WHAT IS IN A NAME?

A very dangerous pattern is emerging in both the politics and socio-cultural relations of the people of Adamawa state that in my opinion will not augur well for the state if left unchecked. These days whatever action or inaction taken by either the state or federal government is given religious or tribal connotations. Failed politicians are running from pillar to post trying to convince a large segment of the people of the state to always look at actions of the various tiers of government with suspicion. Those who lost out in the political chess game systematically embarked on a deliberate campaign of hate against a certain group. Rather than retreating to re-strategize and fight another day within the civilised norms of political battle, they resorted to taking the Hutu solution for their perceived Tutsis. The conflagration that may be the consequences of this primitive approach may affect everyone when the shit really hits the fan.

People who should know better than to stoke the embers of ethno-religious hatred, unfortunately are at the forefront of this campaign. People that ideally should provide leadership to all, irrespective of creed or tribe – those who were once trusted with leadership positions, academics, technocrats, etc. – in trying to reinvent themselves, are the ones beating the drums of war and hatred on flimsy excuses, banking on our naivety and gullibility. My take on this is that, while holding public and civil service offices, these people never took a single decision that wasn’t coloured in either religion or ethnic sentiments. The current ethnicisation of issues in the state (in the open, anyway) began barely five years ago with the lost of power by some people and to them, the surest and easiest way of getting back to reckoning is to appeal to these twin primordial sentiments – particularly religion – which is a very emotive issue to all and sundry in Nigeria. Every single decision taken by any of the tiers of government, particularly as it affects Adamawa State, is interpreted to be in favour of a certain segment of the society not minding that it may not be in the interests of those perceived to be benefitting.

The recent renaming of the Federal University of Technology, Yola provided an opportunity for these opportunists to once again come out with the usual unthought-of rhetoric. The federal government decided in its own wisdom to rename its university in Yola to Modibbo Adama University of Technology, from the Federal University of Technology, in honour of the founder of the Fombina Emirate over two hundred years ago. The Fombina Emirate once extended to as far as the Cameroun and in its diminished form the foundations of the present Adamawa state. When the colonialists came to the area and discovered an administrative and judicial system that was at par with what obtained in their country, if not better than their own, they were so impressed that on the creation of the Northern group of provinces, the area was named ‘Adamawa Province’ in honour of Modibbo Adama. This was done without prejudice to any tribe or religion. It was purely done to give honour where it was due. His pioneering administrative skills were what were honoured by the colonialists and nothing else. The current emirate and chieftaincy system all over the state owe its existence to Modibbo Adama.

When the Babangida regime decided to split the defunct Gongola state into two, one was named Adamawa state and no one read any meaning into it. Before then, General Buhari had downgraded this same University that its renaming is turned into a matter of life and death for some, to a campus of the University of Maiduguri and named it Modibbo Adama Campus. Not a single eyebrow was raised because no political capital was to be made out of it then. It was the Babangida government with Professor Aminu as Education minister that upgraded the school once again and reverted to its former name of Federal University of Technology. Yola (FUTY). No one complained of any ethnic biasness. Why is it now that the federal government has decided to rename the school once more in honour of Modibbo Adama, the decision has suddenly taken such a nihilistic dimension? Why do otherwise cultured people, including academics, threatening thunder and brimstone for such an innocuous action by the federal government.

Institutions and other government establishments have been named to honour or immortalise certain individuals in the country since time and this was never done with any ethnic or religious biases, as far as I know. University of Sokoto is now Usumanu Danfodio University. We have Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Bayero University Kano, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Nsukka, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Bauchi and so many other institutions of higher learning are named after individuals whom the government believed have contributed immensely to the development of the area one way or the other. Yet these names hasn’t improved or decrease the quality of scholarship of the institutions. In every state capital of this blighted nation roads, buildings, bridges and other important places are named after individuals not because of their religious or tribal affiliations. There is even a road in Bauchi named after Boni Haruna – I can’t fathom his contribution or connection to the town. I believe I have more claim to being honoured by the people of Bauchi – at least I attended the defunct Government Secondary School, Bauchi.

With the rumoured intention of the federal government to name the Yola International Airport as Aliyu Mustafa International Airport, the knives are out once again. For those who do not know, the late Lamido Aliyu Mustafa is the immediate past Lamido Adamawa and the father of the current Lamido. He died in 2010 after being the Lamido for fifty-seven years. His reign was firm, decisive and just. He had worked with administrations from the colonialists to the current Nyako administration. The late Lamido was a father to all and was never known to turn back anyone from his presence. His sense of justice and fairness was what endeared him to all that came to his court. That was why he was able to reign for such a long period of time without any problem. How can immortalising such a man be a threat to the peaceful coexistence between and among the people of the state? If there is any ulterior motive to this opposition, then we should know.

Resorting to ethno-religious ‘cold war’ will not move us forward but rather retard our growth. It can only endanger suspicion and mistrust among the people of the state. Those at the vanguard of promoting such will be well advised to stand before their mirrors and ask themselves soul-searching questions. Most, if not all, of them had the opportunity to write their names in gold and be counted when the time for counting comes but chose to write their names in charcoal. It was nobody’s fault that they are now footnotes in the developmental history of the state.

I just hope the common folk will wake up from their slumber to realise that ethnic irredentist always use them as cannon fodder for their politically motivated violent battles.

