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?

Dele Cole’s Nonexistent ‘Igbo’ Slaves

By Ochereome Nnanna

On  Tuesday, 30th August 2016, at exactly 10.41am, I received a text from an unidentified frequent sender of messages to my platforms whenever he reads topics that agitate his mind, whether written by me or others.

He wrote: “Greetings. How can Dr. Patrick Dele Cole, in today’s Vanguard Newspaper…assert that the Igbo were slaves of the Ijaw? If, for the purpose of argument, one or two Igbo men were captured, held as slaves, or were sold into slavery in those days, how does that translate to the Igbo (an entire ethnic nationality) becoming slaves to the Ijaw…?”

Dele Cole’s article was entitled: “Nigerians And Their Origin”. He was displaying his rich knowledge of how people, not just in Nigeria but also in different parts of the world, acquired their current ethno-racial identities; how some powerful conquerors like the Jihadist Fulani, “dropped” their language and adopted those of their majority subjects, the Hausa, in order get assimilated and rule over them effectively.

Cole, at the tail end of his very interesting tapestry of sampling, however, made a conclusion I found both curious and contradictory compared to his earlier conclusion about the “Igbo” and “Ijaw” (I am putting these words in inverted commas for a reason that will be explained shortly). According to Cole: “Who are the Hausa-Fulani? The French of Normandy conquered England in 1066 and adopted their language. They were not known as French-English but English…Thus in the North of Nigeria they (Fulani) should be known as Hausa”.

Before I go on, let me correct Cole. The Fulani never dropped their language. Though they adopted the Hausa and other languages in areas they conquered (such as Nupe in Bida and Yoruba in Ilorin) they still maintained their Fulbe language and identity. In fact, former Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State, a Fulani royal who hails from Bamaina in Birnin Kudu Local Government of the state, told me he did not “learn” Hausa until he went to school.

Buhari: Worst President Nigeria Ever Had?

By Ikechukwu Amaechi

I have two confessions to make from the outset.

I am an incurable optimist. I am a firm believer in the maxim that no matter how dark a tunnel may appear to be, there will always be some ray of light at the end.

Of course, this presupposes that for you to encounter this light, you must not stand still at the darkest end of the tunnel. Therefore, the philosophy underpinning this belief is that for you to get to the bright end, you must keep moving away from the darkest end.

*Buhari 

You must stay the course; perseverance is the watchword. Don’t quit because quitters never win. Here, pragmatism is an inevitable companion.

This conviction also informed my reaction to the socio-political and economic developments in our country in recent times.
I strongly believed that no matter how starkly the national augury may seem to tilt south, we shall overcome as long as we have a leadership that is prepared to put on its thinking cap, prepared to listen, be pragmatic and innovative in handling the myriad of problems confronting the nation.

The last thing we need right now is a leadership that is in denial, a leadership that revels, like the ostrich, in burying its head in the sand, thinking that nobody is seeing it. The last thing we need in this country is a leadership whose only solution to the problems is to point fingers of blame at others. Unfortunately, this is the leadership we have right now.

My second confession is that I am really afraid for this country’s fate under President Muhammadu Buhari’s watch.

My worry was not informed by the frightening numbers released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Wednesday, August 31, which finally confirmed what many already knew – that the economy had slid into recession or that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth at a woeful –2.06% performance did worse than expected. It was –0.36% in the first quarter.
The fact that $1 exchanged for N425 last week with a potential of going beyond N500 before the end of the year, while inflation rose to 17.1 per cent in July from 16.5 in June is scary, but didn't worry me much.
Ditto the unemployment figure which increased to 13.3 per cent from 12.1 per cent and investment inflows which dropped to the lowest levels at $647.1 million from $710 million.

These figures are the natural consequences of the otiose and impractical monetary and fiscal policies of the Buhari administration. Discerning Nigerians and members of the international community didn’t expect anything different.

But as grim as they are, what worries me most is the puerile antics of some chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC), including Buhari, and APC National Chairman, John Oyegun.

It baffles me that those who claim to be our leaders can actually indulge in such laughable political shenanigans.

Buhari’s Anti-Graft War: A Sham

By Charles Ogbu

The 8th wonder of the world is how Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari, managed to convince sane adults and some foreign countries that his government is waging war against graft. Fact is, there is no war against corruption. The so called anti-graft war is one hell of a lie, a fraud, a sham, a farce. It is a carefully planned and well executed show meant to deceive the hoi polloi of the society and take their minds off very crucial issues while the rogues in power keep preying on them in their characteristic manner.

