there is neither trial nor conviction nor sanction, a country where criminals are phantoms, a strange land where there are crimes but no criminals. That is why the triumphant account of the Comptroller of Customs comes close to another episode in playing to the gallery.

But there is another issue to be raised, and that is, whatever happened to intelligence in this country? Newspapers reported that the Comptroller of Customs informed Nigerians that impounding the truck containing the unlawfully imported arms and the apprehension of three men suspected to be involved in the crime of unlawful importation was the achievement of a “roving team of the NCS’ federal operations unit, while on intelligence patrol.” But on closer scrutiny, this advertisement of prowess is in fact an advertisement of colossal but recurring failure of intelligence. A dictum has it that prevention is better than cure. Intelligence is crime prevention. Nigeria’s security agencies—the Customs in this case, the Police, the Army, to mentioned but these—have repeatedly demonstrated their ineptitude when it comes to preventing acts that are inimical to security. The Police arrive at the scene of a crime after the crime and after the departure of the perpetrators. 

The 1914 Amalgamation Remains Nigeria’s Bane!

By Charles Ogbu 

Every problem Nigeria has ever faced and will ever face can be traced to that demonic event of 1914 when the British merged the Southern and Northern protectorates into one country that is today known as Nigeria.
   

Britain had only one thing in mind while carrying out the amalgamation: Their administrative and economic convenience. Nothing more. The action of the British can be compared to a man who bought both herbivorous and carnivorous animals from the market and chose to put them in one cage to make it convenient for him to transport them home. This man knew that herbivores feed on herbs and are very harmless and easygoing while carnivores feed on flesh and are most times very aggressive and violent. In other words , the herbivorous animals in that cage might end up as meat for the carnivorous ones even before the man would reach his destination. He knew all these but still chose to put both animals together.
  
Do we need the brain of Albert Einstein to figure out the fact that the welfare of these animals was the last thing on this man’s mind? Rather, all he cared about was getting them all home whether dead or alive without spending extra money for another cage and extra  fare for that new cage. 

    

Even my three-month-old niece knows that the North and South have absolutely little in common. Not the same language, not the same culture, not the same religion, not the same ancestry, not even the same worldviews and as such, can’t possibly live together as one country.

Nigeria: Enough Of Blood-Letting!

By Gbemiga Olakunle

And God sent an Angel into Jerusalem to destroy it, and as he was destroying the LORD beheld and He repented Him of the evil, and said to the Angel that destroyed, it is enough, stay now thine hand. Chron. 21:15, KJV.

There is no doubt that violence has become the order of the day in Nigeria since the advent of Boko Haram in the Northeast and the increased militancy with some elements of criminality in the Southsouth. The situation has already been compounded and is getting worse by the day with the unprovoked attacks that are being unleashed on the citizens of this country by some rampaging herdsmen.

In Nigeria today, to know the real value of a cow, what a farmer needs to do is to kill just one for destroying his farmland. And he will be lucky if his whole community members are not compelled to pay dearly for such effrontery/audacity with their lives in form of reprisal attacks from the herdsmen.

Anybody who is still in doubt should please read the pathetic accounts of the Southern-Kaduna killings where nothing less than 808 people have been killed with several others injured and property worth of millions of naira destroyed. The affected communities were reportedly paying for the sins that their fathers allegedly committed against the cows of some herdsmen who were caught up in the riots that erupted in the aftermath of the 2011 Presidential Elections.

While the authorities, especially the Kaduna State Government are claiming that these assailants are foreigners, these merchants of death have continued to spread their unprovoked attacks to other parts of the country until the Governor of Ekiti State, Peter Ayodele Fayose, checkmated them in his own Area of Jurisdiction (AOR) and put a final halt to it through decisive actions including a legislation. On its own part in addressing the issue, the Nigerian Army has announced that it would send some of its personnel to Argentina to learn Animal husbandry with a view to acquiring suitable acres of land throughout the federation for the purpose of establishing ranches to raise cattle – a move that many have suspected to be another way of introducing the contentious Land Grazing Reserves Policy through the back door and riding on the back of the military.