A "DOVISH GOODLUCK JONATHAN & A HAWKISH BUDGET

The budget presented by Goodluck Jonathan to the joint session of the National Assembly on Tuesday December 13^th, 2011 is exactly what Nigerians deserve as far as I am concerned, warts and all. What we got is a budget that is long on rhetorics and short on promise, though we shouldn’t have expected anything better from a government that is deaf and dumb as far as the problems of Nigerians are concerned. The people that went round the country begging for our votes six months back are now treating us like something the cat brought home from the streets. The oft repeated cliché that Jonathan never had a shoe to his name while going to school was to draw sympathy from poor folks who may expect empathy for their plight from a village boy who couldn’t afford shoes while a kid. Alas, what we got is a Jonathan who empathises more with the oyibo and their agents. What we got is a government that is more interested in taking out the small change in your pocket for their foreign junkets like birthdays in far away Australia or going to France to “seek for investors” when the French were hanging on the coattails of Germany for their economic survival. What we got is a Jonathan that always believed in good luck, a hostage to militants and their godfathers and a gullible man who is made to believe it is his destiny to rule Nigeria. Jonathan is a man without focus or any articulated agenda whose campaign revolved around the divinity of his mandate and Nigerians were swayed by primordial sentiments to “elect” him president. We all know this and accepted it.

The budget is in line with Jonathan’s provincial background and a mind set shaped by the militancy of the Niger Delta, led by the nose by the likes of Okonjo-Iweala, with her neo-conservative economic theories shaped by the American conservative establishment in charge of the Bretton Woods Institutions, and the hawkish group under the leadership of the National Security Adviser (NSA), Azazi. Here is a budget heavy on security (whatever it may mean) and wanting in all key ministries that is sure to engender security. While ministries like those of agriculture, power, education, health – critical ministries that will have direct bearing on employment generation and job creation are allocated measly amounts compared to security, Nigerians should be wiser as to why the government is bend on stealing the little money in their pockets by increasing the price of petroleum products. If we had a government worth its name, then they don’t need to be told that there is no greater security than a society fully employed and contented with life. A restive society is the greatest threat to peace and security, and this should be an elementary knowledge to any serious leader.

The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) a congress that is increasingly making itself irrelevant, will soon realise that the N18,000 minimum wage it threatened to bring down the country for, could hardly fuel their vehicles come January next year let alone put a plate on their tables. Jonathan and his promoters have promised us a “transformational government” in the run-up to the 2011 elections but we didn’t bother to find out the kind of transformation they were talking about. We are on the road to being transformed – only into a country of beggars.

Our crowd of environmentalists will have something to celebrate in the 2012 budget. With the anticipated increment in the price of petroleum products, there will be fewer cars on the road and still fewer generators to pollute the environment. I know it will be asking too much to know how the N921billion budgeted for ‘Security’ will be expended. But our docile legislators could not summon the courage to question the executive on the details of the allocations. The heightened state of insecurity in the country since Azazi became the National Security Adviser (NSA) needs to be interrogated. Is there a deliberate policy to generate fear among the populace in order to achieve a certain goal, part of which is the increment in the vote for security for some people to line their pockets? The allocations to critical sectors like education, health, agriculture and power says much about the direction of the government. Those who sold Jonathan as dovish and caring person may be forced to change their slogans before the end of the first quarter.

A whopping sum of N124billion is allocated just to the office of the NSA, what in God’s name does he need that for? What capital projects are we talking about under the office of the NSA that, to all intents and purposes, is just a clearinghouse for the other security agencies? Are they going to build barracks, state offices, buy armoured tanks, fighter and bomber planes, guns and ammunitions or what? Nigerians go to India and Egypt for ailments that, under normal circumstances, should be treated in our dispensaries because though the manpower may be available, our health institutions lack the necessary equipment. The kids of the rich and powerful go to other African countries like Ghana and Togo for elementary school because our public schools – the same system that afforded a poor kid from the creeks who couldn’t afford shoes to be educated up to Ph.D. level – have collapsed and the government is not ready to do anything about it. With a vast arable land and massive human resources to till the land, we still import the bulk of what we eat from far-off places like Thailand and Brazil. Power and potable water supply are luxuries reserved for only those who can afford a generating set and a borehole in their houses. Yet the total budgetary allocations to all the ministries concerned with the provision of these services are far less than what is allocated to security.

Has it not occurred to Jonathan and his praetorian minders that they are the greatest culprits in endangering the security of our lives and property? When there is no food or social security, how do you ensure “security”? coercion has never, ever guaranteed security else the Palestinians will have been long subdued by the Israelis or ‘Yar Adu’a won’t have bothered with the amnesty programme for the Niger Delta. Security cannot also be bought. If the government is serious about ensuring security in the country, they should address the social insecurity bedevilling the nation and not allocate huge sums of money that will ultimately end up in peoples’ pockets. It is not bought. It is achieved through good governance.

WHERE ARE OUR CONSCIENCES?

The issue of almajirai and almajirci has occupied many discourses both privately and in public for over a decade now with nobody willing to do anything about the scourge, particularly those that may be directly responsible for its burgeoning profile in the recent past. Today, in most of our major cities, particularly in the north, these hapless fellow human beings are a permanent eyesore dotting all major street intersections, shopping malls, fuel stations and such other places where people spend money. A recent report by one of the organs of the United Nations put the number of these “wretched of the earth” to be about 10.6million. The report scared me. But looking around, I realised nobody is willing to do anything about these unfortunate souls. An otherwise noble tradition of scholarship, the almajirci has now taken a negative toga due to the neglect of those involved in it by a society becoming more and more selfish.