*Buhari 

First, president Buhari who is supposedly spearheading this anti-graft war is a man I believe to be integrity-challenged. With due respect to his office, I think the president is a dishonest man who is incapable of honouring his own promise: Before the election, Buhari promised to fight corruption by first declaring his assets publicly, to enable Nigerians determine whether or not he had corruptly enriched himself when he would publicly declare his assets again upon leaving office. On September 3, the president's media aide, Garba Shehu, read out a list of some of the president's belonging where he mentioned incoherent stuff like: "yet to be located plot of land in Port Harcourt", "Unspecified number of cars" etc.

Mr. Shehu would later promise that the president would disclose his full assets when the CCB was done with the verification. The CCB has since finished with the verification and almost one year after, the president has refused to honor his own word.

How can I trust a man who is incapable of honoring his own word? How can Nigerians trust such a man to fight corruption without corruptly enriching himself in the process? And if he is corruptly enriching himself, family and cronies in the process, can he be said to be fighting corruption? How can you claim you are fighting corruption when you have not even proven the very garment you wore was not made from the forbidden tree of corruption? 

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.

Sack Your Grossly Incompetent Economic Team – Dino Melaye Tells Buhari

PRESS RELEASE 

Deeply worried by the poor state of the economy which has brought unprecedented hardship and hunger on the masses of the Nigerian people, a federal lawmaker, Senator Dino Melaye (APC Kogi West) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to take urgent and drastic measures, including the immediate sack of three prominent members of his Economic Team as the solution-precedent to reboot the ailing economy.

*President Buhari and Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun

In a Statement in Abuja Sunday, Melaye said the President must shake up his Cabinet, and accused most of the members of gross incompetence, inexcusable ineptitude and a distressing lack of capacity to deliver on the mandate of their ministries/Agencies.

Those to face the axe immediately if the economy must be effectively rebooted to deliver on the Change Agenda of the present administration, in the estimation  of Melaye include the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, Budget and National Planning Minister, Senator Udoma  Udo Udoma and the governor of the Central bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele. 

" At the moment, it must be crystal clear to all discerning minds that the President's widely-acclaimed magical body language has lost its presumed  aura and efficacy. His  no-nonsense demeanor is equally neither instilling fear nor commanding respect and loyalty from amongst his cabinet members. It is therefore obvious that the time for barking is over, now is the time to bite and boot out all those who have demonstrated, in the past several months, a crass lack of capacity to effectively carry out the functions of their office", Melaye declared, stressing:

" The Finance Minister has not only displayed gross incompetence on the Job, she also lacks the basic and rudimentary grasp of economic fundamentals necessary to run a critical sector of the Nigerian economy like the Finance Ministry. It is time for her to go now and pave way for a qualified and experienced person to steer the Nigerian economy away from the dark woods it has sunk presently under her stewardship".

On Udoma Udo Udoma, he stated : "To be sure, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma is a very charismatic man, an accomplished lawyer, and a quintessential gentleman with a fairly untainted reputation. In everyday parlance, he is a good man. But the critical job of Budget and National Planning Minister for a huge country like Nigeria, with her prevailing economic challenges requires much more than being a good man with a great personality. 

Fighting Criminality With Illegality Equals Injustice

By Owei Lakemfa

I have a soft spot for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, mainly because I was present at its birth. Nigeria had transited from  long years of unaccountable military regimes that made little distinction between the national purse and private pockets. So corruption was rampant when the civilian administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo  came into office in 1999. EFCC Following  local and international pressures, the administration sought to fight corruption with specialised agencies. To set these up, stakeholders were invited to  meetings which I attended as the representative of the  Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC.

However, the EFCC was a rascal  using uncomely methods like breaking down doors, finding suspects guilty by  media trials, disregarding court orders and making outlandish claims like stating before the Senate that 31 of the serving 36  governors were corrupt, but having little to show after the men left  office and no longer had immunity. Worse still, the body swarm comfortably in political waters; engineering the removal of political office holders including elected governors. The worst case, was using six Plateau State legislators it had captured, to impeach Governor Joshua Dariye  when the constitutional number required was a minimum sixteen. The EFCC began operating  like  a weather forecast  station issuing  intermittent statements about people arrested,  stages of investigation or even its intentions. It chairmen who ordinarily were public servants; in fact, serving police officers – except Mrs. Farida  Mzamber Waziri, a retired police officer – became Czars.

