Arise, O Compartriots!

There are two issues that are topical in this harmattan season that has dominated the commentary and opinion pages of our newspapers and airwaves. These are the twin issues of insecurity and the unwarranted in the pump price of petrol (PMS). These two issues that ushered in the year 2012 brought the country to the edge of the precipice and nearly sent us over just in the first week of the first month of the year. So much has been said and written on the two issues, particularly the increment on the price of petrol, that whatever one may say will just be gratuitous. This one issue has succeeded in uniting and bringing out Nigerians on the streets for the first time despite the contrived religious crisis that is tearing the country and personal relationships apart. For the first time, the political class in Nigeria failed to gauge the mood of the masses correctly by imposing such crass hardship on a citizenry already overburdened by poverty, insecurity and uncertainty. A citizenry getting to grips with the fact that the leadership is not ready to provide basic necessaries of live like schools for their kids, hospitals, potable water, etc. because the political class take their kids abroad for schooling and travel abroad for such ailments like headaches and stomach discomfort.

With Jonathan’s ill-advised increase in the pump price of petrol, he has unwittingly introduced another dimension to the sufferings of the people and has further compounded everything by projecting a “to hell with you attitude” to the same people he claimed voted for him 99% just seven months back. He refused to even glorify their protest by keeping aloof from the melee of strikes organised by labour and civil society to remonstrate his high-handedness. Apart from a colourless and uninspiring speech he delivered through the Goebbels era look-alike NTA, the only other time he deemed fit to come down from his Olympian height to talk to us was in a church, where he told a partisan congregation that Boko Haram has now taken over his government. With these two evils bedevilling the land, Jonathan has missed a chance to be ‘president’. Rather he chose to be an Ijaw Christian leader in the mould of Tompolo. Asari Dokubo and Ateke. Though the increase in the pump price of petrol affected all Nigerians that are not political appointees, the man has resorted to making it an ethnic issue, inviting ethnic thugs like Asari Dokubo to threaten nationalists. I was of the mistaken opinion that Jonathan is the president of Nigeria and not that of the Ijaw ‘nation’.

This leads us to the heightened level of insecurity. Jonathan’s conduct and style of governance, in my view, is directly responsible for the impunity by the murderers now marauding the northern part of the country. In the past two years since he took over as acting president through the campaigns and the subsequent massively rigged 2011 elections his conduct has been that of deception camouflaged as timidity and dovishness. But beneath this veneer of timidity lies a calculating mind that is proving to be very dangerous for the corporate existence of the country. Sadly enough, there are no elders around Jonathan to tell him to change course.

A pattern is emerging from the madness of Boko Haram that is fast becoming a part of our existence where, in one breath Jonathan asked Nigerians to learn to live with and in another told us that the movement has taken over his government. What are we to believe and act accordingly? The emerging pattern is that some people, apart from the followers of Mohammed Yusuf, have taken over the brand name and patented it for their motives. A Christian woman, Lydia Joseph, was arrested in Bauchi in the process of burning the biggest Catholic Church in the town. Four months on, the only explanation we got to hear is that she had a problem with one of the congregants and therefore decided to burn the church. How plausible is that? Then in December last year another Christian, disguised as a nation muslim complete with a turban, was arrested in the process of burning another church in Yenagoa, the capital of Bayelsa State, Jonathan’s home state. Must he be disguised to settle his score with the Church’s leadership? Again Nigerians were told that the man had a problem with the church, this time the pastor. Much earlier, about two years ago, when a Christian in Calabar attempted to ram his car at an aeroplane at the Calabar airport, Nigerians were told the guy was a loony. In July last year, Yakubu Bitiyong, a member of the Kaduna State House of Assembly and a former commissioner in the state was arrested for terrorists related activities and the case just fizzled out without any explanation. But when a person of indeterminate pedigree accused a sitting Senator of the federal republic, the lawmaker was picked up pronto with a compliment of photojournalists and branded the masquerade behind the terror campaign in the land. What message is the government and its backers sending to the populace? That some people can commit murder and go scot free while others cannot?

We have just seen Nuhu Mohammed, an alleged boko haram sponsor and his son paraded before media men by the military authorities, in handcuffs and a display of things recovered in his house, in the same Kaduna where Bitiyong was arrested and many cannot even tell you how he looks. What message are we sending to the citizens of this blighted nation? That justice is Janus faced?