Growing up in the early seventies in Yola, the almajirai we know were the itinerant students of Islamic studies going from house to house in the neighbourhood begging for food during mealtimes. Immediately after having their fill, they would go back to their schools located in the compounds of their mallams. Those days, the almajirai learnt the Quran, jurisprudence, fiqh, hadith and other branches of Islamic knowledge sitting in a circle around either the teacher or one of the senior students who must have graduated from the basic classes. Before graduation, most, if not all, learnt one trade or the other apart from the Islamic knowledge to help sustain them in life. Some would go deeper in their search for knowledge and eventually become mallams with their own students. In those days almajirci was really what it meant – scholarship – no more, no less. You could not meet them on the streets, fuel stations, shopping malls with their ubiquitous begging bowls making nuisance of themselves by harassing motorists and shoppers. Their begging was confined to their neighbourhood and only for what to eat.

Today the average northern youth, particularly in Hausa land, starts taking care of his needs at the age of five. This is the age at which these luckless kids are sent out to the streets to satisfy their culinary needs by whatever means. They grow up in the streets from such a tender age to the age of maturity with neither scholarship nor trade learnt since they spend all their waking moments on the streets. They are thus exposed to the vagaries of the streets and of the criminal elements constantly prowling looking for innocent young recruits for their burgeoning criminal enterprises in a country where crime pays big time. At a time when their peers are in school, they are denied the opportunity by an uncaring society made up mostly by those who enjoyed free education in their time. We see them struggling for vantage positions at fuel stations and shopping malls where we go to spend money on things we do not necessarily want or need, with our kids ensconced in the comforts of our cars with windows wound up, cool air conditioner blowing their ever glowing skins and music blaring from hidden loudspeakers, conveniently blocking their wails for assistance of “a taimaka mana da na abinci”.

Our consciences have been numbed by a choice of movies from a variety of sources watched on 42” Plasma/ LCD television screens while reclining on chairs made from the finest materials. Our worldview is therefore shaped by Supersport, Movie Magic and other entertaining foreign channels while theirs are shaped by the deprivations they go through and the “big men” who drive past them in glorified ambulances. We don’t feel moved whenever we past these hapless kids, moving between vehicles with their torn pants, licking fingers made dirty from the remnants of a Mr. Biggs takeaway thrown from the window of a moving car driven by one of us. We do not feel any pang of guilt in buying motorcycles for the children of the poor during campaigns and unleashing them on a society lacking any form of public transportation, to operate as commercial motorcyclists while our kids, their age mates, are in schools in Ghana, Togo, United Kingdom and the United States. We do not experience any feeling of discomfort when we park by the roadside to buy telephone recharge cards from their calloused hands while our kids, again their age mates, are sitting behind big desks as executives in the major companies and government agencies. What sort of animals have we become? We do not feel any remorse turning these kids into political thugs, street vendors, porters, shoe shiners, itinerant manicurists while our kids are trained from birth to be their patrons.

Even if for our selfish reasons, have we thought what future holds in store for us and those kids who in the next five to ten years will become grown men with needs like ours – craving to own whatever we own – the women, the cars, the travelling to far off places like Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Dubai and the USA, places they only hear while eavesdropping on the conversations of “big men”, the shopping, the clubbing, etc. Have we ever thought that when the deprivations continue while as they attain the age of maturity with nothing to their names, and therefore nothing to protect, they may turn against us to wreck what we have amassed over the years through crookery, theft, corruption and denial of their fundamental rights to be well educated and provide jobs? When their collective anger boils over, are we certain it would not turn into a volcano that will rain its ashes on all of us? Can we be positive that we have not started seeing this in the violence rocking the country from Lagos to Maiduguri, Port Harcourt to Sokoto?

We should look around our GRAs and other highbrow areas and see God’s work on our own kids. Most junkies and drug addicts are found in our closets. This is God’s on way of telling us we are on the wrong path, yet we don’t see the irony. Let’s please search our rusted consciences and see if it is possible for us to retrace our steps from this route to perdition that we have taken. Let’s rejig our educational and employment system to incorporate those unfortunates. Remember, most of us were no better than them but we were given the opportunity to go to school and be gainfully employed thereafter not because of who we were, but because of what we were.

Either we quickly defuse this ticking time bomb, or it will blow up in our faces. The choice is ours.

"THE “NEW POLITICAL REALITY”

 

Critics of the Goodluck Jonathan administration are dismissed as those who fail to appreciate the “new political reality” unfolding in the country.  Every Jonathan apologists now uses this line of condemnation on anyone who disagrees with the way and manner the president is running the country.  It is an easy way out for them, or so they think.  No one has the right to hold contrary opinion to the all-knowing president and his team.  I think I have seen the “new political reality” as espoused by these modern day “progressives” whose concept of progressivism is the total exclusion of certain parts of the country even if the heavens will fall.  If you don’t see it their way, then you need to be re-educated for you to fit-in into a “transformed Nigeria”.  If those promoting this line of thinking, can have the courage of their conviction, then they could have dubbed it the “total exclusion of northern Nigeria’” from political power.  Let’s call a spade a spade and stop pretending all is well.