Nigeria: A Nation Of Cowards And Docile Citizens

By Nnanna Ijomah

It is said that “a nation of sheep is governed by wolves”. Nigerians have not only become sheepish and docile but also whiners and cowards. Docility has become our middle name and we have come to display it on our chests as badges of honor. I don’t know when we became this way but I’m sure it’s been long in the making. Over the years it has become more evident that we have become a very timid and spineless people, with a high degree of acceptance and tolerance of whatever mistreatment our leaders, both at the local, State, and Federal levels mete out to us. There is a popular saying, “the future belongs to those who change it”.

In Nigeria today, we have as its citizens, though ethnically, linguistically and culturally diverse, a people who are scared or reluctant to effectively bring about real change and not the fake change promised by the APC. A people who continuously elect and re-elect people whose past track records does not show any evidence of any real effort in terms of policies or actions to improve their lives or their standard of living. This is what Aribisala said not long ago about the President on this issue.

“He, Buhari commanded the support of a significant number of the Northern poor, in spite of the fact that there is absolutely nothing in his curriculum Vitae about advancing the interest of the poor.”

Here he, the President is not alone. The same can be said of most of our Governors and national Assembly members. The reality of our situation in Nigeria today is that we wallow in the status quo and seem to be content with it. We whine and complain daily about our leaders and the deplorable state of our existence but fail to acknowledge our role in electing them or the courage to hold them accountable.

The more I read about events in Nigeria or the state of the nation, the alarming scope of corruption despite the war against it, the ineffective or none -existent economic policies and its aftermath, the increasing poverty rate in the country especially in the North, the complicity of INEC and our security officials in rigging elections, the non-payment of worker’s salaries both at the state and federal levels, the religious massacres by herdsmen and the lack of a tough response or arrests by federal government officials and the financial appeasement by a state governor, the instability in the Niger Delta, the agitation for Biafra by the Igbo’s, the unending blame campaign of the President of his predecessor, etc. etc., the more I feel morbidly entranced like a homicide detective gazing into a pool of freshly spilled blood. I use the phrase freshly spilled blood literally because that’s what each new unfortunate event looks like. If I may borrow the words of Pat Utomi in a recent comment he made, “Nigeria is a paradox of progressive degradation, where every Government is worse than the one that preceded it”. As the new year begins this month I have become more apocalyptic about the future of the country and its political stability.

Python Dance, David Dance And What Have You!

By Fred Doc Nwaozor  

The last time I checked, Imo and South-East at large was dominated by operation this and that. Initially, it was only ‘Operation Python Dance’ until ‘Operation David Dance’ followed suit. The former – a military exercise – which is targeted at wiping out all forms of social ills lingering in the region including armed robbery, kidnapping, abduction, herdsmen/farmers clashes, and violent secessionist movements, was recently launched by the Nigerian Army (NA).

In various quarters, the residents of the affected area – particularly members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) – have strongly kicked against the military exercise, saying that it was not for the good interest of the entire people of the Igbo nation. To this end, the IPOB equally launched a parallel exercise code-named Operation David Dance. According to them, the ‘David’ signifies the one in the Holy Bible who defeated Goliath in a battlefield with a mere stone. It suffices to say: they were trying to insinuate that the military exercise represents ‘Goliath.’

As some groups within the South-East zone have continued to condemn the new military operation, which is meant to last between November 27 and December 27, 2016, the Army has explained extensively that the exercise did not mean any harm except to criminals, hence, would be in the overall interest of the good people of the area contrary to the views making the rounds. In a press statement released by the Deputy Director of the Army Public Relations – 82 Division Enugu – Colonel Sagir Musa, the initiative reportedly aimed towards achieving a hitch-free yuletide in the entire South-East would help the people of the region in the areas of healthcare and security, among others.

Col. Musa, however, categorically stated that the exercise wasn’t peculiar to the South-East. According to him, having painstakingly examined the myriad of security challenges across the country, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai directed the setting up of the conduct of both Command Post and Field Training exercises, as a way of enhancing troops preparedness toward combating the spectrum of the contemporary challenges. In view of this directive, the Army Headquarters instructed the immediate commencement of the request in different regions across the federation.

 He further highlighted those operations Ex Shirin Harbi, Ex Harbin Kunama, Ex Crocodile Smile, and Ex Python Dance were instituted for the North-East, North-West, Niger Delta, and South-East regions, respectively, in regard to their individual security plights. The information personnel equally disclosed that an elaborate Civil-Military Cooperation (CIMIC) would be maintained throughout the exercise. Thus, he urged the people of the South-East to support rather than despise it, since it means well for them.

