I just chatted with a friend, Gani on Facebook this morning (the morning after Boxing Day) and the first thing I told him is that I am a sick, frustrated, despondent and discouraged Nigerian. Gani shared my views and all I listed above but, true Nigerian as he is, he counselled me not to even think of ever giving up. He himself was all wrought up because as a devout Moslem, he was sad about the Nigerian bomber incident.
The year 2009 is about to come to a permanent close, never to be seen again. Human beings have been in this world since only God knows. Nigeria has been there floundering like a captain-less ship in the sea of the world for the past how many years.
It is the usual rites that we perform year in year out. We wish ourselves and our families and friends, and sometimes, foes alike, a Happy New year, hoping and praying that the next New Year will bring joy, success, etc to all of us. We pray for Nigeria to witness change; we pray for its deliverance from the evil and corrupt cabal that hold us hostage and condemn us to poverty, genocide, hopelessness, suffering and despondency. We do this every year end, but the subsequent New Year hard fares better. It is the same old thing. No change of heart from our rulers.
The hypocrisy is even more galling. Our rulers send out Yuletide and New Year messages, urging Nigerians to bear with them. Then they have the boldface to “task” Nigerians to be all kinds of things they are not offering by example. They tell us to pray for the nation, so that when we close our eyes, they can steal our wealth; they tell us to tighten our belts while they are not tightening theirs; they promise us that the New Year will bring better electricity generation and supply, yet they waste billions of our money on fake power projects; they tell us they will do the roads, and the moment they say it, thousands are dying on the death-trap roads they say they are going to repair or build; they promise to improve education, healthcare, etc and what do we have year in year out? Zilch, zero! I can understand if the money is not there, but Nigerians, can you believe we have no money to do these things?
What a life for Nigerians? We open newspapers everyday to be treated to yet more corruption scandals perpetrated by our ruler and civil servants, and now bankers. Each scandal more scandalous than the other; the figures misappropriated into private pockets more massive than the other. And the worst thing is that as soon as they are exposed, they are swept under the carpet. They seem to get away with it everytime.
Look at the previous years. Halliburton scandal is no longer in the news and the top people fingered are still walking about and rubbing it in our faces; Siemens scandal is no more, and one of the main perpetrators, Senator Jubril Aminu is even being considered for the position of Vice President in case, Goodluck Jonathan becomes the Acting President.
What happened to the Independent Power Projects Probe led by Senator Elumelu where it was discovered that Obasanjo spent $26 billion (or is it $16 billion, who knows?) to improve the power supply during his eight years in power and there is still no light in Nigeria? What is happening to the investigation of the Railway Project which the Chinese used to siphon away billions of dollars and our train is still not running? Many more scandals are still around and probes promised with virtually no results. NNPC probe; fertiliser probe, communications probe, you name it; every department of government, federal, state or local have skeletons on their closets; the embezzlement, graft, theft, bribery, corruption, mismanagement, misappropriation of funds going on are just too much, you lose count and makes your head dizzy.
Nigerians must be the most forgetful people in the world, or maybe we are too easily ready to forgive and forget, to our everlasting misfortune. What about the many scandals that befallen even the Federal House of Representatives and the Senate? These are our lawmakers. How many laws have they passed this year alone? Please, if you know, let me in on the secret, because I can’t remember any law passed this year, yet they have carted away billions in salaries and expenses for doing nothing. And you think that is fair, Senator? Representative? You think that is good value for your people? You think your people like that?
This year, just when it seems the Nigerian Judiciary has come of age (Bode George and Andy Uba come to mind) and can be trusted to do the right thing, then comes Justice Awokulehin in an Asaba court who could not find any guilty verdict in a 170-count charge against Mr Ibori, the thieving and ex-convict Ex-Governor of Delta State, who, all Nigerians, and even the UK authorities, know is a common thief, a vagabond in power.
Some caution here. Either the EFCC lawyers are deliberately incompetent or Ibori knew how to spread money and tamper with justice, or perhaps a combination of both, are still to be determined. But it is again an insult to Nigerians that the man immediately thanked God and restated his faith in the much abused “rule of law”. That is all they do, Nigerian politicians; despite their crimes against humanity, they are quick to profess their religious belief in God.
Can any Governor, ex or current, any Minister, ex or current, senior civil servant, ex or current, come out and tell Nigerians that they have not stolen a kobo from the treasury? I dare any of them to come out and say that to me, personally, and I will tell them a thing or two. Let that person come and tell Nigerians that they were there in charge of our money and they did not steal a kobo.
Let me digress a bit. Power is transient. When you have wealth, you are only a custodian of that wealth, which is supposed to be used to better the life of the ones who do not. A wealthy man is a mere custodian of wealth, because nobody in this world is born with wealth. You can be born into a wealthy family, but nobody comes into this world with wealth. You only become wealthy when you are in the world, if God wishes it. And, more importantly, you leave this world without wealth. Nothing at all! So why all the acquisition of wealth when you cannot make use of it for the benefit of your fellow human beings while you are still enjoying God’s time on earth?
To cap the insult, we now have an obviously incapacitated President for over a month, who his people said can rule from outside the country. I have never heard of such asinine argument. The Constitution is there to be followed, but nobody is following it. What they tell us is to pray for his recovery. Indeed, we do pray, why, I don’t wish anybody dead, but let us do things for the interest of 140 million people, not a few thousand who stand to gain from this stalemate.
As a matter of fact, VP Jonathan may not really be the ideal man to rule Nigeria (I will admit we’ve never had ideal persons to rule Nigeria) but we must follow the constitution and if it says it must be that luckiest of man, then so be it.