A subtle but dangerous scenario is emerging within the governmental setup with the way appointments are being made, manifestly favouring a section of the country over and above the rest.  This was started during the Obasanjo locust years when he ensured the pauperisation of the north with the active connivance of northerners in his government.  The consolidation of banks by Charles Soludo weeded out northerners from the financial sector and the systematic dismantling of manufacturing concerns in the region, particularly the textile industries that used to provide over 50% employment to the people of the region either directly or indirectly, followed this.  Since time the balance of power in the country was distributed in such a way that the southwest controlled the financial sector, the southeast was in control of commerce while the North’s forte was political power.  With the election of Obasanjo in 1999, the banks consolidation of 2005, the north completely lost out.  Orosanye ensured that the few remaining northerners in the civil service were shown the door.  This was the state of affairs when Azikiwe Jonathan took over.

To guarantee no part of the country feels marginalised from governance, the principle of Federal Character was enshrined in the country’s constitution and an agency, the Federal Character Commission, was established to specifically ensure compliance with the constitutional provision.  Whatever the deficiencies of the Federal Character principle, it has served its purpose, before now.  At the risk of being insulted as someone who hasn’t yet grasped the “new political reality”, I will still say my piece.  Much as it may sound unpalatable to the ears of some I will say it as I see it.  I quiet understand the “new political reality” – that is some people are not wanted in Nigeria as presently constituted.

A cursory look into public and civil service appointments by the Azikiwe Goodluck government will give one goose pimples and a window into the mind-set of those who run our country today.  The emerging pattern is of a cabal bent on making sure that the Nigeria of the future will be cleansed of a large segment of its population.  Few of such appointments include the Chief Executive of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), who celebrated his birthday on the same day that over thirty souls lost their lives in an avoidable accident in Abuja, the Chief Executive of Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON), the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), the Debt Management Office (DMO), the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE), Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), Immigration, Prisons, Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Revenue Mobilisation & Fiscal Allocation Commission (RMFAC), Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), Directorate of Petroleum Resources, Nigerian Civil Aviation College, Zaria, National Air safety Management Agency (NAMA), Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), and all agencies under the Ministry of Aviation are headed by people from one part of the country.  If such a situation should favour the north, the whole media will be awash with cries of the violation of the Federal Character principle, and therefore a violation of the constitution.

It is still fresh in our memory when Earnest Ndukwe retired as head of the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) earlier in the year and a certain Dr. Bashir Gwandu, an eminently qualified Electrical/ Electronics engineer and the most senior director in the Commission was acting, the Igbos raised hell that since an Igbo man retired from the place, an Igbo man must be appointed to replace him, merit, seniority and decorum be damned.  The government granted the demand of the Igbos.  In the life of this administration, I am yet to see where a northerner left office by whatever means and is replaced by someone else from the region or that a northern leader – traditional, religious or political - ever came out with guns blazing demanding that a northerner be appointed or hell will freeze.

When offices were “zoned” after the “no zoning” submission served its purpose, the Igbos got Secretary to the Federal Government, the Deputy Senate President and the Deputy Speaker while the entire three zones in the north got the Vice Presidency, the Senate President and grudgingly, the Speaker of the House of Representatives.  The last one was achieved through the stubbornness of the House members, though Obasanjo called for the resignation of the Speaker because he failed to see the “new political reality”.  No one as yet has complained of marginalisation in the north, though I suspect such complaints will be dismissed with a wave of the hand.

It is more and more becoming clear to me that we are living in Orwellian times in Nigeria of today.  How then does one explain or justify a situation where the Rector, Registrar, Chief Legal Adviser and the Chief Medical Officer of the College of Aviation Zaria all come from the South Eastern part of Nigeria while the College is located in the north west.  New political reality indeed.

Since the 2011 elections, several southern commentators, especially on the Internet, have become bolder in calling for the separation of the Nigerian state between the two poles.  Are the brazen actions of this government against one section of the country a prelude to such endeavour? And is the north really preparing for such eventuality?  The writing is clear on the wall for those with the eyes to see.

IS OUR UNITY WORTH THE INSULTS?

An article, which appeared on the back page of Daily Trust of Friday October 28th, 2011 by one Ifeanyichukwu Udibe titled Re: Boko Haram’s and Chukwumerije’s Doctrine, made very interesting, revealing and educative reading.  It was interesting because while accusing Al Gazali, the writer of the original article that was the subject of his response, of biases and hatred towards the Igbos, he only succeeded in spewing more hate than Al Gazali – that is if his accusation is true – which, in my opinion was false because I read Al Gazali’s article.  It was my understanding that Al Gazali was only expressing his disappointment on how Chukwumetije descended from being a nationalist in the 70s to an ethnic champion this late in his life.  Revealing in the sense that the writer only succeeded in letting the cat out of the bag (prematurely) by letting us in to the fact that come what may, the Igbos will take over the presidency of the country irrespective of how other parts of the country or other ethnic groups may feel about it.  If I understand the writer correctly, then the Igbos don’t need any other part of the country to realise their objective, no matter whose ox is gored, so long as Goodluck can concentrate on empowering the south east and south southern parts of the country to the exclusion of all others.  Udibe’s piece was also educative because it has succeeded in laying bare the lack of unity of purpose among the peoples and politicians of particularly the northern region.  May be such articles from the likes of Udibe and exhortations from the likes of Chukwumerije will at least serve as a wake up call to our selfish leadership who are content to genuflect and grovel before Obasanjo and Goodluck for a morsel of dog meat by selling their people to servitude and insults.