The agency has been severally accused of doing the bidding of whoever is in power and restricting its investigative prowess to those in opposition. While there is a lot of truth in this, personally, I think it is good for the country; if even a few looters are brought to book, that will send a strong message  that people will be held to account even after leaving public office. I must also admit that the EFCC has brought some bite into the anti-corruption war; we have witnessed governors, bank chief executives and even an Inspector General of Police prosecuted and convicted. But this is no excuse to fight criminality with illegality. I believe public agencies like the EFCC and Directorate of State Security,DSS, can be effective even if they employ  legal and civilised procedures.

This will be in line with the EFCC’s vision of being “An agency operating to best international standards…” Unfortunately, at 13, the EFCC has not shed its toga of rascality and know-it-all attitude. Nothing typifies this better  than its uncultured response to the inaugural speech by the President of the Nigeria Bar Association, NBA, Abubakar Balarabe Mahmoud. I had known Mahmoud in the early ‘80s as a quiet, soft-spoken  gentleman who tries to convince on the basis of logic rather than  be pedantic and flamboyant like some of his colleagues. He and  many  of us in our generation had admiration  for the late Alao Aka-Bashorun the principled NBA President who brought activism to the Bar. Aka-Bashorun believed that law must serve the people and that service to the citizenry is the basis of legitimacy  for any government.

I was not surprised that Mahmoud in his inaugural speech emphasised some of these themes such as  “A clean  judiciary that will deliver consistent and predictable outcomes” and “No to corruption, whether in the Executive, Legislative or Judicial branch of government”  He warned that  “for the legal profession in Nigerian, it can no longer be business as usual” and that “there cannot be rich lawyers in a poor country.”

His message that “the fight against corruption can only be achieved if we do so within the frame work of the rule of law and by strong institutions” did  not seem appealing to the EFCC, a body which he commended for its modest achievements. His suggestion that the EFCC be reformed by limiting it to an  investigative agency while  “the conduct of the prosecution must be by an independent highly resourced prosecution agency” infuriated the EFCC.   Rather than respond to Mahmoud’s arguments, the Agency resorted to insults.

Recession Caused By Buhari’s Incompetence And Visionlessness – PDP

PRESS RELEASE 

Our attention has once again been drawn to the recent inconsiderate statement attributed to the Governor of Jigawa State, Abubakar Badaru and similar comments from people of like minds to the effect that the previous Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Administration was responsible for the current Economic Recession.

*Buhari 

It is really disappointing that a notable personality as highly placed as a State Governor could be drawn into making idle and pedestrian claims without the benefit of facts. It is either he does not realize the obligation of speaking responsibly in that position or he is grossly ill-informed; in which case, we could only try to put the facts before him, and hoping he would recognize them.

In the first place, this blame is misplaced because our elementary understanding of economics teaches us that the major cause of recession is inflation and poor handling of the economy given that the higher the rate of inflation, the more impoverished people become, industrial production and GDP decline resulting in massive job losses. Perhaps we should quote those who should know and tell Governor Badaru that wrong economic policies of the All Progressive Congress (APC)-led Government caused the current stagnation and recession in the Country.

Larry Ettah, President of the Nigerian Employers Consultative Association (NECA) did not mince words when he said few days ago that, “It is quite evident that the lack of clarity about the economic agenda of the current government contributed to the current economic stagnation and recession.” He said further, “In recent times at our AGMs, we have variously described our operating environment as challenging, unpredictable, unstable and energy sapping. These words are of course, true and descriptive of what our members have experienced in keeping their businesses afloat.”

However beyond that, we make bold to tell Governor Badaru that Jonathan and the People’s Democratic Party Government saw this coming since 2011, and wanted to deregulate the sale of hydrocarbons in 2012, but Badaru and his co-travellers who are now in the All Progressives Congress (APC) frustrated the effort. The former Administration also wanted to encourage more savings in the Excess Crude Account (ECA) and set up the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) but the Badarus of this world who play politics with serious national issues and were state governors at the time took the Federal Government to Court and did everything to frustrate the effort. Thank God some of them are among the ‘best brains’ in the APC Federal Government of today.

