RIDING THE TIGER BY THE TAIL

The macho in our security men only come to the fore when they are confronting ‘bloody civilians’ and only when they are on an errand for Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP.  Those who are unfortunate to pass through the various checkpoints and roadblocks that are ubiquitous in the north can attest to the humiliation and harassment they go through in the course of undertaking their daily chores.  While terrorists are running amok in the northeast killing and maiming without let or hindrance, our security men are content in molesting law abiding simple folks instead of confronting the killers marauding the northeast.  They are more noted for running away when faced by the terrorists than for their display of gallantry.  A government that many believed are complicit in the mayhem tearing apart the country inch by bloody inch condones the behaviour of the security men.  Our military men appear to be untouchable when “dealing” with us civilians – they behave as if they are not governed by any code of conduct or any rule of engagement.

This display of impunity has now being taken to the hallowed precinct of the National Assembly, the citadel of democracy, where the government deployed massive force in order to deny the Speaker of the House of Representatives entering his office and reconvening the House to debate the president’s request for an unending state of emergency imposed on three states of the northeast for the past eighteen months.  In an effort to stop an unyielding Speaker and his supporters (those who stood for democracy) from entering the National Assembly, the security operatives tear gassed the members of the House.  These are the representatives of the people, for God’s sake!  And this is supposed to be a democracy with all the so-called doctrine of separation of powers – where the National Assembly is not supposed to be an appendage of the executive arm of government.

With such behaviour, Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP are pushing Nigeria on to the path of anarchy just to make sure that good governance does not derail their inordinate ambition.  Or may be they are rushing to see who will fulfil the prediction by the Americans that the country will breakup into pieces by the 2015.  If that is not the case, how do you explain the continuous loss of Nigerian territory to terrorists while our security men watch from a safe distance?  The same security operatives who lack the liver to confront Boko Haram killers are the ones tear-gassing hapless legislators.  Is Goodluck Jonathan becoming so desperate that he is ready to plunge the country into chaos if he is denied the chance to continue as the president of Nigeria?  Is he ready to be the last president of Nigeria, as we know it today?  Are the advocates of a “Greater South” getting the upper hand over moderates?  And what are other Nigerians, particularly those from “Shariyaland” doing about it?  Are they going to fold their arms and wait for Armageddon to reach their doorsteps before they recognise it?

Most people, the legislators at the receiving end of the government’s high-handedness inclusive, stood aloof while these same security men were tormenting Nigerians.  Now that the imperiousness of the government has reached their doorsteps, will they act or remain indifferent like goats waiting to be slaughtered?  This time it is just bullets, we pray there won’t be ‘accidental discharge’ later.

The members of the national assembly have been cuddling Jonathan for long to the detriment of the nation and its citizens.  They weren’t overly concerned when insurgents overran their constituencies and killed, maimed and sent away others into lives of uncertainty; they were willing to accede to all of his demands as long as they are not personally affected; they were willing to forgo the safety and peace of those they claim to represent as long as that makes Jonathan happy; they were always eager to overlook all the impeachable offences committed by Jonathan as long as he keeps greasing their slimy hands; they are agreeable to play ostrich to all the misdemeanours and constitutional breaches done by the president as long as they are assured of an “automatic” ticket by the PDP.  Today, the tiger has bared its fangs on them.

Though one may find it difficult to sympathise with the members of the House of Representatives for what happened to them today, one might not be seen to be condoning brigandage and unconstitutionality.  Much as the members might have gotten their just desserts, we are aghast at how our country is being pushed over a cliff by a clique that has no interest of the country at heart.  Nigerians have to wake up to the reality that a group of militants are at the helm of our affairs – a group that has a horizon limited by their provinciality. 

Our security agencies lack the manpower and equipment to confront terrorists wrecking havoc on our brethren in the northeast, but have the manpower and bravery to tackle lawmakers in Abuja.  They also have enough manpower and firepower to spare 200 soldiers, led by a full Colonel, to provide security cover to Ali Madu Sherriff, an alleged Boko Haram Sponsor.  While all these imperiousness is going on, our lawmakers, who have been saddled with the responsibility of checking the excesses of the executive and a president that has gone out of control, were rushing to be identified with him.