Another thing I find fascinating is Chukwumerije’s thesis and elucidated by Udibe that the both Shonekan and Obasanjo got the presidency not because they merited it but because of the vicious campaign that was unleashed on the country by the OPC.  And Goodluck Jonathan got a bite of the pie not because he is fit to but because of the atrocious activities of the brigands of the Niger delta, who we all know started out as political thugs, graduated to oil theft and later glamorised by the likes of Udibe in the media as environmental agitators.  To further justify this pedestrian thesis, the Udibes of Nigeria are to hang their worldview on every criminal activity committed in the country on the Boko Haram, a group that is more a media creation than reality.  The realisation of the political goals of the Yorubas and the people of the Niger delta through violent means (according to Chukwumerije and Udibe) will be the means to be used by the Igbos in 2015 to realise theirs.  I hope the National Security Adviser and other relevant security outfits are listening, though I strongly believe no one will act for obvious reasons.

Now to the leadership of the north – traditional, religious and the business leadership.  During the campaigns for the 2011 elections, they were at the forefront of selling the Goodluck candidacy to the northern electorate, lying to us with straight faces that this man who wasn’t born rish will only serve for a term and then the presidency will revert to this part of the country to complete the second term truncated by the death of ‘Yar Adu’a.  They rejected three of their own and rigged massively for Goodluck, who later told a delegation of Igbo leaders that all the votes he got in the north was from the Igbo communities living in the north.  With the benefit of hindsight may be this was just an indication that if he couldn’t get his seven-year tenure kite off the ground then he will back an Igbo candidate in 2015.  Am yet to hear as much as a whimper from those who swore on their parent’s grave that Goodluck is a man to be trusted and will keep his word, not minding that he had earlier rejected an agreement that he appended his signature to.

After the destruction of the commercial, industrial, financial and even that most feared northern asset - unity - by Obasanjo thereby reducing northerners to beggars in their own country – or so we all thought – we now have to contend with foul-mouthed commentators calling us names and insults like confetti.  Whatever the likes of Udibe may say or write about the north, I don’t blame them but our leadership that sold us for twelve shillings or less in the name of national unity.  Northerners are today known as parasites and bloodsuckers that want to reap where they did not sow, forgetting that the oil found beneath the ground in the Niger delta was sown by the indigenes of that area.  To the Udibes of this world, northerners have no business being anywhere near Aso Villa till kingdom come.  I agree with him.  After all, it was the blood sucking northerners who sprang Obasanjo from the comforts of his cell in Yola prison, gave him an expedited state pardon, funded his campaign and made him a president; it was this parasitic indolent people from the north who stood by and watched with feigned helplessness while the same Obasanjo picked a sick man (may his soul rest in peace) and made him the president of the country; the same group hounded the man to his grave shamelessly while he was on his last days; the same leaches who worked tirelessly to scuttle Atiku’s ambition to be the PDP’s presidential candidate and ensured the emergence of Goodluck through means fair and foul; the same north who called Buhari a dictator, Shekarau provincial and Ribadu young and inexperienced.  All in the name of national unity.

If the leadership of the north found it expedient to hand over power without struggle, then they certainly do not deserve another chance again.  Power has never, ever been transferred like MTN units anywhere.  But taking the rest of us for granted, this macabre dance that we are locked in began with the northern power blocs coming together in 1999 to ensure the emergence of two Yoruba presidential candidates with the misinformed believe that a section of the country must be pacified for peace to reign in the country.  Thus the basis of Chukwumereji’s thesis.  If the north is serious of thinking of getting a shot again in our lifetime then may be Chukwumereji is certainly worth listening to.  Let’s also empower the Boko Haram to serve the same purpose that he called on MASSOB to serve the Igbos.  Else we should forget it and go back to our primary business of goat herding.

But I couldn’t find the stomach to swallow the insults of Udibe and his ilk.  I don’t believe I have the civility or finesse of the Al Gazali and those who think national unity is worth taking such nonsense lying low.  I would rather denounce my citizenship of Nigeria and find accommodation elsewhere as a second-class citizen.  If some people believe demagoguery is a political tool that could be deployed with abundance, I should be excused from such union because I am simple goat herder who can live off my land. 

A BREATH OF FRESH AIR OR AN ACRID ODOUR?

The latest instalment of the “breath of fresh air” from Goodluck Jonathan in fulfilment of his campaign promises will be unveiled to Nigerians in the new year in the form of the removal of subsidy on petroleum products.  That is for those who still believe there is any subsidy on the products.  These days the only topic of discussion among Nigerians wherever you find them is the government’s plan to hike the price of petroleum products and further pauperise Nigerians no matter the level of cacophony generated by the ordinary citizens who will ultimately bear the brunt of this latest callousness by a government that promised them a “breath of fresh air”.  Though to be fair to Goodluck, he did not mention how fresh the air will be.  To me, this can only be written down as the wages of electing a clueless leader.