For many years, I no longer heed the calls of these hypocrites on New Year’s Day calling on or “tasking” us to help improve Nigeria. It is not for me or for many Nigerians to improve Nigeria. What do we have people in Government for? It is only when we see them doing what they are elected to do, or appointed to do, that I can join them in doing it. That is why they are there. They have to convince me that they are there to do things for me and other Nigerians, and not for themselves. The way it is, I have never seen that happening in my 53 years on earth.
However, my friend Gani and some others I bared my mind to on Facebook, put some new hope in me. I woke up feeling despondent and hopeless, but as I began putting my thoughts down in this article, I felt a surge of hope.
You see, Nigerians have this sense of fatality, a flaw in our otherwise rich cultures. We never try to accept things as either an Act of God, or a natural occurrence that will lead to some other thing, perhaps positive, when things happen (although I will admit that this may be due to the fact that it seems to happen to us with too much frequency). For example, why don’t we see the incapacitation of President Yar ‘Adua as a test of our resolve, or as a test of our nascent democracy? Why don’t we look at it that it may be a catalyst for a bigger and more positive change? Every thing that occurs to Man has a reason. Even, the corruption problem or image of the country might be turned into a positive thing in the future.
So, the new phrase nowadays in Nigeria is “Change Agent”, A change agent is a noble aspiration. The assumption, of course, is that change is for the good, not purely destructive change. In my mind, change is akin to "making people better". Which is something we should all strive for.
A change agent is someone who "alters human capability or organizational systems to achieve a higher degree of output or self actualization." Beginning with the end in mind, the goal of a change agent is obviously to make changes that will endure. The result of change agent activity is to enable people to do more, or find a new and better perspective on life. Sometimes this latter idea is the foundation for future change which achieves outcomes that were previously not attainable. Change Agents must have the conviction to state the facts based on data, even if the consequences are associated with unpleasantness.
Yes, unpleasantness is the key word here. Is there anybody out there who is ready for some “unpleasantness”? I am sure there are, despite our self-deprecating notion that we are cowards.
I am of the conviction in this coming year, penultimate to the election year of 2011, which Nigeria is going to see real Change Agents in action. Let the Iboris, the Aoodoaakas, the Odilis, the Ubas, the Soludos, the Sarakis, the Obasanjos, the Anenihs, the Babangidas, the Danjumas, the Isa Yugudas, the Lukman Rilwans, etc prepare for the worst this coming year. They will not have their ways.
Another caution. I have just read a piece title The Principle Works! by Ope Ajayi, a Champion For Nigeria, in which he contends that though we say that the “problem in Nigeria is the failure of leadership. I am not saying that we do not have leadership challenge but we are not better than the leadership that we have. Whoever we call our leader is a direct reflection of the people; we do not deserve better leaders at least for now. Leadership is a reflection of the citizens. Corruption seems to be synonymous with Nigeria because majority of the Nigerian people participate in it, not a few but the majority does it, the majority will always get along rather than stand out.
Everything we do at our individual micro level has a direct effect on the country as a whole. No matter how little, it will tell on the future because everything is a seed. If you ever shunt a queue, bribe to receive Drivers Licence/ vehicle papers, you are not better than those who loot our treasury. You have both planted the same kind of seed”.
I cannot agree with him more. I have always said that we the people of Nigeria, or the society we have created, are as much to blame as the leaders we foisted on ourselves. Yes, foisted. We all opened our eyes, and even collaborated with those who are still raping and looting the country. Nobody can be absolved. We are all culpable.
In the meantime, in spite of the contradictions, I wish Nigerians a Happy New Year that will bring the desired change, finally.
Maryam Babangida’s Death.
I was just finishing this article when I heard about the demise of Mrs Babangida. As written before in another article, when it was first rumoured of her death, I am not one to wish anybody dead, nor is to spit on anybody’s grave. It is no use recounting all the problems she and her husband created for Nigerians, which we are still in today. Suffice it to say May her soul rest in peace. The evil that men do, lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones; so let it be with Caesar. We come to this world with nothing; we leave with nothing, despite all we acquire and the way we acquire them. It is a lesson that I wish all of us, especially those in positions of power and have access to our treasury and who keep behaving as if they own the rest of us, will learn and take to heart, and most importantly, remember everyday in their actions (or non-actions) to their fellow men and women in Nigeria today.
On the lung run, the massive money that she and her husband stole, extorted, embezzled, misappropriated, looted, mismanaged from their fellow Nigerians have could not save her. And to make it worse, many Nigerians do not have any sympathy for her family nor care about her death.
For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? (Mark 8:36. The Holy Bible)
The Nigerian Suicide Bomber
At first I thought it was a joke – a Nigerian suicide bomber, a guy born with silver spoon in his mouth? And he was so brainwashed, he was actually sympathising with the war in Afghanistan. Holy Shit! Why wasn’t the damn misguided fool fighting against the injustice, poverty, corruption and all the ills of his own country, Nigeria? And especially the against the plight of the “talakawas” of the North, where the likes of his father ride roughshod over the poor?
And an advice to my countrymen! Because of this dastardly and damaging act by this misguided idiot, please don’t be ashamed to be Nigerian. Nigerians have been denigrated, persecuted, rightly or wrongly for the past five decades by both foreigners and our leaders alike. It could not get worse. Continue to be proud, as long as you are not hiding anything and not into criminality.
I will continue to use my Nigerian passport to travel.
Monday, 28 December 2009
Sunday, 27 December 2009
Flight 253 Jet Bomber.