Buhari And Remembrance Of Things Past

By Paul Onomuakpokpo

As the first half of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration lurches into the twilight, it is refreshing that he has given us an opportunity to interrogate his intervention in national politics from another perspective. Beyond the well-worn exploration of Buhari as a profile in persistence, having taken him over a decade to chase a return to power, we can now attend to the   relationship between personal tragedies and national glories.

*Buhari

It is now clear from Buhari’s disclosure in Benin during his commissioning of some projects of the outgoing Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole that his tragedy of incarceration after his overthrow in 1985 as military head of state remains a stimulant for his quest for regaining power.  Buhari said that he spent 40 months in a bungalow in Benin after he was overthrown by some corrupt army officers. In fact, he said that the coup was a preemptive strike against his crusade against some corrupt officers.

From that crucible of 1985, through the next 30 years, Buhari might have realised the essence of engendering an equitable society. But as he tells us, such a society is not attainable in so far as it remains a bastion for the proliferation of injustice as evident in the complicity of the judiciary in the denial of his electoral victories on three previous occasions. Of course, Buhari’s quest for an equitable society after suffering injustice is not an isolated case. Before him, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, among others appropriated a sense of injustice inflicted by warped state powers to develop their societies.

Even back at home, the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo was prised from prison to cobble together a dismembering nation. But in the case of Buhari, it is unfortunate that while his regaining of power after 30 years might have served a personal cathartic purpose, it is far from playing a significant role in his relationship with the need for the development of the country. For the danger that the nation faces today under the Buhari government is that at the end of his tenure, he would have succeeded in making millions of citizens to feel a sense of injustice and alienation from the society. This is the clear possibility that Buhari would engender through his policies and programmes.

If Buhari had truly learnt the lessons of suffering injustice, he would guard against fostering a sense of injustice. But does Buhari really have consideration for the need to ensure justice for others? Consider his  appointments  since he  became president. How have these ensured justice and the strengthening of the unity of the country?  In those appointments, Buhari brazenly favoured his northern part of the country. It is such nepotism that has thrown up a situation where from the National Assembly, the military, police, Department of State Services,  other security apparatuses, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), to other major government agencies, the heads are northerners.

Those Spoiling Nigeria

By Sunny Ikhioya
The foundation of any nation state is based sorely on unity, you cannot attain unity without peace and justice. And, you cannot attain peace and justice without love and honesty. To enable us understand this further, let us look at our national anthem that we all stand up everyday to honour.

 Those who composed our national anthem had this in mind when they wrote in the last verse of the first stanza thus: “One nation bound in freedom, Peace and Unity”. Have we really considered the weight of this verse as we recite when the opportunity presents itself? Have our leaders really tried to govern this country in an atmosphere of fundamental rights, as enshrined in the United Nations charter on freedom?

Has it not been a situation of the strong always oppressing the weak ? Have the minority rights ever been upheld to the letter as enunciated in our Constitution? One good thing that is happening in this country is the discovery of crude oil in places outside the Niger Delta, like in Lagos and a few in the north as being touted in certain circles. Will these oil producing areas be treated the same way the Niger Delta region has been treated, with disdain and neglect? My answer is no.

Already, the rumour mill is rife with stories about relief and compensation given to areas affected by the oil drilling activities in the north, especially to  Emirs. The NNPC is in position to clarify details on this but surely they will not get the Niger Delta treatment. I do not know if our leaders take time to read and digest the national anthem, the second stanza, verses five and six which speaks of  building a nation  “ In love and honesty to grow, And living just and true”. Have we related to ourselves in love and honesty? Where the Jigawa man is saying that the oil in Bayelsa belongs to Jigawa?

 Why have the Niger Delta people been completely deprived of the control of their natural resources? The Petroleum Industry bill, PIB, designed to take care of the interest of all, has been kept in the cooler by the majority ethnic groups in the National Assembly for almost eight years now. Where is the justice in that? The last verse of our national anthem says; “To build a nation where peace and justice shall reign”.  It is indisputable that, in a nation where peace and justice reigns, progress is guaranteed. The composers of our anthem noted this fact and all of our past and present leadership have accepted it as such. It therefore follows that all the past leaders,  including the present leader ship have failed to govern with justice, honesty, fairness and equity.