The people of Nigeria are fed up with the divisive tactics of Jonathan and his group of provincial politicians whose only objective is to lord it over others while claiming to be the victims.  While majority of Nigerians are bidding their time for February 2015, our lawmakers are struggling to get in bed with our tormentor-in-chief.  It is a good sign to us that the two are now quarrelling in the open.  It may be a sign of good things to come.  Next may be the governors.

Tambuwal and all those opposed t0o Jonathan’s style of government may be well advised to seek out our local hunters for their personal safety and security.

NORTHERN LEADERS? GRRRRR

So our soldiers finally found the guts to “provide security” for Madu Ali Sherriff to enable him visit home and consult with his “people” – a commodity they couldn’t provide for millions of hapless citizens resident in the northeast?  It is the same army that has to be escorted by local hunters into trouble spots in the northern part of Adamawa.  Despite the accusation hanging on the neck of Ali Sherriff as a sponsor of Boko Haram, the army has clearly sent a signal to all who care to know that Ali Sheriff is more important than all the people of the northeast combined together.  What insult!  This insult on our collective sensibilities came right after the show of shame at the Eagle Square on November 11^th, 2014 by those pretending to be the leaders of the north.  A region that has been under siege since the day Jonathan took over power from the late Umaru Musa ‘Yar Adu’a.

I do not particularly like writing and I do not like commenting on the behaviour of my elders but writing is a catharsis to me.  The unfolding political drama in the country is increasingly frustrating where one is left with a feeling of hopelessness and abandonment.  Abandoned by those we believe should take our cause and make it their life’s vacation.  We have every cause to believe the responsibility of our welfare lies on their shoulders for the fact that they came to us cap in hand begging for our votes; begging us to be our representatives in one way or the other.  We also pay through our noses to make them comfortable - a degree of comfort we deny ourselves to pamper them.

But what have we got?  A group of over-pampered, over-paid and over-protected leaders who think nothing of sacrificing your life once they get their vote.  And on our parts, we have cuddled their sentiments and lies for long – we have to be through with that.  We have given them intelligent advice, backed with statistics; we also have to be through with that.  What we didn’t give them in the past is a kick in the butt – permit the language – but if that may bring them back to their senses, then we may have to give them a kick in the butt.  We shouldn’t care if Goodluck Jonathan is going to send a posse of the EFCC, plus all the militants in the Niger Delta after them; after all they called for it.  For when they were wining and dining with Jonathan, they forgot it was a broth stewed in the blood of the thousands killed in the northeast.

They have degraded us and our humanity in their bid to please Jonathan and curry his favour.  Their new constituencies do not go beyond Patience Jonathan, Edwin Clark, Tompolo and Asari Dokubo.  We are only but a footnote in their pursuit of the world – to be tolerated once every four years when the rituals of “renewing” their tenancy in Abuja and other state capitals comes up.  They have been derelict to our needs and basic survival or the future of our children.  By their selfish actions they have reduced everybody this side of the Niger to being afraid to live and act like human beings and like other Nigerians on the other side of the divide.  You are scared because you don’t know when and where the next bomb will explode.  You are terrified because you don’t know if your child will come back alive and in one piece from the school you sent him in the hope that his future will be better than your own.  You are petrified because the man you see in uniform may either be terrorists or a trigger happy security personnel who will kill you without blinking his eyes and claim ‘accidental discharge’ knowing his colleagues will cover him.

Own their part, they are horrified of losing their right to be invited to dinner or breakfast with Patience Jonathan; the opportunity of sending their kids abroad to be educated without the hassles associated with our educational system; the chance for their wives to travel to Dubai, Spain and other esoteric destinations for tummy tuck, face lift-up or even an analgesic. 

For a while I thought some of the young Turks among the leadership cadre in the north have the guts to yank the reins from those who sold their souls and our peace for a pot of porridge.  I thought they will stand up for equity and justice for all Nigerians as it was in the past; and be leaders who wanted the best deal possible for their people.  With what has been happening in the recent past, now I think I know better.  I was just bamboozled by isolated acts of braggadocio, which I misconstrued for bravery and gumption.  Most of them are so afraid of being in Jonathan’s bad books that they are ready to go down on all fours and crawl for his pleasure while the ground they crawl on is continually watered with the blood of innocent Nigerians of all creed and tribe.