In the heat of the petrol pump price increase imbroglio, Jonathan commissioned some old men, claiming to be elders, from his south-south geo-political zone to meet and issue threats to the rest of the country on a matter that affects the whole nation. Jonathan has taken the nation to its lowest point by playing this divisive card on Nigerians who rigged him into office. While campaigning across the country, he didn’t mention anything like being a president for the Ijaws or the south-south zone. He craved for trust by Nigerians with his “I was not born rish” slogan. Some people genuinely bonded with him, but even then I had my reservations for a man who repudiated an agreement he signed simply because he want to contest the presidency. Again I was not comfortable with the way he manipulated the issue of zoning at his party level to make it look as if northerners are against him simply because he comes from the south and not because as a ‘gentleman’ he should make his word his bond. Anyway, Nigerians irrespective of whether they voted for Jonathan or not really went through hell the past week.

The most dangerous game played by Jonathan is the issue of insecurity in the land. I am not sure, but my reading of the situation is that insecurity in northern Nigeria is rising directly proportional to the rise in peace in the Niger Delta. Is there is a correlation? I don’t know. Recently in Adamawa State, one of the most peaceful states in the country, a spate of killings racked the state from Mubi in the northern part of the state to Yola the state capital. While the killings in Mubi was discovered to be among rival Igbo businessmen, the one in Yola had to do with a pastor transferred from his church for financial recklessness. But since it was convenient to lay the blame on our current bogeyman – Boko Haram – mum is the word on the true position of things. Is that how we are going to progress. To heap insults on the collective psyche of Nigerians, some people from Jonathan’s region are threatening to secede simply because the rest of the country had the sense to oppose a senseless economic policy by their “son”. Is secession the agenda? Why wasn’t we told before the election?

My advise to the rest of the country is to prepare for such an eventuality which may come before 2015, the year the Americans predicted we will disintegrate. With the way things are going, I am sure we won’t disappoint the Americans. My Christian brothers and sisters from the north should be well advised to disregard anyone telling them that they don’t belong with Muslims in the north. For those who do not know, there is no state in the north that has no substantial number of adherents of both Islam and Christianity. The script is unfolding a page at a time. Let us all give it the desired attention verse by verse not to miss the next instalment.

FLIPPANCY OF OUR LEADERS – ORITSEJAFOR AS A SHEPHERD

Let me begin this piece by extending my condolences to those who lost their loved ones to the many bomb blasts and gun shots across the country and also congratulate the remaining living on the unprecedented new year gift by our shoe-less president – the doubling of the price of petrol. This gift is from a president who we were told we can trust with our lives; a man that was touted as a listening man because of his humble background. We can now definitely wait for the rest of the gift from fellow Nigerians who provide services and goods to take a cue from Goodluck Jonathan. For sure, the rest of us will be transformed into the living dead.

I had always hesitated to comment on issues that border on religion or ethnicity but this government is sure to make the deaf talk. Though the government came to office illegally, but I thought they would use the dubious legitimacy conferred on them by the courts to be just and fair to all. It has become clear to all that the government is not ready to be a government for all but for a select few. Emerging events like the government’s actions, pronouncements and those it associates with doesn’t give one the confidence that a better Nigeria will be realised in this eon. I am now scared that the promised “fresh air” may after all may turn to be asthmatic. The symptoms for a fragmented Nigeria are emerging daily, though we appear to be playing the ostrich. The result of the divisive campaign of the PDP is gradually coming home to roost. With political turning a blind eye to atrocities committed by their “supporters”, while religious stoke the embers of hatred in the name of ‘protecting’ their herd.

The spate of killings that ushered in the Jonathan government graduated into bombings and indiscriminate destruction of lives and properties by faceless groups loosely called Boko Haram. No one as yet has claimed meeting the leadership or representative of this killer group, therefore for all we know it can be anybody or any group from any part of the country. The bombings and killings are mostly concentrated in the North East corner of the country, with Maiduguri and Damaturu, predominantly populated by Muslims, bearing the brunt of the group. Political, religious and even traditional leaders in these two cities and environs were targeted, mostly in broad daylight and killed while our security men looked on helplessly. The deployment of soldiers to these areas only heightened the spate of killings and insecurity. No one is safe in these two cities. While the killings were going on, nobody deemed it worth his trouble to either condemn the killers or compel the government to act decisively with a view to bringing to an end the massacres talking place around the north east and to some extent, Plateau state, another theatre of war that refused to end since 2001. Through all these years, not one person was arrested, prosecuted and punished according to the laws of the land. This attitude from the government emboldened the killers to start killing people in worship places like what happen at the Eid praying ground in Jos when Muslim faithful were massacred while praying. Nobody of substance came out to condemn this dastardly act. Again they struck at the St. Theresa Catholic Church, Madalla. This time around the cacophony it generated in terms of condemnation was unprecedented. The Sultan of Sokoto, the Jama’atu Nasrul Islam (JNI), the National Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) all came out to condemn the reprehensible act in no uncertain terms with the Sultan going to Abuja to restate his fealty to Jonathan.