Buhari Needs No Recession Experts

By Paul Onomuakpokpo  

In their tepid search for solutions to the current economic crisis, our political leaders are fixated on two culprits that gnaw at the nation’s wellbeing.

It is either the past that is chastised for not catering for its future or the militancy in the Niger Delta that has driven oil revenue to its nadir.

*Buhari 

Our current leaders can keep avoiding culpability for the nation’s economic recession. The danger is that any optimism about overcoming the crisis in a short time may soon evaporate as long as our political leaders fail to recognise that it is not only the past that is sullied by the administration of Goodluck Jonathan and his predecessors that should be blamed, but the present that is anchored on the current administration is equally complicit.

We are on the right path to economic redemption only when we appreciate the fact that the affliction that is the source of the recession is simply that our politics reeks of a crude conflation of national and personal interests by political leaders. Actuated by the credo of politics that negates national interest, politicians pursue purely selfish goals and present them to the citizens as targeted at engendering national transformation.

Thus no matter how potentially workable the recommendations from the citizens for the development of their nation, most political leaders do not have that capacity to accommodate them. And this is why all ideas about development, no matter how ill-bred , must come from their cronies because they would not pose any threat to their interests. Or why have all the great proposals for the development of the nation for over five decades not launched it into the league of the developed?

Now that there is a flurry of suggestions from the citizens as regards how to overcome the recession, our leaders may only take the ones that would not threaten their personal interests. President Muhammadu Buhari has been asked to invite experts to help him salvage the economy. Some citizens want him to invite the nation’s best economists to proffer solutions to the economic problems. Some have even canvassed the return of former Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. The former minister has already said she would not be ready to serve under the Buhari government when she is invited as she wants other people to contribute their own quota to development. Okonjo-Iweala may not even be an acceptable choice having been tainted by her association with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) when she served its government. She is still subjected to excoriation for triggering the crisis in the first place by her feckless economic management.

President Buhari’s Triumphalism

By Paul Onomuakpokpo

Until last week, it might have been dismissed as delusional to think that President Muhammadu Buhari considers the citizens as people he has conquered. But if the body language of the president has failed to magically make available the dividends of democracy to the citizens, it has at least in recent times reinforced the notion of his seeing himself as a conqueror, and thus a blight on our democratic experience.

*President Buhari 

Here are a people who have been brutalised by decades of misrule and who invested so much hope in the  Buhari’s change mantra. Over a year after waiting for the realisation of the promised change, Buhari has unabashedly disavowed it. Passing the buck, Buhari has rather asked the citizens to make the change a reality.

Yet, Buhari and his party members are the only people who know the breadth and length of the change he envisaged. The citizens did not sit down at a table to arrive at a template of his promised change. At best, the president only revealed snippets of the change: a robust economy that would guarantee full employment and a parity of the naira and the dollar, and as a palliative measure for those who are still jobless,  the payment of a stipend of N5,000.

Buhari’s new mantra of change beginning with the citizens is an expression of his sense of triumphalism. The new mantra brims with the hauteur of a president who has not only impenitently abdicated his responsibility, but who is yet to come to terms with his own failure to grapple with the problems he was elected to solve. The citizens could tolerate the president’s incompetence while hoping that with his seeking the advice of those who should know better, he could still fulfill the people’s expectations. But with a mindset that the citizens have been conquered, the president does not need to attach any importance to such advice. Or why would the president tell the people that change begins with them when he is expected to make good his promise? As far as the president is concerned, he has used the change mantra to gain power and those who are interested in its actualisation are free to torment themselves with that triviality.

But the president may not be wrong after all. From his Olympian height, he can only see the citizens he has conquered. The conquest began with his ministers and other aides who are supposed to advise him on the right decisions to take. We must be reminded that the president did not hide his disdain for his would-be ministers. They were only imposed on him by the constitution. And this was why he considered them as noise makers whose contribution to national development could only be consigned to a marginal space compared to that of civil servants in whom he reposes more confidence.

Niger Delta: Buhari’s Unwinnable War

By Ray Ekpu  

The Federal Government of Nigeria is amassing troops, arms and ammunitions in the oil-rich Niger Delta region in readiness for war with the militants who have been destroying oil infrastructure. In the last week of last month, the Director of Army Public Relations, Col. Sani Usman, announced that the military had launched “a precursor operation” to a planned offensive codenamed “Crocodile Smile.” This is aimed at supporting a wider operation codenamed “Operation Delta Safe.”