What baffles me is what mask did Jonathan wore on the bribe he offered our leadership to make them sacrifice our lives, our children, our homes, our businesses and our peace, all on the altar of his political ambition?  How was he able to convince or coerce them into buying his agenda?  It is baffling to me that while the people they claim to represent are groaning under the kind of hardship unseen before in this country, they are competing to outdo one another in singing the praise of Jonathan.  Was the bribe disguised as an oil bloc, oil bunkering, elective or appointive office or even a private jet, which happens to be the toy of choice for our nouvea riche?  Or was it the freedom of not being prosecuted for past misdeeds and the opportunity to sin again.  While ‘confiscating’ our votes with one hand, our leaders are punching us in the nose with the other.  Yet they expect us to queue up behind them and applaud Jonathan while he is systematically exterminating us.

While we look up to our leaders as our guardians of our liberty, happiness, peace, equity and justice, they have turned out to be the squashers of all of the above and are ever willing and ready to collaborate with our traducer for him to achieve his aim.

Actually I don’t know why I am writing all this – will it make any difference?  I doubt much.  But if anybody has any objection to what is written above, I hasten to sustain the objection.  I respectfully withdraw whatever I wrote above that is uncomplimentary to our leaders.

It is telling that these leaders had to be escorted by a Battalion of the army led by a full Colonel for them to visit their “people”.   Leaders, my foot!

THE DECLARATION AMIDSTS BLOODLETTING

I woke up this morning feeling very angry for a reason I cannot grasp.  I looked around my room and went through my mind trying to locate the reason for my anger but couldn’t.  Then it hit me – Jonathan Goodluck is going to declare to Nigerians what they all know since – that he will contest for a “second” term.  The sheer cruelness of the declaration less than twenty four hours after more than forty nine students were bombed to smithereens and at a time millions of people have been chased away by terrorists from their homes and almost a whole geographical zone has been surrendered by the Nigerian Army to the terrorists with its attendant consequences.  I then thought is Jonathan Goodluck human at all?  Is there an atom of humanism in him?  I then said to myself he won’t dare declare while most of the soil in my part of the world is soaked in blood – the blood of innocent young kids which is yet to dry.  No, common sense will prevail.  In the event Goodluck decides to go ahead with his declaration, I tried to convince myself that all the northerners with him would withdraw their support or at least abstain from attending this celebration of death and destruction.

Alas, Jonathan declared and northerners were falling head over heels to be recognised as attending.  This got me really angry to the extent I began questioning my sanity.  Are these bunches of unfeeling, politically disconnected, grovelling politicians, genuflecting before Patience Jonathan, truly my representatives?  Do we really think for a moment that the people I saw around Jonathan care what happens to us – whether we live or we die?  Have our senses being so dulled to pain by docility and timidity that we are ready to accept these people as our leaders and condone their behaviour to the detriment of the whole northern region in particular and the country at large?  Have we been so mentally defeated that we acquiescent our fate with fatalism?  What kind of leadership will sit back and dine with those who doesn’t care whether their people are annihilated or not?

In the aftermath of the Kano pogroms of 1966, which itself was caused by the brutal murder of northern political and military leaders by a largely Igbo officer corps, Odumegwu Ojukwu as governor of the Eastern Region ask all Igbos then living in the north to go back to the east and declared the Biafra Republic.  Ojukwu did that ostensibly to protect the Igbos from being annihilated.  Whatever the demerits of his actions then, Ojukwu displayed leadership qualities by trying to protect his people from being massacred, as they saw it.  While half of the northeast is taken over by terrorists, politicians from the zone are lining up behind Jonathan in Abuja, back –patting with plastic smiles on their patsy faces.

My Adamawa state has been reduced to two Senatorial zones from three because Adamawa north Senatorial zone is now effectively under the control of the terrorists.  This zone is home to two minsters – Boni Haruna and Zainab Maina, the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh, the governor and Speaker of Adamawa State House of Assembly, a senator and two members of the National Assembly.  All of them have remained mute on the happenings in their area.  While their people have ran to the bush, they are ensconced in the comforts of Abuja and most of them are with Jonathan at the Eagle Square today, mocking the memory of the dead and those whose lives have been permanently dislocated.

The coterie of northern politicians queuing up behind Jonathan is guiltier of the murders taking place in the region and they should know their hands are dripping with the blood of the innocent.  I hope to God that their consciences (if they have any) should continue to disturb them and the ghosts of the dead should deny them peace for the rest of their miserable lives.  The people of Adamawa state are now living in perpetual fear of being overrun by the terrorists, yet some people from the state are blaspheming on the good things Jonathan did to the north and the northeast.  How did these people ever get to where they are? Riding on the back of corpses, of course.  It is terrible.  Poor northerners.  What the politicians at the Eagle Square forgot to mention is the introduction of violence to a region hitherto known for its tolerance.  And fittingly enough it all started at the Eagle Square, the very place they gathered today to pay homage to Satan and Satanism, on October 1^st, 2010 the first time Jonathan celebrated independence day as President.