Then came Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, the President of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). When the pastor visited Jonathan, he was practically frothing at the mouth while threatening the nation with a retaliatory act against the Muslims for an act that was universally condemned by all and sundry, irrespective of religious affiliation. The pastor’s logic for holding the Muslim community responsible for what happened in Madalla left me wondering if the spate of killings in the North East had his imprimatur. I cannot remember him coming out to condemn the killings, maiming and wanton destruction of properties in the northeast or condemning the Niger Delta militants when they held the country hostage before the amnesty programme extended to them by ‘Yar Adu’a. Another thing was that right after Oritsejafor made his threat, two explosives were thrown into an Islamic School in Sapele, in Oritsejafor’s state of origin. Will Muslims then be right to hold him responsible for this barbaric act, going by his reasoning? What are we to assume from the arrest of a man from Delta State dressed in kaftan and turban, a dress code associated with the northern Muslim, attempting to bomb a church in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State? Are Muslims, Oritsejafor’s subjects of hatred, to assume the would-be bomber is one of the pastor’s soldiers?

It may appear that Oritsejafor’s threats worked because a day after his tirade, Jonathan declared a state emergency in four northern states. Ironically, on the day the emergency was declared two communities in Ebonyi went to war with each other purportedly over land dispute where at least sixty people lost their lives while properties worth millions of naira were destroyed. Mum was the word from the CAN president. I thought we would hear the now well-known acceptance of responsibility from the Boko Haram.

As long as our leaders can give tribal marks or religious affiliation to violence in whatever form, then Nigerians will continue to be in trouble. The 2011 elections begot the violence that we are condemned to today with all Nigerians sleeping with one eye open or not sleeping at all. The recent violence unleashed on the populace is the increment in petrol prices, which is threatening to snuff the life out of our living dead. Am yet to hear Oritsejafor condemn this inhuman act that may put over 90% of his constituents into a life of penury and servitude. And if his statistics are to be believed, then majority of Nigerians will bear the brunt of Jonathan’s provocative act.

Before I am verbally lynched, I want us to ponder certain questions and give ourselves honest answers. Does the fact that Jonathan, Azazi the National Security Adviser (NSA) and Oritsejafor all come from the Niger Delta, has anything to do with the exponential rise in violence in the country? Does this fact confer immunity on the perpetrators and therefore their impunity? Lest we forget, Azazi was the one indicted by an Investigative Panel set up to unravel how weapons got missing from the Armoury of 1 Division, Nigerian Army, Kaduna while he was the General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the Division. It was the biggest theft ever of arms and ammunition in the military and all the weapons were traced to the Niger Delta militants. The man resurfaced as the NSA without answering questions raised by the findings of the Panel under his kinsman. To complete the troika, Oritsejafor emerged the leader of the Christian faithful in the country.

The demographic configuration of northern Nigeria is drastically different from the southern part. Of the fabled 250 ethnic groups in the country, over 240 should be found in the north, with practically every tribe having adherents of either Islam or Christianity. It is not unusual to see siblings belonging to different religions. This therefore calls for restraint among and between us. It is on record that a month after the convocation of a conference of “ethnic minorities” in Jos in 2001, communal violence broke out and ten after, peace is yet to return to this once destination of choice. If some people succeed in igniting a religious war between adherents of the different religions in the north, only God knows when, how or where it will come to an end. Retreating to either our ethnic or religious shells won’t help us out of the material poverty we find ourselves in. let us tarry awhile, think deep and try to unravel in whose interests these killings are taking place.

We should all come together to fight the poverty elevation of the Jonathan administration, its educational apartheid policy where you have over six thousand people from the Niger Delta are currently in various countries undergoing one training or the other while not a single person from all the three political zones in the north, Muslim or Christian, is considered worthy of being trained or educated. The unemployment and lack of opportunities ravaging the north does not discriminate religion or ethnicity. If you go through the list of projects the Jonathan said they will execute with the ‘windfall’ from the petrol price increase, you realise 90% of the projects are to be located outside the north.

How does fighting each other improve our educational level or employment opportunities or even reduce our poverty situation? It is time we sit up and realise we are in this for the long haul. Our common enemy is the government and not Muslims or Christians among us.

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.