Let me start by condemning every act of terrorism and urge the world to unite in the fight against terrorist(s) acts. My special thanks go to the passengers on board Northwest Airline Flight No 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit , who managed to overpower a suspected bomber named, Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab from Nigeria . The Nigerian suspected bomber tried to ignite a device as the plane began its approach to landing. The suspect took off from Lagos Nigeria with a KLM flight and connected a Northwest Airline Flight from Amsterdam en route to Detroit . This incident happened on Friday 25th December 2009, as the entire world was busy celebrating Christmas with their loved ones. The suspected bomber suffered burns as a result of the fire which emanated from the device he tried to ignite. Unfortunately the suspect was an engineering student at university college London from 2005 to 2008.
This is a serious security concern for all, especially with the fact that the suspect had links with Al Qaeda or other terrorist(s) networks. The other concern is also the fact that he is a Nigerian and he originated his ill fated journey from Lagos , Nigeria . Now the question is? how did he manage to board at Lagos and Amsterdam airports? Perhaps this is a new device that the airport securities could not detect. Three days before the attempt to blow the transatlantic airlines, that is on the 22nd December 2009 a bomb exploded on a man in a particular area of Lagos city ( Ikorodu Road ). Reports had it that a man walked into a building housing Superscreen Television Station carrying some parcels which contained bombs, one of which exploded blowing off his finger and burnt his face. Luckily this suspect did not die.
The FBI, Metropolitan Police, and Nigerian security agencies should extend their investigation to the incident at the Superscreen Television Station in Lagos Nigeria . There might be links with the transatlantic attempt to blow off Northwest Airline since it was only three days interval. While the suspected bomber (Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab) took off from Lagos airport, Superscreen Television bomb attempt took place also in Lagos . Another concern would be, if there are terrorist(s) groups in Nigeria . One might be tempted to think in the affirmative due to incessant religious crises in Nigeria .
In July 2009, Nigeria witnessed one of her worst religious crises named Boko Haram. Boko Haram in English Language translation means western education is a sin. In that crisis over 300 people died. A year before (2008), there was also a religious riot in Nigeria (the Jos Crisis). The Jos Crisis claimed the lives of many innocent Nigerians. Religious crisis occurs regularly in Nigeria . The big one came in November 2002, when some Moslem youths that were opposed to Miss World contest in Abuja led to its cancellation and subsequent relocation of the show to London . About 100 people lost their lives in that incident. Ironically, a lady from Turkey (a Moslem country) won the contest in London .
Authorities in the United Kingdom (the Commission on National Security in the 21st Century which was sponsored by the Institute for Public Policy Research in the UK ) have expressed serious concern about Nigeria . Their concern was reported on the Guardian Newspaper of Thursday November 27 2008 page 23. Part of the report said thus; “The list of 20 failed states is headed by Somalia, where drought and al-Qaeda influences are now compounded by the increasing threat of piracy, and includes Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Haiti, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nigeria”.
The report went further to say that “Weak, corrupt and failing states have become bigger security risks than strong states and will remain a highly visible feature of the security landscape for decades to come. They are targets of transnational criminal networks which are expanding their drugs, arms and people trafficking operations”. On reading the above reports, I quickly wrote a letter to the British Prime Minister (Gordon Brown) on the 3rd December 2008, in the letter I proffered some solutions towards supporting Nigeria to elect credible leaders, which is what Nigeria need. Credible leadership will be able to steer Nigeria out of the ship of failed states and thus ensure the proper fight against global terrorism and crimes.
My letter titled; Letter to the British Prime Minister was published on my blog (http://briefsfromak uta.blogspot. com/2008/ 12/letter- to-british- prime-minister. html). I am also attaching the responses that I got from the office of the British Prime Minister on the issues that I raised. Perhaps this incident might give America and European Union an opportunity to ensure necessary political reforms are carried out in Nigeria . America and Britain insisted that Afghanistan should conduct a credible election. The British Prime Minister even threatened sanction against President Hamid Karzai’s government. America , United Kingdom and the European Union should support and insist that Nigeria reforms her political process. It’s only then, that the Western nations will have a popular and credible Nigerian leader to deal with.
Furthermore, I will also appeal to America , European Union and United Kingdom to support the Nigerian people in their fight against corruption. High level corruption is part of the reason why Nigeria was grouped among the failed states. The Western government can render this help by freezing the accounts of suspected corrupt Nigerian officials in their various countries. They should also reveal the properties acquired by corrupt Nigerian officials. There are quite a number of Nigerian organizations both at home and abroad which the Western countries can work with to ensure changes happens in Nigeria. May God bless Nigeria.
Chinedu Vincent Akuta.
An activist and leader of “Support Option A4 Group” Leicester-UK
akutachinedu@yahoo.com
http://briefsfromakuta.blogspot.com/
This is a serious security concern for all, especially with the fact that the suspect had links with Al Qaeda or other terrorist(s) networks. The other concern is also the fact that he is a Nigerian and he originated his ill fated journey from Lagos , Nigeria . Now the question is? how did he manage to board at Lagos and Amsterdam airports? Perhaps this is a new device that the airport securities could not detect. Three days before the attempt to blow the transatlantic airlines, that is on the 22nd December 2009 a bomb exploded on a man in a particular area of Lagos city ( Ikorodu Road ). Reports had it that a man walked into a building housing Superscreen Television Station carrying some parcels which contained bombs, one of which exploded blowing off his finger and burnt his face. Luckily this suspect did not die.