Governor Badaru should know that you can't plant grapes and harvest mangoes. It is no secret that the policies and statements made by key government actors have not been business friendly and Nigerians and foreign business men took their hard currencies out of the Country. When professionals were advising the Government to woo investors, characters like Badaru were busy de-marketing Nigeria all over the world. They should be reminded that great leaders take over countries either in recession or war and still succeed in turning them around; quite unlike the prevailing situation where a Ruling Party plunges the Economy into an avoidable recession, only to turn round and begin to whine helplessly like a baby.

Scholar And Novelist Isidore Okpewho Passes On at 74

By Nduka Otiono 
Africa’s foremost scholar of Oral Literature and award-winning novelist, Isidore Okpewho, has passed on at 74. He was a prolific author, co-author and editor of about 14 books, dozens of articles and a seminal booklet, A Portrait of the Artist as a Scholar.

Prof Isidore Okpewho

Prof. Okpewho died peacefully at a hospital in Binghamton, a town in Upstate New York where he had lived and taught since 1991. His teaching career spanned University of New York at Buffalo (1974-76), University of Ibadan (1976-90), Harvard University (1990-91), and State University of New York at Binghamton. 

According to family sources, the Distinguished Professor at State University of New York, Binghamton, passed away on Sunday, September 4, 2016, surrounded by family members. Although he battled illness recently, the scholar and humanist had demonstrated exceptional capacity to deal with his challenging health conditions. Indeed, only two years ago, his last book to which he had long committed his intellectual resources, Blood on the Tides: The Ozidi Saga and Oral Epic Narratology, was published by University of Rochester Press.

Born on November 9, 1941 in Agbor, Delta State, Nigeria, Okpewho grew up in Asaba, his maternal hometown, where he attended St Patrick’s College, Asaba. He proceeded to the University College, Ibadan, for his university education. He graduated with a First Class Honours in Classics, and moved on to launch a glorious career: first in publishing at Longman Publishers, and then as an academic after obtaining his PhD from the University of Denver, USA. He crowned his certification with a D.Litt from University of London. 

With his two earliest seminal academic monographs, The Epic in Africa: Toward a Poetics of the Oral Performance (1979) and Myth in Africa: A Study of Its Aesthetic and Cultural Relevance (1983), Okpewho quickly established his reputation as a first-rate scholar and a pioneer of Oral Literature in Africa. For his distinctive and prolific output he was honoured with a string of international academic and non-academic awards that included the Nigerian National Order of Merit (NNOM), in Humanities for the year 2010. 

Before Edo State Is Set On Fire!

By Sufuyan Ojeifo

Political extremism was an outrageous flaunt by the All Progressives Congress (APC) during the 2015 general elections: to win at all costs. It was accompanied by virulent propaganda never seen in the history of electioneering in Nigeria, which was, overall, sustained by a bare threat to destabilise the polity. The APC put aside all decorum and threatened to form a parallel government if the outcome of the presidential election did not favour them.  Some political analysts had, at that point, rightly dubbed the APC as an amalgamation of political extremists and desperate politicians whose common purpose was to hijack power by force of threat.

*Gov Adams Oshiomole of Edo State 

But before that assertion is faulted, I invite you to also take a critical look at political events in Edo State ahead of the September 10, 2016 governorship election.  There is no doubt that the fortune of the APC in Edo has plummeted, and since there is no likely quick fix in sight, its main political actors have resorted to threats. They want to unleash Armageddon on a State that is already gripped by hunger.  By allegedly planning to rig the forthcoming election, the APC government is preparing the ground for anarchism.

The fear of possible mayhem is real.  The fear is strengthened by a bizarre development in Edo, which has further fuelled suspicions that the APC is committed to perpetrate electoral fraud. The development is called hunt for thugs (similar to the talent hunt show), and it is basically fashioned out to assemble the most daring of the area boys in town ahead of the governorship poll.  Today, thuggery is considered as, perhaps, the highest paying job in the State, with a lucrative recruitment scheme such that if you can stake the unexpected as an area boy, just expect a call from Oga at the top to be enlisted for the task ahead. It is that bad!