Most people in the Niger Delta have condemned the activities of these militant groups which are now sprouting like mushrooms and making both sensible and senseless demands. The Niger Delta people have suffered a lot since the discovery of oil in 1956. Their environment has been savagely spoilt. Their fishing waters and farming lands have vanished leaving them impoverished. Strange diseases have emerged that apparently have no cure. The reckless activities of these militants have done considerable damage to the Niger Delta ecosystem apart from the loss of oil revenue to the Federal Government. The Niger Delta leaders are pleading with these militants to give a peace a chance since the Federal Government is offering them the peace reed.

A few weeks ago, Alfred Diete Spiff, a former military governor of the old Rivers State who is now a traditional ruler, had a meeting with Niger Delta leaders in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. A couple of weeks later, Edwin Clark, a former Federal Information Commissioner and a prominent leader in the region, also had a conference in Warri, Delta State, trying to find ways of resolving the matter without bloodshed. On his part, the Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, has been touring the region in search of an amicable solution to the conflict.

Since President Muhammadu Buhari has said he is interested in a negotiated settlement of the matter I think the soldiers who are in the creeks of Sapele itching for action should tarry a while. Before hostilities begin, let me warn that this is an unwinnable war. No one will win. The militants will not win and the Federal Government will not win either. Men, women and children will be killed and maimed, property will be destroyed, the environment will be damaged. No oil will be produced because oil companies do not work with soldiers holding guns to their heads. The price of crude oil will go up but Nigeria will not benefit from the rise in price while the fight goes on in the creeks. New refugees will emerge; we will look for food, shelter and medicine for a new set of internally displaced persons (IDPs). We will then go looking for money to rebuild what has been destroyed in an economy that is already suffering from asphyxia. The only winners will be the generals who will be doing arms deals, food supply deals, drug supply deals and the women who will be available, willingly or unwillingly, to comfort the troops during the war. Crocodile, don’t smile yet. Keep your teeth hidden.

Buhari, War And The Niger Delta

By Paul Onomuakpokpo  

It is mystifying that President Muhammadu Buhari has chosen to capriciously shatter the prospect of peace in the Niger Delta through his massive deployment of troops and weapons in the region. The deployment came at a time the agitators for socio-economic justice in the oil-producing region, especially the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), have agreed to dialogue with the government.

Buhari and Army Chief, Buratai

The agreement came after much hesitation apparently because the agitators understood the remorseless penchant of successive governments to treat the issue of the ecological disaster and economic deprivation spawned by oil exploration in the region with disdain. Despite their doubts, the agitators have expressed their sincerity by suspending the bombing of oil facilities.

Of course, we should have known that Buhari considered war in the region inevitable. For while apparently leaving the option of dialogue open, Buhari has consistently threatened that he would deal with the Niger Delta agitators the way he crushed Boko Haram insurgents. Buhari may have drawn inspiration from the strident calls from some northern leaders for him to bomb agitators like Boko Haram insurgents. By their position, these northern leaders have lumped up the agitation in the Niger Delta in the same cauldron of misguided religious and blood-thirsty ideology of Boko Haram insurgents.
So what is unfolding in the Niger Delta is only a manifestation of a coveted agenda of Buhari that has escaped the veneer of  pretensions to foster peaceful dialogue to resolve the problems of the region. Buhari only wanted the agitators to lay down their weapons so that he could deploy his own in the region.

The fact that the agitators have declared a ceasefire has rendered the option of war patently chauvinistic. What is needed is for the government to continue with the option of dialogue. Buhari’s acceptance of the option of war amounts to blithely glossing over the fact that there are issues in the Niger Delta that need to be responded to appropriately. These are issues of socio-economic injustice in the region. Here are a people whose oil wealth has been used to develop other parts of the country while they have become impoverished. This has been the situation for over five decades.

The nation and its leaders have not deemed it necessary to engage in a comprehensive agenda to improve the environment, except some sporadic and facetious efforts. Now, the oil funds from the region are now being used to search for oil in the northern part of the country. If oil is found there, would the northerners allow people from the Niger Delta to be the prime beneficiaries? Would they allow them to be those that would lead supervisory agencies and dictate the terms for intervention in those areas where oil is produced in the north?