Northerners in Jonathan’s corner are not conscious of their responsibilities to their constituents and whatever God they worship or their traditions of being their brothers’ keepers.  It is for them a very lucrative undertaking.  It is left for the ordinary man on the street to have the courage to face those crooks whenever they feel safe to come home from their abodes in Abuja.  The ordinary poor must accept the shocking fact they “he is on his own” and elevate his survival instinct to a level he could be able to outlive the carnage going on around him.  The ordinary Nigerian should endeavour not to let his intelligence be hamstrung by any sentimental concern promoted by propagandists, but to permit cool reason guide his choices in 2015.

Though Jonathan can be described both as mendacious and malignant, he had a collaborative host in the leadership of the north.  This accidental president has destroyed the region and the north should therefore unite and vote him out of office.  The Quislings among us should be left to the vagaries of time.  Goodluck Jonathan has degraded the office of the president of Nigeria by reducing it to a clannish enclave and debauched our democracy through reptilian cunning and divisive policies.  Most Nigerians are aware of this apart from the crowd from the north – the region that bore Jonathan’s destructive brunt.

Our politicians should know that allowing themselves the vain corruption of safety is not theirs and must therefore be bold enough to tell themselves that neither Jonathan nor them can give them that.  Them and we are all human beings on this earth and in Nigeria, with minds, heart and limbs that could be easily hurt or broken like the poor souls in our troubled areas.  The politicians may believe their own position to be high, but no higher than the man in Limankara whose family were wiped out and he was unlucky to survive and bear the pain for the rest of his live; or the woman in Pakka who had to bear the pain of labour in the bushes of Maiha without a midwife or medical attention; or the child in the wilderness of Kuburshosho, wandering the mountain sides, living on legumes and roots for sustenance while grieving the loss of a mother and father.

They should feel no more secure than the school child in Potiskum or Buni Yadi, who while hiding in terror, saw how his schoolmate was brutally murdered while the government and its operatives watch.  If the ordinary man in Hildi or Abadam could be killed or maimed, so could they.

THE FALL OF MUBI: APRIL 1990 REVISITED

Three months back, Mr. Boni Haruna, the Minister of Youth Development (Sarkin Matasa) looked Nigerians in the eye and told them that Goodlick Jonathan has brought peace to the country and therefore need four more years to build on what he started.  A week later Boko Haram overran his Michika local government and since then he has remained mute.  In saner climes, he would have apologised for his faux pas.  When he made his statement, the terrorists were at his doorsteps – Gwoza.  Haruna was so fixated on retaining his plum ministerial office that he was willing to tell lies and cover up Jonathan’s incompetence as a leader.  He wasn’t bothered one bit that his people are killed, maimed and their businesses destroyed.

While Boni Haruna was praising the president’s peace making (building?) efforts, the killers were going through Madagali, Michika, parts of Hong, Mubi North and Mubi South local governments like hot knife in butter.  The humanitarian catastrophe this engenders is of no consequence to Mr. Haruna.  The people of the area have now been reduced to living a primitive lifestyle in the mountains.  Their lives have been shattered and may never be the same again.  A whole Senatorial district is now under threat and all our Sarkin Matasa can think of is how Jonathan can retain his office.

Looking at the local governments under the control of the terrorists, one is left to wonder whether those from the area and currently serving in various levels of government are Nigerians or not.  This may be a topic for another day.  The fact is that both ministers from Adamawa state in the federal executive council, the state governor and the Chief of Defence Staff are from that same Senatorial Zone, now effectively cut off and carved out from Nigeria.  With the government’s silence on the status of these local governments in the hands of the terrorists, what is the legal status of Boni Haruna and company?  Are they Nigerians or…?