The FBI, Metropolitan Police, and Nigerian security agencies should extend their investigation to the incident at the Superscreen Television Station in Lagos Nigeria . There might be links with the transatlantic attempt to blow off Northwest Airline since it was only three days interval. While the suspected bomber (Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab) took off from Lagos airport, Superscreen Television bomb attempt took place also in Lagos . Another concern would be, if there are terrorist(s) groups in Nigeria . One might be tempted to think in the affirmative due to incessant religious crises in Nigeria .
In July 2009, Nigeria witnessed one of her worst religious crises named Boko Haram. Boko Haram in English Language translation means western education is a sin. In that crisis over 300 people died. A year before (2008), there was also a religious riot in Nigeria (the Jos Crisis). The Jos Crisis claimed the lives of many innocent Nigerians. Religious crisis occurs regularly in Nigeria . The big one came in November 2002, when some Moslem youths that were opposed to Miss World contest in Abuja led to its cancellation and subsequent relocation of the show to London . About 100 people lost their lives in that incident. Ironically, a lady from Turkey (a Moslem country) won the contest in London .
Authorities in the United Kingdom (the Commission on National Security in the 21st Century which was sponsored by the Institute for Public Policy Research in the UK ) have expressed serious concern about Nigeria . Their concern was reported on the Guardian Newspaper of Thursday November 27 2008 page 23. Part of the report said thus; “The list of 20 failed states is headed by Somalia, where drought and al-Qaeda influences are now compounded by the increasing threat of piracy, and includes Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Haiti, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nigeria”.
The report went further to say that “Weak, corrupt and failing states have become bigger security risks than strong states and will remain a highly visible feature of the security landscape for decades to come. They are targets of transnational criminal networks which are expanding their drugs, arms and people trafficking operations”. On reading the above reports, I quickly wrote a letter to the British Prime Minister (Gordon Brown) on the 3rd December 2008, in the letter I proffered some solutions towards supporting Nigeria to elect credible leaders, which is what Nigeria need. Credible leadership will be able to steer Nigeria out of the ship of failed states and thus ensure the proper fight against global terrorism and crimes.
My letter titled; Letter to the British Prime Minister was published on my blog (http://briefsfromak uta.blogspot. com/2008/ 12/letter- to-british- prime-minister. html). I am also attaching the responses that I got from the office of the British Prime Minister on the issues that I raised. Perhaps this incident might give America and European Union an opportunity to ensure necessary political reforms are carried out in Nigeria . America and Britain insisted that Afghanistan should conduct a credible election. The British Prime Minister even threatened sanction against President Hamid Karzai’s government. America , United Kingdom and the European Union should support and insist that Nigeria reforms her political process. It’s only then, that the Western nations will have a popular and credible Nigerian leader to deal with.
Furthermore, I will also appeal to America , European Union and United Kingdom to support the Nigerian people in their fight against corruption. High level corruption is part of the reason why Nigeria was grouped among the failed states. The Western government can render this help by freezing the accounts of suspected corrupt Nigerian officials in their various countries. They should also reveal the properties acquired by corrupt Nigerian officials. There are quite a number of Nigerian organizations both at home and abroad which the Western countries can work with to ensure changes happens in Nigeria. May God bless Nigeria.
Chinedu Vincent Akuta.
An activist and leader of “Support Option A4 Group” Leicester-UK
akutachinedu@yahoo.com
http://briefsfromakuta.blogspot.com/
Wednesday, 23 December 2009
A STATEMENT FROM CHAMPIONS FOR NIGERIA: Does Ibori own the Nigerian judiciary?
The judgement of Justice Marcel Awokulehin at the Federal High Court, Asaba is a wake up call to all well-meaning Nigerians far and wide to know that justice in Nigeria is still a game of cat and mouse. Justice Awokulehin ruled that 170 count charges levelled against former Governor Ibori of Delta State lacked adequate evidence. Former Governor Ibori was therefore discharged.
Many local and international organisations expressed concern at the judgement of Justice Marcel Awokulehin. The judgement was a shock to many Nigerians at home and abroad. The case was widely reported and the current verdict was expected, as there have been a number of concerns raised about the trial process in the local and international media.
In its recent press release, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has bemoaned the judgement of Justice Awokulehin describing it as “hazy judgement”. The EFCC declared that the judgement could not stand as there was overwhelming evidence establishing the guilt of former Governor James Ibori.
It must be recalled that the former Chairman of EFCC, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, initiated the case against former Governor James Ibori at the Federal High Court in Kaduna during December 2007. Amidst various legal challenges, the case was transferred to the Federal High Court in Asaba.
Nigerians have started to develop a gradual trust for the judiciary in Nigeria in recent times. However, the independence and corruption of the judiciary is still a major issue. The trial of former Governor James Ibori is a trial of the Nigerian judiciary. In Nigeria, state governors have political powers to determine the welfare of the judiciary in each state. These political powers and wealth enabled former governor Ibori to exercise unholy power over the judiciary in Asaba. Although the introduction of the National Judicial Council (NJC) has introduced some benefits to the judiciary in Nigeria, there is a long way away from sanity in the whole judicial process in the country.
Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) revealed, “The signs of the incipient miscarriage of justice were unmistakable” in this case. Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) described the judgement as “a travesty and let down”. The Committee for the Defence of Human Right (CDHR) hailed EFCC for its resolve to pursue an appeal against the decision of Justice Marcel Awokulehin. According to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), “Nigeria is frequently cited as one of the world’s most corrupt countries.” The BBC disclosed, “Mr Ibori is one of the most wealthy and well-connected politicians in Nigeria.” The BBC stated that Mr Ibori was “notorious among Nigerians for becoming extremely wealthy during his time in power.”
The UK has also brought a case against Mr Ibori and his wife, Theresa. The BBC revealed, “In 2007 a UK court froze assets allegedly belonging to him worth $35m (£21m). His annual salary was less than $25,000.”