At the center of this despicable political gambit is a certain Brother Adams, demonstrating a do or die attitude in his conduct at rallies in a desperate bid to impose a “puppet-candidate” on Edo State. He has thrown caution to the winds in his extreme disposition to enforce his third-term by other means.  He has threatened that a particular candidate will only be governor over his dead body. But unfortunately for Brother Adams, the people do not want him dead yet.  Even though they have made up their minds to vote out the APC, they want Brother Adams to be alive to witness the consequences of his action of betraying their trust.

Though there is an increased consciousness on the part of the people to frustrate any plan to manipulate the election, it is however necessary for the law enforcement agencies to be on the guard as impartial security outfits working to keep and ensure the peace and stability of the State. The mood in Edo is now that of a people ready to defend their mandate and protect their state against any internal or external forces of destabilisation.

There is, however, a major concern, the kind that was witnessed during the 2015 general elections when an accreditation-technology of card reader was introduced and used against the provision of the Electoral Act and the common sense of testing it at smaller elections before a large scale application. Aside the fact that the innovation was an unmitigated disaster during the general elections, the Supreme Court has since ruled on its applicability and asked the electoral body to appropriately include it in the Electoral Act if it so desired.
But it appears the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is again up to something else in the forthcoming Edo and Ondo States governorship elections with yet another introduction of an electronic platform for collation of results. This has not been captured by any law or guaranteed by the Electoral Act. It is called e-collation and e-transmission of results.

Ndigbo, Time To Think Eastwards!

By Clement Udegbe

The new plan by Governor Ambode of Lagos is to either force Igbos to go and start buying lands in Badagry, Ikorodu, Epe and other areas in the hinter lands, build houses and markets to develop those areas, or go back to the South East as Governor Fashola told them to do after the deportation of Igbos in 2013. The risk in this new plan is best captured by an Igbo proverb that says when a child starts planning to eat plenty fresh vegetable, the vegetable also plans how to give the child diarrhoea. No one, including the owners of Lagos, can say what Lagos will look like without Igbos, or what Igbos will do if they have to be forced to relocate.

 However, some Igbo traders may foolishly rush to those areas and start fresh struggles to own land and develop them, thereby repeating the same mistake they made after the civil war. These ones will always see themselves as wiser than the rest. They are the ones who often boast to themselves that they spent huge sums of money just to sand fill some deep swampy areas in Ojo, Abule Egba,Okota, Ejigbo areas, etc, before building. They forget that the cost of sand filling alone would have given them three mansions or more in their dry Igbo land. An Igbo proverb says that wisdom is like a hand bag: you pick up yours as you go about your affairs. But it appears many Igbos forget theirs in their villages with respect to Nigeria! They have this mind set, attributable to after effects of the civil war, to settle outside their state, no matter how close.

For example, Igbos strangely prefer to go and buy lands, build and live in Asaba and its environs, and commute to their markets stalls and shops in Onitsha, while neglecting all that vast good land from Ogbaru, to Aguleri and their environs. Many Igbo buy swamps from Port Harcourt, Elele, etc, in Rivers State and develop them, while neglecting the solid land around Owerri and Aba. They prefer to congregate again the same place where they lost abandoned properties after the civil war. The Imo State Governor is not ashamed of the craters that have rendered the Imo portion of the Portharcourt – Owerri Road   impassable since he came to power over five years ago. Similarly, his Anambra counterpart looks the other way as his people suffer untold hardship traversing just between Awka and Enugu, a distance of less than 80 kilometres. The governors of Enugu and Ebonyi have also failed to do the needful about the failed portions of their link roads.

Only God knows what the people of Ebonyi go through daily to link up with other parts of Igbo land, and Nigeria in general. Igbos participate and invest in huge sea port development programmes in neighbouring states, while neglecting the vast ocean front they have in Azumini area in Abia State. Indeed it is baffling why Igbos have failed or refused to develop their   own zone with the same zeal they put in other zones. While no Igbo man has made it to the list of the world richest, it is obvious that there are factors militating against them as a people. And until they wake up and address these factors, they will continue to run from pillar to post whenever their host governments sneeze! This is why the new Ambode plan against Ndigbo in Lagos is a welcome development. Perhaps it will make them to begin to think differently and to reconsider their ways in Nigeria. It will help them to rediscover that Igbo spirit that existed in the days of Zik of Africa, Dr. Michael Okpara, Dr. Akanu Ibiam and a host of other Igbo patriots who worked assiduously with other patriots from the South West and the South South to create the Nigeria that the Military and their political friends have worked equally hard to undermine since 1966, barely six years after our independence.