The planned hike in the prices of petroleum products is an old song inherited from Obasanjo who did so about six times in a spate of eight years.  The first time we heard of “oil subsidy” was during Babangida’s government in 1988.  When the regime wanted to increase the price of petroleum products, Jerry Gana assaulted our ears with the benefits of doing so.  A certain Labaran Maku, then President of the Students Union Government of the University of Jos, was on record as calling the act “criminality and inhumanity” that should be fought by every Nigerian.  Two decades on, the same Maku is playing the role that Jerry Gana did for Babangida.  It was also a song remixed by Okonjo-Iweala, the World Bank employee with a double barrelled portfolio of Co-ordinating Economic Minister and Minster of Finance, a first for any country, civilised or otherwise.  This woman left her office as Managing Director of the World Bank (a middle cadre office which the Nigerian media made it sound as if she is the Chief Executive officer of the Bank) to assume office as a minister in Nigeria just as the French Finance minister, Christine Legarde, was fighting tooth and nail to be appointed the Managing Director of the IMF, the junior twin of the Bretton Woods Instittutions.  During her first incarnation as Finance minister under the Obasanjo government, Okonjo-Iweala, caused Nigeria to part with $18billion as repayment to Paris Club of creditors, though it was universally agreed that the loans are dubious.  That was how she was rewarded with a promotion as one of three Managing Directors of the World Bank  after she was frustrated out of office by the same Obasanjo.

Though this blackmail of the poor by successive governments have been on since 1998,  General Abacha’s “removal” in 1995 that gave birth to the PTF was supposed to be last one.  Obasanjo thereafter “removed” the subsidy about six times.  Increment in the prices of petroleum  products has always been the easiest means of robbing the poor to pay for the profligacy of the ruling class.  The government have been bandying around figures that makes no sense to anyone apart from its apologists.  The Nigerian ruling class, be it military or civilian, is the same when it comes to the welfare of its ‘subjects’.  For all they care we can all collectively go and jump in the Lagos lagoon so long as we can pay for their lifestyles.  Already Nigerians are living under the most dehumanising and degrading conditions imaginable among all the citizens of oil producing countries the world over, but this is no concern to our ‘rulers’.

Petrol prices have the most impact on our lives compared to any other commodity though I believe those that live fat on our blood may not even be aware of this from the Olympian heights they live.  Though they bamboozle us with the macro aspect of petrol prices, I would like to crave their indulgence by begging them to look down for once and see the road their folly may take us to.  Take for instance the achaba operator who may have to buy a litre of petrol at N150.  His passenger may have to pay him N200 for a drop because he will have to also visit the roadside mama put to eat, who in turn have to go to the market to buy the foodstuff for her roadside canteen business from the man who sale grains in the market, who in turn has to go to the village market to buy the grains, which must be transported to his shop in the market by a commercial vehicle driver, who in turn has to go to the fuel station to buy petrol.  Now I know this my sound too complicated to our macro economists like Okonjo-Iweala, so let me put it this way.  Bottomline is – they are all dependent on one petrol powered machine or the other, even the farmer has to hire a tractor which uses diesel to till his farm to be able to sow and reap before taking his harvest to the village market.  Now, if I am not asking too much, I will like their excellences to put in perspective how this vicious circle may end up financially and practically strangulating the end user – the poor, unemployed wretches scattered all over the streets of this blighted nation.  The only logical outcome I can see from this gloomy scenario is the inability of Nigerians to take care of their most basic bills.

A cabal of the president’s friends under what they called “organised private sector” have been making noise how the poor won’t feel the pinch when they hike the price of petrol because most of them uses buses and not cars and buses use diesel not petrol.  This is not only patronising but insulting.  So the poor don’t cars – is it their fault?  Anyway, the poor doesn’t even have the luxury of using buses these days – they use achaba – those two-wheeled devils that decimate their population on a daily basis.  Our casualty wards in our hospitals tells their own story, though such places are not places where Goodluck and his friends visit.

Already we have seen how the children of majority of Nigerians are loitering our streets because their parents cannot afford to send them to school; how people are turning to alternative medicine because it is cheaper, accessible and affordable to the poor; how businesses are closing down because of lack of patronage from a populace already overburdened by poverty and deprivation.  If the government is to be believed that it expended the sum of N900billion on oil subsidy, why on earth couldn’t they have used the money to reactivate our comatose refineries or even build new ones?  How much will it cost to build new refineries?  And by the way, what happens to the 445,000 barrels per day allocated to NNPC for local refining?

It will be good, though I know it should be asking far too much, if the government will tell us why we have to import, who imports, what is the cost of the importation, who benefits from the subsidy and how is this subsidy calculated and based on what indices.  In Ghaddafi’s Libya, electricity, water, education and healthcare are all free.  No Libyan lives in a rented property and a litre of petrol cost about N22.  Yet the Libyans lynched him.  But our government is lynching us economically in a painful, slow death.  A man whose campaign platform consists of only telling Nigerians that he was not born rish as if all others were born rish promised us a “breath of fresh air”.  That he went to school without shoes.  Don’t we all?  Well, we now live in an atmosphere polluted with acrid smell, less than one year into his four.  We ask for it.

Gmail - Inbox - bmtoungo@gmail.com

Gmail - Inbox - bmtoungo@gmail.com

INSECURITY IN THE NORTH EAST - IMPUNITY OF POWER?

INSECURITY IN THE NORTH EAST – IMPUNITY OF POWER?

Much has been said and written on the security situation in the north eastern part of the country, particularly this year with the increase in the frequency of attacks by God knows who.  A situation that has been presented as defying all efforts to bring to end the wanton destruction of lives and property; a situation that began as a local fire fight that has taken a national dimension and is now used by those in the business of conjuring conspiracy theories where non exist, as a direct challenge to Goodluck Jonathan’s presidency by a section of the country.  Sadly, most of our politicians know where the problems lie and the solution staring them right in the face.  They are either unwilling to take any action to stop the carnage or are comfortable with the state of affairs.  In my opinion the later is the case and I will shortly give reasons for my conclusions.