It is only in Nigeria where people in political leadership parade themselves as millionaires without any actual proof by way of valid source of income. It is a disappointment that Nigeria and Nigerians are being taken for a ride by its own supposed leaders. Leadership in Nigeria takes a different dimension to any commonsense and human reasoning. It is a travesty and disgrace on the intelligence of Nigerians.
The EFCC has pledged to pursue an appeal against the judgement of Justice Marcel Awokulehin of the Federal High Court Asaba. The whole world is watching and waiting for the eventual outcome of this case. The Appeal Court in Nigeria must come to defend the integrity of the Nigerian judiciary and the juvenile democratic system in Nigeria. Any failure of the Nigerian judiciary in the fight against corrupt practices in Nigeria will plunge the nation deeper into disrepute, worldwide condemnation and total loss of confidence.
We in Champions For Nigeria (CFN) nevertheless still possess an unflinching faith in Nigeria as a Nation and in the Nigerian justice system. We remain convinced that the Nigerian society craves for justice and that we still have men and women of honour, integrity, excellence, sense of justice and virtue who will have a serious, reasonable and impartial look and re-think at this case again and give the people of Delta State, and indeed all Nigerians a glimmer of hope to sustain them in this most difficult period of our democracy.
Signed,
Bernard Imarhiagbe Akintokunbo A Adejumo
(Publicity & Media Coordinator) Global Coordinator)
On behalf of
Champions For Nigeria
www.championsfornigeria.org
21 December 2009
Many local and international organisations expressed concern at the judgement of Justice Marcel Awokulehin. The judgement was a shock to many Nigerians at home and abroad. The case was widely reported and the current verdict was expected, as there have been a number of concerns raised about the trial process in the local and international media.
In its recent press release, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has bemoaned the judgement of Justice Awokulehin describing it as “hazy judgement”. The EFCC declared that the judgement could not stand as there was overwhelming evidence establishing the guilt of former Governor James Ibori.
It must be recalled that the former Chairman of EFCC, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, initiated the case against former Governor James Ibori at the Federal High Court in Kaduna during December 2007. Amidst various legal challenges, the case was transferred to the Federal High Court in Asaba.
Nigerians have started to develop a gradual trust for the judiciary in Nigeria in recent times. However, the independence and corruption of the judiciary is still a major issue. The trial of former Governor James Ibori is a trial of the Nigerian judiciary. In Nigeria, state governors have political powers to determine the welfare of the judiciary in each state. These political powers and wealth enabled former governor Ibori to exercise unholy power over the judiciary in Asaba. Although the introduction of the National Judicial Council (NJC) has introduced some benefits to the judiciary in Nigeria, there is a long way away from sanity in the whole judicial process in the country.
Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) revealed, “The signs of the incipient miscarriage of justice were unmistakable” in this case. Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) described the judgement as “a travesty and let down”. The Committee for the Defence of Human Right (CDHR) hailed EFCC for its resolve to pursue an appeal against the decision of Justice Marcel Awokulehin. According to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), “Nigeria is frequently cited as one of the world’s most corrupt countries.” The BBC disclosed, “Mr Ibori is one of the most wealthy and well-connected politicians in Nigeria.” The BBC stated that Mr Ibori was “notorious among Nigerians for becoming extremely wealthy during his time in power.”
The UK has also brought a case against Mr Ibori and his wife, Theresa. The BBC revealed, “In 2007 a UK court froze assets allegedly belonging to him worth $35m (£21m). His annual salary was less than $25,000.”
It is only in Nigeria where people in political leadership parade themselves as millionaires without any actual proof by way of valid source of income. It is a disappointment that Nigeria and Nigerians are being taken for a ride by its own supposed leaders. Leadership in Nigeria takes a different dimension to any commonsense and human reasoning. It is a travesty and disgrace on the intelligence of Nigerians.
The EFCC has pledged to pursue an appeal against the judgement of Justice Marcel Awokulehin of the Federal High Court Asaba. The whole world is watching and waiting for the eventual outcome of this case. The Appeal Court in Nigeria must come to defend the integrity of the Nigerian judiciary and the juvenile democratic system in Nigeria. Any failure of the Nigerian judiciary in the fight against corrupt practices in Nigeria will plunge the nation deeper into disrepute, worldwide condemnation and total loss of confidence.
We in Champions For Nigeria (CFN) nevertheless still possess an unflinching faith in Nigeria as a Nation and in the Nigerian justice system. We remain convinced that the Nigerian society craves for justice and that we still have men and women of honour, integrity, excellence, sense of justice and virtue who will have a serious, reasonable and impartial look and re-think at this case again and give the people of Delta State, and indeed all Nigerians a glimmer of hope to sustain them in this most difficult period of our democracy.
Signed,
Bernard Imarhiagbe Akintokunbo A Adejumo
(Publicity & Media Coordinator) Global Coordinator)
On behalf of
Champions For Nigeria
www.championsfornigeria.org
21 December 2009
Sunday, 20 December 2009
Seasonal Greetings To Nigerians.
Let me start by wishing Nigerians who are Moslems a belated Barkar De Salah. To those Nigerians who are pagans, may the almighty God bless you people this Christmas Season. To Nigerians of other faith(s) and religion, may God bless you people as well. To the Nigerian Christians, of which am one of them, I wish you all a happy Christmas and prosperous New Year (2010). Please permit me to also pray for all Nigerians using Psalm 91 verse 11, “For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways”. May the good God continue to give his angels charge over our great country.