Nigeria:The Grim Statistics

By Ray Ekpu  

The figures are grim. Inflation 17.1 per cent; Gross Domestic Product 2.06 per cent; unemployment/underemployment 26.06 million; crude oil price, less than $50 per barrel; oil production declined from 2.11 million barrels per day by the end of the second quarter of 2016 to 1.69 mbpd. These are figures produced by the National Bureau of Statistics which indicate that Nigeria’s economy is in a recession.

*Buhari

The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, put the situation quite grimly but frankly: “It’s the worst possible time for us. Are we confused? Absolutely not. How are we going to get ourselves out of this recession? One, we must make sure that we diversify our economy. There are too many of us to keep on relying on oil.”

She is not saying anything that nobody has said before. All of Nigeria’s leaders since the Shehu Shagari era have parroted this diversification line but how much of it has been done? Pretty little. One of the problems of Nigeria’s leadership is “a short attention span.” When there is some calamity in the oil industry and we cannot engage in full production we talk about diversification. When the price of crude goes south we talk about diversification. When the militants go crazy and blow up oil infrastructure we remember diversification. As soon as the problem recedes, the talk of diversification goes away too. I am almost certain that if by some stroke of luck the price of oil goes up and the guns fall silent in the Niger Delta tomorrow, diversification as a policy will disappear from the government’s radar.

But first let’s interrogate the statistics. The facts behind the figures that tell us that our economy has slipped into a recession are even more grim. They are more grim because while statistics are just cold blooded figures, the facts deal with live human beings and their condition as they negotiate life’s treacherous bends.

Kerosene, the poor man’s cooking liquid, now sells for N300 a litre if you can find it. Many men and women are crawling back to their old, reliable friend: firewood. A depletion of the forest is an environmental hazard that can contribute significantly to climate change. Diesel, the rich man’s manufacturing liquid, the most effective power source in the absence of power from the official source now costs N220 per litre. The result? Low production, closures and layoffs.

Now airlines are staying more on the ground than in the air because they cannot get aircraft fuel which some smart fellows are now selling as kerosene. This is compounding the woes of the flying machines. The airlines are now raising their fares astronomically to make ends meet. At the last count there were two casualties, Aero Contractors and First Nation. Both airlines have been grounded by the force of impecuniosity because all along they have been flying at a low altitude financially.

The prices of goods including foodstuff have gone up since the price of petrol was upped. Most people are making adjustments in their eating habits either by patronising “food is ready” or “mama put” eating outlets or resorting to a 0 – 1 – 0 arrangement, that is one meal a day. This lifestyle change is not restricted to eating habits. In the area of housing, a lot of young people are moving from flats to face-me-I-face-you shanties or engaging in flat sharing. Those who have cars are involved in car pooling or are taking a ride in BRT buses in Lagos which they had hitherto scorned. But there are adjustments that are difficult to make. One area is health. Those who cannot afford hospital bills are either patronising petty medicine sellers who may be selling fake drugs or they are beating their way to the babalawo or the Pentecostal churches. Neither the babalawo nor a spiritual church is a hospital. The bottom line is that the health of many of our country men and women is gradually being put in peril.

Niger Delta’s Achilles Heel

By Paul Onomuakpokpo  

 Beyond the declaration of a ceasefire, militants under the aegis of the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) should prepare to win their war at the negotiating table. Notwithstanding the threats to crush the militants, the government has left open the option of ending the militancy in the region through dialogue. By making an allowance for dialogue, the government has obviously spurned those hankering for the bombing of the militants to submission.

It is now that the militants still have the sympathy of a large proportion of the citizens that they should make themselves available for talks if their agitation is really driven by the need to redeem the despoiled Niger Delta. The agitation is already on the cusp of being hijacked by some people who do not belong to the NDA. So, if the NDA members do not make themselves available, and the government succeeds in destabilising them by conquest or infiltration, it is these fringe militants who do not share the vision of NDA that would be the beneficiaries of any peace deal that may be reached.

From what can be seen in the rabid jostle for the representation of the militants, it is not even these counterfeit militants who pose the greatest danger to the negotiation with the Federal Government. It is rather traditional rulers and other so-called leaders from the region who pretend to speak for the militants and the entire people of the area. While their so-called intervention lasts, we must remind them and their fellow travellers that they are not by any means needed on the journey to bring peace to the Niger Delta through dialogue between the government and the militants.