One thing I disagree with is the attribution of every atrocity and criminal act to the Boko Haram sect, willy nilly, wherever it took place in the country.  Well before the extra-judicial murders of Mohammed Yusuf and Buji Foi, leaders of the Boko Haram sect, the north east zone has been experiencing murderous sprees from killer squads like the Kalare and the ECOMOG  created and nurtured by former governors Danjuma Goje and Ali Madu Sheriff of Gombe and Borno states respectively.  The activities of these killers were well known to the authorities but nobody deem it fit to check their activities, therefore not a single murderer was brought to book.  In the cracked days of Obasanjo, one couldn’t be sure that the gang of killers wasn’t part of a larger scheme to perpetuate the planned PDP rulership of the country ad infinitum.  What with the existence of murderous gangs all over the country running roughshod over innocent citizens with the security agencies standing aside as spectators – OPC in the south west, MEND and a motley of brigands in the Niger Delta, MASSOB in the east and the Kalare and ECOMOG group in the north.

In the north east, any voices of dissent to the two ex-governors – Goje and Madu Sheriff – were brutally silenced by the Kalare and ECOMOG groups with finality.  The zone was in this state of dread when the police decided to use its guns as funeral dirge on a funeral procession of Mohammed Yusuf’s followers on their way to bury one of their own in Maiduguri in 2009.  The rest as they say, is history.  Mohammed Yusuf and Buji Foi, a Commissioner in Madu Sherriff’s cabinet, were arrested by the military and handed over to the police, who in turn took the duo to the governor and thereafter killed them without giving them the benefit of stating their case or the country the benefit of hearing what were their gripes.  Much as the people tried to find out who gave the order for this barbarous action, the police and the authorities played dumb until bodies of police officers began littering our ever dirty streets culminating in the bomb attack on the police headquarters in Abuja.  That was when we learnt that some police officers were taken to court for the murder of Yusuf and Foi.  All this is beside the point.

Critically this state of affairs provided a perfect background for public officials with skeletons in their closets.  Coincidentally the frequency of the killings picked up astronomically, purportedly carried out by the Boko Haram to avenge their slained leaders.  We swallowed this line of thinking hook, line and sinker.  Nobody bothered to dig deeper and bring these “Boko Haram” killers to book.  In Borno state, people were killed in broad daylight while no single arrest was made – we only get the standard “Boko Haram are the perpetrators, and we will soon deal with them”.  It appears the killers are ghosts and will never be apprehended.  That is until recently.  Suddenly some arrests were made in Borno state and those arrested started singing like canaries.  Nigerians for the first time learnt of the involvement of others apart from the Boko Haram in the killings.  The success in apprehending the few and the intelligence gathered from their statements were attributed to a certain Major General Mungono, the erstwhile Chief of Defence Intelligence.  Incidentally, the General is from Borno State, the centre of the theatre of war and ‘home state’ of Boko Haram.  But Mungon’s successes made some people jittery – powerful, ruthless people – whose secrets will be laid bare for all to see.  People who value their allegiance to dark forces more than their fealty to the nation.  People who are of the view that they can do as they please and play god with people’s lives.  Suddenly stories started flying around that Mungonu will be dealt with; he will be removed from his position as Chief of Defence Intelligence; and that his career will be truncated for daring to expose these purveyors of death – wolf in sheep skin.

Today we all know that Mungonu is removed from the office of the CDI, what remains to be seen is whether he will be sacked from the army.  This gentleman’s offence is no other than his love for his country and the preservation of human life.  But the government he is working for doesn’t care about sanctity of human life or the reputation of a hardworking officer – or so it seems.  The continued freedom of vermin amongst us is more important to the government than our lives and safety.  Are we therefore to infer that the likes of Madu Sheriff can control the affairs of the killer ECOMOG group and control the Nigerian Army as well?  Because we don’t know what to believe anymore.

General Mungonu’s travails began with the release of a one Ali Tishaku.  This was a man who was released by whichever security that detained him on a court’s order but the story carried in the media was that he was released by Mungonu and nobody bothered to check the details before going to press.  Is this then a classical case of giving a dog a bad name in order that it is hanged?  The man was supposed to be a mole planted on Mohammed Yususf by one of the security agencies and when he turned in from the cold and members of Madu Sheriff’s ECOMOG began to be dragged in based on information provided by him, General Mungonu found himself staring at the barrel end of a gun.  The threats of sacking him began flying around and the first part of theses threats was made good by his removal from the office of CDI.  I thought the man deserves commendation not condemnation.  The government’s action regarding the general more than anything indicates to Nigerians that the insecurity in the land is contrived and may not be over soon.

The Desert Herald of October 4^th, had the issue of Munguno and Madu Sheriff as its cover story.  Two weeks after the story appeared, not a single word is heard from the government, Madu Sheriff or any other person refuting the plethora of allegations contained in the story.  Are we therefore to infer that story is true in all its ramifications and every material sense?

Nigeria: Beginning of the End?

NIGERIA: BEGINNING OF THE END?