A lot of activities take place every Christmas period, especially the fact that people at home and abroad visit loved ones. This involves a lot of traveling either by road, sea or air. For those people that will be driving this period, please kindly drive with care and more importantly, avoid drink driving. The state of our road network should be a recipe for careful driving. I expect the Federal Road Safety Commission to do more work in enforcing road safety measures this Christmas period. There is need for the enforcement of road safety measures; this is in order to ensure compliance with the rules or deterrence from committing traffic offences.
For those traveling by the water ways, I urge total compliance with all safety measures. For our airline pilots, please be kind enough to observe all safety rules including observing the alcohol limit. Many airline pilots have violated the alcohol limits. In October 2008, a pilot working for United Airlines was arrested on a flight heading from Heathrow airport (United Kingdom) to San Francisco (America) for having over the limit alcohol level in his system. In May 2009, an American Airlines pilot bound from Heathrow to Chicago was arrested for failing a breathalyzer test. Alcohol can impair pilots’ abilities to operate an aircraft effectively. In the United Kingdom, the alcohol limit for pilots is the equivalent of a glass of beer. It is stricter in the United States of America.
Many airline operators in the developed countries maintain strict alcohol policies. United Airlines claims its alcohol policy is among the strictest in the airline industry. These and many more other safety measures should be replicated by the Nigerian airline operators and pilots. Safety should be the watch word especially now that a lot of people are traveling. Pilots should avoid being under pressure.
This season (Christmas) usually call for reflections on the year (2009) that is almost ended and resolution(s) for New Year (2010). For the New Year (2010) resolution(s), I will urge Nigerians to love one another. Let us love each other and above all, let us love our neighbor like our self. There is so much animosity and hatred in the land. We need to love one another, because love begets love, and love brings peace. Lets preach peace wherever there is misunderstanding. The nation and the people can only prosper in an atmosphere of peace and harmony. Same should apply to various communities/villages that are at war with each other.
I will also advocate togetherness among Nigerians. There are more to gain by being one big country. Nigeria is in no way near the population or the complexity of China and India, yet these countries have not broken up. United States of America is also a multi cultural country but still remains one country. I also know the case of former Yugoslavia and the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Ironically, most former countries of Eastern Europe/USSR (Poland, Czechs, Hungary, Romania, etc) and Yugoslavia have joined the European Union. The European Union is a typical example of what togetherness can bring. European Union is made up of twenty seven (27) countries, with headquarters in Brussels. Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is also an example of togetherness in the making. Late Kwame Nkrumah (former President of Ghana) propagated one Africa, whereas late Nnamdi Azikiwe (first Nigerian President) preached one Nigeria.
There are free movement of goods, services and personnel within the European Union. There is a common monetary union and the use of common currency (the euro). Many more countries like Turkey, Ukraine, Georgia, etc have applied to join the European Union, but politics and other strategic considerations are hindering the admissions of these aspiring nations. The European Union remains the main trading partner of all African countries including Nigeria. While advocating togetherness, I will not fail to point out that our togetherness should not be at the detriment of one group/tribe/region or the other. I will want to see justice, fair play, and equity in our togetherness. I had earlier called for the abolition of quota system and federal character. We cannot make a head way as a nation with those systems in place.
I want to see more synergy among Nigerians in business, researches, community services, etc. I believe two heads are better than one, and three should be better than two. I want to see more Nigerians cooperating to build massive business conglomerates so as to create employment opportunities for our brothers and sisters who are unemployed. It will be a good idea to have business mergers that will survive, than having a sole proprietor that will close business. Let us work together to offer community services to our people. There are a lot we can do for our people without the government. Synergy should also apply to our political parties. Let like minded and “true” political groups merge together to form a formidable opposition party. As it is, the opposition parties have not truly taken its position in Nigeria.
I will also propose the United Kingdom form of shadow cabinet for all third tier system of government in Nigeria, that is the local, state, and federal government. I will suggest that all opposition parties should form shadow cabinets in all the 774 local governments, 36 states and also at federal level. The idea will be to provide constructive criticism and provide alternative and better policy framework. Opposition parties/groups are an essential part of every democracy. Lets challenge and change those things that are hindering our development and progress as a people. Let us stop complaining and put efforts together to change our society. Every little effort counts. Let us also remember that its better for us to try and fail than fail to try.
Finally, I wish to appeal to Nigerians to participate and join the fight against global warming. Turn off your electrical appliances/lights when not in use. Plant a tree or sponsor one to plant on your behalf. Government and companies should send less paper work and do more email, telephone, and sms. Happy Christmas and Prosperous New Year (2010) to all Nigerians. May God bless Nigeria.
Chinedu Vincent Akuta.
An activist and leader of “Support Option A4 Group” Leicester-UK
akutachinedu@yahoo.com
http://briefsfromakuta.blogspot.com/
A lot of activities take place every Christmas period, especially the fact that people at home and abroad visit loved ones. This involves a lot of traveling either by road, sea or air. For those people that will be driving this period, please kindly drive with care and more importantly, avoid drink driving. The state of our road network should be a recipe for careful driving. I expect the Federal Road Safety Commission to do more work in enforcing road safety measures this Christmas period. There is need for the enforcement of road safety measures; this is in order to ensure compliance with the rules or deterrence from committing traffic offences.
For those traveling by the water ways, I urge total compliance with all safety measures. For our airline pilots, please be kind enough to observe all safety rules including observing the alcohol limit. Many airline pilots have violated the alcohol limits. In October 2008, a pilot working for United Airlines was arrested on a flight heading from Heathrow airport (United Kingdom) to San Francisco (America) for having over the limit alcohol level in his system. In May 2009, an American Airlines pilot bound from Heathrow to Chicago was arrested for failing a breathalyzer test. Alcohol can impair pilots’ abilities to operate an aircraft effectively. In the United Kingdom, the alcohol limit for pilots is the equivalent of a glass of beer. It is stricter in the United States of America.