I have always been a sceptic on the issue of Boko Haram – its operators and operations.  A rag-tag army that has suddenly transformed into a fearsome fighting force – fearsome enough to make our ‘civilian terrorising’ military run for dear life whenever they are sighted, raises a lot of questions in my mind.  The founders of Boko Haram –their spiritual leader and alleged financier were killed in 2009, which led to the movement becoming hydra headed.  The movement back then was made up of street urchins, university dropouts and those generally dissatisfied with the way life is treating them.  How were they able to transform in to this formidable elite strike force at the same time our soldiers are scampering for checkpoint and kitchen duties?  When and where were they trained? 

I have this eerie feeling that the escalation of violence in the north (particularly the north east) and subsequent declaration of separate administrative entity by the terrorists in the areas they now occupy has historical connection to the abortive coup of April 1990.  The principal officers of the failed putsch are now very visible in Aso Villa – Col. Tony Nyiam, Major Saliba Mukoro, etc.  During their failed attempt to grab power, their spokesman Gideon Orkar announced the excision of some parts of Nigeria in their attempt to remake Nigeria in their image.  We have seen this sinister plan resurface again during the just concluded ill-advised National Conference.  Interestingly, Tony Nyiam was one of those selected by Jonathan to midwife the conference.  And again interestingly, the portion of the country under the control of the terrorists was among the parts of the country excised by the putschists.

I also came across correspondences between Chinwezu and G. G. Dara in the Diaspora Dialogue Series on how to go about creating a “greater south” and a “Shariyaland”.  According to the duo, if the people of “Shariyaland” cannot be made to leave Nigeria peacefully, they should be shoved aside by force of arms.   In my opinion, the escalation of violence in northeast became prominent immediately after the conclusion of the national conference and the failure of our modern day anarchist to push their plans down our throats.  We have seen the roles played by the Dara group and their northern accomplices like Professor Jerry Gana, who it was alleged several times bailed Mohammed Yusuf from the police.

When you begin to connect those seemingly unrelated happenstances  - the 1990 Gideon Orkar radio broadcast, the Jerry Gana bail allegations, the hurried nature of convocating a national conference, the failed attempt to railroad a pre-planned agenda, the alignment between the southern minorities and the Jerry Gana group, the missing billions of dollars, the escalation of violence in the north east and subsequent occupation of same by a supposedly rag-tag army, who hitherto have been confined to a non-existent impregnable forest and the government’s silence over the lost of Nigerian territory, one is left to come to the unpalatable conclusion that what is happening has a government imprimatur.

Why has the north suddenly become known for strives?  The northeast is bedevilled with Boko Haram; north central of Nigeria is the epicentre of farmers/ herders clash while bandits and cattle rustlers are having a field day in the northwestern part of the north.  The most vicious of these groups of terrorists, the Boko Haram has by far being the most vicious and organised.  I cannot understand how they are able to capture towns and villages, hoist their flags and maintain their grip on their conquest before moving to the next unfortunate town.  Take the case of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls who has been in their captivity for more than six months now.  No one apart from the Bring Back Our Girls campaigners is saying anything about the girls.

Where do they get their supplies – arms food supply?  How do they feed the over 200 girls in their captivity?  How do they replenish their ammunition?  The phantom cease-fire deal entered between the federal government and the insurgents coincided with the detention of Nigerian owned aircraft and money in South Africa.  The money was said to have been meant for the purchase of arms and ammunition by the Nigerian government, but for which unit and why go through the back channel?  The conspiracy theory-weaving part of my brain saw a linkage between the forfeiture of the money and the cease-fire announcement.  Some few weeks after this episode, the terrorists came out bolder and march through Uba and took over Mubi, the second biggest town in Adamawa while our soldiers ran with their tails tucked between their legs.

There have been allegations that villagers have been sighting helicopters dropping fighters, arms and ammunition or food supplies but the authorities have consistently denied these allegations.  The embarrassment in South Africa raised a lot of questions than answers.  Some of the questions borders on the propriety or otherwise of the federal government using Oritsejafor’s plane to carry out such business when there are more than twelve planes in the presidential fleet; how could a government that has diplomatic relations with another government go to the underground market to buy arms? I have tried to expunge the treasonable thought that some people in government or the government itself has a hand in what is going in the north east, but this dangerous feeling refused to go away.

The sooner the people of the north realise that the agenda by the Tony Nyiam group that was aborted in 1990, is unfolding before our very eyes the safer for all of us.   The northern leadership cadre – political, traditional and military – has been found remiss in its leadership responsibilities.  I hope they won’t be called to pay one day – that is, if they are not already paying.

For the poor, all I can say is that der is God wo!