The riots that rocked London, Birmingham, Manchester and other English cities laid bare the fallacy that Muslims are to be found at the centre of every uprising worldwide.  This new found “theory” had gained currency since the advent of the so-called ‘New World Order’ as enunciated by George Bush Sr. at the beginning of Gulf War I in 1990.  It also coincided with the demise of the USSR and communism the world over.  Muslims everywhere are labelled terrorists for demanding social justice from their various governments.  The phenomenon has recently gained acceptability with the Nigerian government and media.  Am happy to note that the British media attributed the London riots to social problems and was not given any religious toga, the presence of Islamic Bank of England notwithstanding.  The Deputy Prime Minister of England, standing in for the Prime Minister who had gone for holidays, also blamed social problems for the uprising.

Though the wind of protests is sweeping many countries, particularly in the Middle East and the Maghreb countries of Africa, the Nigerian media chose to give them different names and labels depending on where the troubles are taking place.  In Bahrain, Yemen and Nigeria, it is Islamic fundamentalist while in countries like Libya and Syria, the troublemakers are freedom fighters to be glorified, egged on.  Even in Nigeria, Niger Delta brigands are called ‘militants’ fighting for “resource control” while those killed, maimed or kidnapped are just collateral damage; those in the North Eastern geo-political zone in particular and the north in general are Boko Haram ‘Islamic fundamentalist’.  Even where elections were rigged and people protested, it was a premeditated attack by goat herders and Boko Haram elements and not a protest by voters who felt short-changed by godfathers to armed robbers.   This profiling that slowly crept into our body politic is a very dangerous development but our pressmen seem to derive pleasure from.

The main difference between the riots in England and those in Nigeria, in my opinion, is the fact that despite the ferocious nature of the riots in almost all the major cities of England, the authorities diagnosed the causes as a socio-economic problem relating to poverty, unemployment and general dissatisfaction with the conditions of living.  In Nigeria, religious leaders were at the forefront of labelling protests against social injustice as an ethnic and religious uprising.  The media took up from where the clergy men stopped by making dumb analysis like – the north is protesting because a northerner was defeated; the Muslims are protesting because a Muslim did not win the election - very pedestrian, uninformed and myopic deductions by people claiming to be enlightened.  The fact that the people were protesting the unprecedented rigging and denial of their choice by a government bent on retaining power no matter how many people are killed was not an issue to those waiting for every opportunity to hang ‘northerners’ to dry.  When a man drove a car beneath a plane at the Calabar Airport last year, invoking the wrath of Christ on those considered anti-Christ by him, he was promptly labelled a loony; when some oil thieves exploded bombs in Abuja on October 1^st, 2010 and claimed responsibility, no less than the president came out to defend those who claimed responsibility.  The president went further to claim to know who did the dastardly act but certainly not from the Niger Delta because, according to him, he grew up there and therefore knew the people.  When Charles Orkar, their armourer was arrested, he was taken to Jos prison.

When Mohammed Yusuf was arrested, the authorities summarily and extrajudicially executed him and no so-called human rights activist shed a drop of tear.  While Orkar is a militant fighting in the cause of his people, Mohammed Yusuf was a terrorist fighting for no cause and therefore deserved to be shot like a mad dog.  And you wonder why Nigeria is not developed?  How can we develop like other civilised countries if after fifty years of independence we still cannot recognise truth wherever we see it; how can we ever hope of competing with such countries like Ghana, Botswana or even Malawi when our attitude is always ‘us against them”?  Today, Nigeria is divided into “ethnic nationalities”, “races” and “religions”.  This is what we continue to pretend doesn’t exist.  The recent general elections in the country lay bare what we refuse to see and accept.  Everything is alright now, according to our sectional media since the hated, parasitic north has “lost out” completely both politically and economically.

Much as I try not to apportion blames for my predicament, I have to admit that I have always held Babangida responsible for taking the north to where we are today.  In trying to expurgate his “sin” against the country, or a section of it as the press chose to see it, Babangida mortgaged the collective destiny of over 80 million northerners by going the extra mile to ensure an ex-jailbird became the president of Nigeria at the onset of civilian rule in 1999.  The annulment of the June 12^th, 1993 elections was done with Babangida’s interest only and the elevation of a psychopath to the exalted office of the president of this country was also done with his interest at heart only; so if there is fairness, why should I continue to pay for something that I wasn’t part of?  The ascension to the presidency of Obasanjo was the beginning of the disintegration of Nigeria, as we know it.  Suddenly ethnic assertiveness became the fad.  But if we really want to be truthful, the seeds of what we are witnessing today was sown during the wasted years of Babangida.  Most of the political actors today sprouted during his presidency and they are now at the forefront of insulting him.

All these got tacit support from our so-called opinion leaders who thought that since they are not at the receiving end of our hardships, Obasanjo and his successors can roast all of us in hell.  With very few exceptions, the northern leadership – political, traditional and religious – have failed the region woefully.  Those of my generation are the worst hit and our current crops of governors are the worst culprits.  Our own docility and timidity cannot not be excused no matter how you look at it.  The campaign of hate against the region which began over fifty years ago will not come to an end until the day we decide to go our separate ways and go we must.  What I don’t know is if it is going to be the Czechoslovakia way or the Sudan way.  If our leaders are comfortable at being called parasites, I am not.

A couple of years ago, a US based Think-Tank made a prediction that Nigeria was unlikely to remain the same nation with the same borders and characteristics that we all know by 2015.  This analysis drew a lot of condemnation across the length and breadth of the country.  Giving recent developments in our polity it will be foolhardy to continue to think that this is not a possibility.  As for me, I can clearly see the writing on the wall.  Don’t you?

Nigeria: Beginning of the End?