Many airline operators in the developed countries maintain strict alcohol policies. United Airlines claims its alcohol policy is among the strictest in the airline industry. These and many more other safety measures should be replicated by the Nigerian airline operators and pilots. Safety should be the watch word especially now that a lot of people are traveling. Pilots should avoid being under pressure.
This season (Christmas) usually call for reflections on the year (2009) that is almost ended and resolution(s) for New Year (2010). For the New Year (2010) resolution(s), I will urge Nigerians to love one another. Let us love each other and above all, let us love our neighbor like our self. There is so much animosity and hatred in the land. We need to love one another, because love begets love, and love brings peace. Lets preach peace wherever there is misunderstanding. The nation and the people can only prosper in an atmosphere of peace and harmony. Same should apply to various communities/villages that are at war with each other.
I will also advocate togetherness among Nigerians. There are more to gain by being one big country. Nigeria is in no way near the population or the complexity of China and India, yet these countries have not broken up. United States of America is also a multi cultural country but still remains one country. I also know the case of former Yugoslavia and the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Ironically, most former countries of Eastern Europe/USSR (Poland, Czechs, Hungary, Romania, etc) and Yugoslavia have joined the European Union. The European Union is a typical example of what togetherness can bring. European Union is made up of twenty seven (27) countries, with headquarters in Brussels. Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is also an example of togetherness in the making. Late Kwame Nkrumah (former President of Ghana) propagated one Africa, whereas late Nnamdi Azikiwe (first Nigerian President) preached one Nigeria.
There are free movement of goods, services and personnel within the European Union. There is a common monetary union and the use of common currency (the euro). Many more countries like Turkey, Ukraine, Georgia, etc have applied to join the European Union, but politics and other strategic considerations are hindering the admissions of these aspiring nations. The European Union remains the main trading partner of all African countries including Nigeria. While advocating togetherness, I will not fail to point out that our togetherness should not be at the detriment of one group/tribe/region or the other. I will want to see justice, fair play, and equity in our togetherness. I had earlier called for the abolition of quota system and federal character. We cannot make a head way as a nation with those systems in place.
I want to see more synergy among Nigerians in business, researches, community services, etc. I believe two heads are better than one, and three should be better than two. I want to see more Nigerians cooperating to build massive business conglomerates so as to create employment opportunities for our brothers and sisters who are unemployed. It will be a good idea to have business mergers that will survive, than having a sole proprietor that will close business. Let us work together to offer community services to our people. There are a lot we can do for our people without the government. Synergy should also apply to our political parties. Let like minded and “true” political groups merge together to form a formidable opposition party. As it is, the opposition parties have not truly taken its position in Nigeria.
I will also propose the United Kingdom form of shadow cabinet for all third tier system of government in Nigeria, that is the local, state, and federal government. I will suggest that all opposition parties should form shadow cabinets in all the 774 local governments, 36 states and also at federal level. The idea will be to provide constructive criticism and provide alternative and better policy framework. Opposition parties/groups are an essential part of every democracy. Lets challenge and change those things that are hindering our development and progress as a people. Let us stop complaining and put efforts together to change our society. Every little effort counts. Let us also remember that its better for us to try and fail than fail to try.
Finally, I wish to appeal to Nigerians to participate and join the fight against global warming. Turn off your electrical appliances/lights when not in use. Plant a tree or sponsor one to plant on your behalf. Government and companies should send less paper work and do more email, telephone, and sms. Happy Christmas and Prosperous New Year (2010) to all Nigerians. May God bless Nigeria.
Chinedu Vincent Akuta.
An activist and leader of “Support Option A4 Group” Leicester-UK
akutachinedu@yahoo.com
http://briefsfromakuta.blogspot.com/
Monday, 7 December 2009
The President’s Health and Nigeria – the Truth of the Matter or the Matter of Truth
Truth is a commodity and can have a variety of meanings, from the state of being the case, being in accord with a particular fact or reality, being in accord with the body of real things, events, actuality, or fidelity to an original or to a standard. In archaic usage it could be fidelity, constancy or sincerity in action, character, and utterance. The term has no single definition about which a majority of professional philosophers and scholars agree, and various theories and views of truth continue to be debated. There are differing claims on such questions as what constitutes truth; what things are truthbearers capable of being true or false; how to define and identify truth; the roles that revealed and acquired knowledge play; and whether truth is subjective, relative, objective, or absolute. (Wikipedia, Online Encyclopaedia)
Truth, I believe, is very relative and subjective. It depends on who is claiming to be saying the truth and who is hearing it. For example, there are times I tell my wife the truth, and she takes it as a lie. I am convinced I was telling the truth, while she is convinced I was lying. That makes truth, or for that matter, falsehood, relative and subjective issues of life.
Therefore there is nothing like absolute truth, or rather, truth cannot be absolute.
Truth ...“Is the opposite of lies.”, “What is truth but what we believe to be truth?”, “I don't believe that there's one truth. There are so many different people, and there are so many different ways you can look at things. I don't see how there could be just one truth.”
These quotes, giving vague descriptions of truth, point toward relativism – a doctrine instructing that truth and morality are relative and not absolute. Relativism asserts that what is accepted as truth is relative to a person’s situation or standpoint, and denies that any standpoint is uniquely privileged over all others.