 It will perhaps make Igbos realise that no matter how long the crocodile remains in the water, it can never become a mangrove tree. No matter how long they may live in Yorubaland, Tivland or Hausaland, they will remain Igbo people. And until something fundamentally revolutionary happens, Nigeria, as I see it, cannot do without ethnicity and religion. I pray that a new movement that will not be polluted by these two cancers presently killing Nigeria will start someday. The Ambode plan is not fair and kind, and Igbos must take it seriously to avoid the enslavement it implies. The Holy Bible, which over 80 percent of Igbos believe in, declares that affliction shall not arise a second time against the righteous. And given the obvious religious agenda of the ruling APC, Igbos must find ways to re-engineer their own society and reduce the Pull Him Down Syndrome among themselves. The Lagos State government has not hidden its dislike for Igbos.

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.

Herdsmen Menace: Action And Reaction In Ekiti

By Amanze Obi

Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State has taken the bull by the horns. Some three months ago, I had cause in this column to commend him for standing up to be counted among men. The governor had then charged at the Fulani herdsmen, who murdered two indigenes of Ekiti State on Ekiti soil in the name of grazing. For Fayose, that brigandage and effrontery from the herdsmen was unacceptable. In a momentary fit of anger, the governor announced that cattle grazing had been banned in Ekiti State.

*Gov Ayo Fayose

However, after the initial outburst, Fayose retreated into his shell. Three months after, he has resurfaced with something more enduring; something that carries the force of law. The state House of Assembly has passed a bill regulating cattle grazing in the state. The bill, which was signed into law a few days ago by Governor Fayose, seeks to check the excesses and criminality of Fulani herdsmen, who have become the latest monster in Nigeria.

Under the grazing law, any herdsman caught with arms while grazing will be charged with terrorism. The law has also ruled out indiscriminate and uncontrolled grazing. Government has allocated certain portions of land to the local government councils for grazing activities. The time allowed for grazing is 7am to 6pm daily. Anybody found grazing on portions of land not allocated by government for such activity will be made to face the wrath of the law. There are other provisions of the law all of which seek to ensure that grazing is devoid of any form of criminality.

I commend the Fayose example. It is practical governance in action. It mirrors Isaac Newton’s third law of motion, which teaches that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. In pure physics, it means that in every interaction, there is a pair of forces acting on the two interacting objects. If we wean this Newtonian postulation of its scientific barbs, we will be left with an interventionist policy action that interprets and defines our situation.

Today in Nigeria, we are faced with a situation where everybody is scared stiff of a lethal object called AK47. Everybody is complaining that the Fulani herdsmen are wielding this weapon indiscriminately. But nobody has stopped to ask questions about how they acquire them. Why and how does the Fulani herdsman have free and unfettered access to sophisticated weapons of war? Many suspect that the herdsman is armed by the many retired military officers of northern extraction, who own the cows that he roams about with. If this is the case, we also need to ask questions about how the retired officers acquire the guns. In a situation where the Nigeria Police does not have sufficient guns to operate with, it beats the imagination that herdsmen can boast of large cache of arms that battalions of soldiers cannot boast of. This is strange, indeed.

The fact that nobody is after the herdsman and his criminality rankles the more. Why is he such a sacred cow? Why have the camps and hideouts of the herdsmen not been invaded by security agencies with a view to making arrests and dispossessing them of the dangerous weapons they wield?  This question is reinforced by the fact that we are all living witnesses to the intolerance of our security forces. They do not tolerate the unarmed Biafran agitator. He is killed freely for stepping out in the streets to protest. What about the Niger Delta agitator? He is the implacable enemy of the state.  He must be mowed down by the security agents wherever he is found.

Game Of Death In Rivers State

By Steve Nwosu

I’m not used to too much prayer, but I must begin today’s piece with a word of prayer. I pray that God Almighty visits the killers of Barr. Ken Atsuwete (and their sponsors) with slow and painful death. Amen!
I pray that the divine punishment for the dastardly act of Monday constitutes the largest chunk of the inheritance, which the killers (and their sponsors) would pass on to their children and their children’s children in the fullness of time. Amen and Amen and Amen!