After risking their lives in the creeks fighting, the militants should not allow people who do not share in their sacrifices to represent them. The dialogue would fail and the sacrifices of the militants would be in vain if they allow these people to represent them. In fact, the traditional rulers and other so-called leaders of the Niger Delta should not be allowed to go near the venue of the discussion because they have contributed to the problems of the region. These are people who have been close to successive governments in the country. If they knew how to solve the problems of the Niger Delta why have they not done this since? These people were close to the immediate past government of President Goodluck Jonathan. If they could not persuade a president whom they considered their son to develop the region, is it Buhari they would be able to convince to do this? By now, the people of the region and other citizens have known that these people who parade themselves as the leaders of the region only want to negotiate for their own pockets.

Dangerous Expansion Of Militancy

By Wale Sokunbi

The expanding theatres of militancy in the country are fast becoming a threat to the unity and continuing peaceful existence of Nigeria. Reports emanating from different parts of the country in recent weeks indicate the need for prompt action to stem a slide into anarchy.

Beyond the snake of the insurgency in the North-East, which the President Muhammadu Buhari administration has only scorched, and not killed, the trickles of militancy undermining the national economy with the blowing up oil pipelines in the Niger Delta states are fast becoming a deluge.

From the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which is fast taking on the toga of a reverend gentleman when compared with the ongoing bombing campaigns of the more virulent group, the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), the militancy in that part of the country is growing in geometrical proportions. Nigeria now has to contend with more and more new militant groups such as the Niger Delta Red Squad, which appears to be operating from the Ohaji Egbema axis of Imo State and is threatening to blow up the Imo State Government House and the State secretariat; ground oil companies and destroy all government assets in the state. The group has already claimed responsibility for the blowing up of two Shell oil pipelines in the state.

Even beyond the Niger Delta, some communities around Ikorodu,   Lagos State, identified as Igbolomu, Elepete and Ishawo, were invaded by unidentified militants who killed no fewer than 30 persons at the weekend. The invaders are suspected to be pipeline vandals who are moving westwards and were protesting the killing of two of their members by security agents. Some reports said the communities were attacked because some local residents were suspected to have disclosed the location of the militants to the police.

Jonathan’s Bill Of Rights Or Failures?

By Paul Onomuakpokpo

It remains a puzzle of governance in Africa why those we entrust with leadership do not creditably acquit themselves like their counterparts in some nations of the world.  Before our politicians get power, we are enthralled by their resonant visions of an equitable society that would be an all-powerful response to the mockery that the black man would irremediably chafe under the affliction of  inept leadership. But once they are in office, they often fail to translate such grand dreams into reality.  After they leave office, they regain the trajectory of articulating how a great society should be run.

*Jonathan 

This is the problem of a nation whose leaders do not really prepare for leadership. They are imposed on the citizens by themselves, others or circumstances. It is only when they are thrown up by circumstances or other people or they bulldoze their way into power that they start to learn about what they should do while in office. Of course, this is in the rare case of when they learn at all. Most times, our leaders do not bother to learn about the real issues for which they are in office.

Rather, once they get to office, they become not only enamoured of it, they are pre-occupied with how to sustain themselves in their position to the detriment of good governance. This is when they think of the next election and how they would return to their offices.  It is when they would globe-trot, marry more wives and take more chieftaincy titles. It is because our leaders only remember the right things they should have done only after leaving office that the country would remain undeveloped or even retrogress.

But the real tragedy is that such leaders do not behave in a manner that shows that they regret frittering away some opportunities to do great things for their country. For instance, ever since former President Olusegun Obasanjo left office, he has been  behaving as though he were the only Nigerian alive who  could proffer solutions to the  seemingly intractable problems of the nation. It is in the same mould that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has caught the limelight by canvassing the restructuring of the country as the solution to its myriad of problems. If they had used the opportunities they had to do what they are talking about now, they would not need to push them into public consciousness now.

Ever since he left office, former President Goodluck Jonathan has been silent. Even when it seemed he would react to the persistent  insinuations of his complicity in the corruption charges hanging over many of his aides, he has avoided being embroiled in them. But he broke his silence on Monday when he spoke in London. Indeed, Jonathan’s speech brims with stellar ideas about how to run a society that is underpinned by a clearly defined bill of rights. Jonathan wants such a bill of rights to be similar to the British Magna Carta established some 800 years ago, and  the one introduced by America’s Founding Fathers.