But, one question kept coming to my mind on Monday, as I tried to make sense of the senseless abduction and murder of the activist lawyer in Port Harcourt: Aren’t we back to a not-too-unfamiliar narrative? For, it would appear, Rivers State relapses into a feast of blood as soon as a new date for the now-jinxed re-run election is within the horizon.

Everything – including kidnapping, armed robbery and, as is in this case, heinous assassination – suddenly begins to take a political coloration. It is either that ‘blood-thirsty’ Governor Nyesom Wike is trying to intimidate opponents with violence (the APC narrative), or Rotimi Amaechi and his APC gang are unleashing mayhem in order to underscore their claim that Rivers State is not safe for any election to hold there.

And now, the murder of Atsuwete perfectly fits the bill: He is not only the lawyer of a former council chairman, who is facing trial in a murder case, but is also representing the 22 council chairmen elected on the platform of the APC and who were sacked by the Wike administration.

Expectedly, the APC says the lawyer’s assassination is the worst politically motivated killing in recent times, while PDP says the APC is politicising criminality and trivialising a serious matter. But while they’re vomiting all the high-sounding nonsense, somebody’s husband, a father, a breadwinner, a community leader, a voice of the voiceless lies stone cold. Dead!

Incidentally, while members of the NBA were holding their conference in Port Harcourt last week, I had fantasised about some hooded goons kidnapping a few prominent (and some not-so-prominent) lawyers – just to underscore the narrative that Rivers State was still not safe. Luckily, it never happened.

But before Wike and his camp could pop champagne, the goons mowed down Atsuwete, casting ominous pall over the proposed end-of-October date for the legislative re-run elections.
Of course, it’s understandable: The ‘insecurity’ narrative is the thin thread on which the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has hung its stubborn refusal to conduct outstanding National and State Assembly elections in Rivers State.

Arthur Nwankwo Disowns Pro-Biafra Group

Nigeria: Chronicles Of Tragedy And Absurdity

By Okey Ndibe

As a novelist, I frequently experience the sensation that I could never invent imaginative events that, in their tragic or absurd extraordinariness, can stand beside the strangeness of life, as it is lived in Nigeria. Indeed, I follow public events in Nigeria with a certain sense that some grand master of fiction, versed in absurd tragedy, stands just out of sight to shape and orchestrate these events. For me, to read the pages of Nigerian newspapers is often akin to reading the most wrought fabulist fiction. Except that the events one encounters in news reports, bizarre as they may appear, are deeply rooted in and describe the shattering realities of Nigerians’ lives. These are often events that trigger the declaration, “Only in Nigeria…”

Before I get to recent illustrations, I must quickly cite some classic examples that have become so woven into the essential fabric of Nigerian life that they hardly strike Nigerians anymore as odd much less astonishing.

It’s only in Nigeria that God “votes” in elections – and, in fact, casts the decisive vote. So, Nigeria’s election riggers invented the disingenuous mantra that only God gives power. If Candidate B is declared winner of an election, even though everybody knows Candidate A won it handily, all the imposter has to say to settle it all is, “God has given me power.”

It’s only in Nigeria that public officials fatten their bank accounts from funds budgeted for public purposes – and then demand that the people whose lives they have impoverished must fast and pray for better electric power, to be spared death in road accidents or death in ill-equipped hospitals.

It is only in Nigeria that a governor would declare that he has “totally transformed” every sector of his state – and then promptly fly abroad for medical treatment the instant he experiences a headache.
It is only in Nigeria (as happened in Ilorin, capital of Kwara State in January 2009) that a commissioner of police would call a press conference and point to an “arrested” goat, as a robber who turned himself into an animal just as pursuers were about to grab him. Newspapers around the world reported the absurd drama. It is only in Nigeria that the said officer would make such a global ass of a major national institution and retain his job.

Nigeria must be one of the few places in the world – perhaps the only one – where governors are effusively declared “performers” for paying the salaries of state employees. And if these governors happen to invest some funds in the rehabilitation of a few kilometers of roads, why, they are simply canonised.

Nigeria is arguably the world’s most notorious location where a mindless embezzler of public funds is no longer a thief if s/he belongs to the right (ruling) party, the right religion, the right state and the right circles. Nigeria is a country where just about anything is rigged or riggable in favour of the rich and connected where the police would hardly ever disturb the peace of a well-placed suspect, however grave the crime, and where many judges are only too willing (for the right price) to oblige well-heeled suspects and accused every manner of justice-evading legal gymnastics.