If truth is relative, then absolute right and absolute wrong become doubtful and obscure. And if truth is relative, then only subjective and indefinite answers exist for the purpose and meaning of life. So is there any absolute or real truth in this complex and uncertain world?
And it is because of this that I have actually stood back and watch the saga of President Yar ‘Adua’s health and the implications of this on the running of the country play themselves out.
This is because each of the 140 million or so Nigerians have different views on the issue; with so many different hidden or open agenda, interests and opinions. And you know what? All of them are either true or false or both. We do not know the truth or the lies. Permit me to outline this strange conclusion of mine below:
News: “We also call on those whose duty it is to ascertain the situation of things to act constitutionally without any further delay. …However, if (Yar’Adua) is found to be incapable of discharging the functions of the office, it is a constitutional duty and as patriotic a duty as any to resign. - The Nigerian Bar Association
This is true. Especially the last sentence, as stipulated in the Constitution.
News: 56 prominent Nigerians demanded that Mr Yar’Adua hand over power to his deputy. The statement’s signatories included activists and opposition figures and heavyweights from the ruling party, PDP, including Ken Nnamani, a former Senate President, and Aminu Bello Masari, a former Speaker of the House of Representatives. “He is not able to run the country the way it should be run,” said Annkio Briggs, an activist from the oil-producing Niger Delta region. “He doesn’t want to admit how precarious his condition is,” said Nasir el-Rufai, a former minister who has clashed with the Yar’Adua administration and also signed the statement. “This kind of power vacuum is very dangerous in a young democracy.” Mr el-Rufai faces corruption allegations which he says are politically motivated.
True! But who are these “prominent Nigerians” and how prominent are they in the state of the Nigerian nation today? What have earned them their “prominence”? And just because they are “prominent”, should we take their words for it just like that? Haven’t most of them been, whether in the past or now, helped run the country to ground, or just sat back and made no difference?
News: There is no time limit for Yar’Adua to return to the country to continue his job. There are concerns over his health, even in the United States, but that is not enough for him to resign. “The Constitution does not make provision for how long the President can stay out of the country after which he would lose his job. So, if he spends one year abroad, of course you have a Vice President who will be acting in his place. But I don’t think there is anything for any person to worry about. That is why it is good to always create a system. Nobody is bigger than a system. So, if we have a system that is running, even if the President is not there, hopefully, I am sure that things will move normally.”- Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu (That is the same view expressed by former Head of State, Yakubu Gowon, and former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar)
They are right and constitutionally saying the truth, backed by experience and knowledge. The problem is “Will the Vice President be allowed to take over officially?” or “When will the VP take over officially – 2 months, 6 months, 1 year?”
News: The office of the President is not for sick people. “We cannot have any progress if Yar’Adua continues to remain in office as President of this country. The man, we all know, is seriously ill and a sick man does not have time to preside over serious matter concerning development of the country, as he will be busy searching for medical attention; and this we see in Yar’Adua. Since he became president in 2007, he has been frequenting hospitals for medical attention. …..It’s obvious now that the President can no longer cope with the responsibilities of the office of the President, particularly which of the Executive President as provided for by the 1999 constitution. The constitution should be followed to the letter in resolving the present crisis facing the country and Vice President Goodluck Jonathan should take over the mantle of leadership, if the president resigns or dies” - Alhaji Balarabe Musa, former governor of Kaduna State.
Again, this statement is right, and is the truth that many will agree with.
News: The Nigerian Governors Forum, observes as follows: We commend the sense of leadership demonstrated by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) under the leadership of the Vice-President. This demonstrates that government, at the Federal level is alive to its responsibilities and it is being complemented by the 36 governors.
Constitutionally, in the absence of any incapacitation on the part of the President, it is precipitate and diversionary to call for Mr President’s resignation. It is on this basis that the Nigerian Governors Forum considers the calls for Mr President’s resignation as a betrayal or a lack of respect for the Constitution and the system of government for this country. On the basis of this foregoing, therefore, the Nigerian Governors Forum hereby restates our firm commitment to the peace, progress and stability of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. We wish Mr President, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, quick recovery as he continues to lead our country." – Nigerian Governors Forum
The Governors are right and are presenting the truth the way they see it or want to see it. They must not be seen as undermining the democratic and political process. Remember that any one of them could find himself in that same situation. But if the President is not “incapacitated” by being in a foreign hospital for almost 2 weeks now, then let the Governors tell me what “incapacitated” means.
Also, some former state governors who have seen corruption probes quashed on his (Yar ‘Adua’s) watch, have much to lose if he resigns.
News: The Action Congress (AC) has described as unprincipled, self-serving and predictable the stand taken by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on the issue of President Umaru Yar’Adua’s health. “FEC’s contention that the government is running properly in the absence of the President and with no one in charge is the biggest joke of the year, and shows that the members do not have the interest of Nigerians at heart”, it said. AC noted, however, that it would have been surprised if the FEC, the only body Constitutionally mandated to initiate a probe of the President’s health, had acted otherwise.
The AC, as an opposition political party, assumes righteous indignance and may be speaking the truth, to call for the President’s resignation. If they do not, they cannot be considered a credible opposition.
News: "Oppose Umar Musa Yar'Adua and die!" Plot to assassinate some Katsina State indigenes who signed the petition calling on Yar'Adua to resign from office, as ministers start propaganda war. – Saharareporters
Getting nasty now, are we? Another truth, perhaps, but deniable. I will not put it past our politicians, well known for their murderous inclinations to stay in power.
So the truth? Everybody is saying the right thing and making the right noises, but I can’t find the real truth in what they are saying.
Politicians across the world raise questions about their opponents’ health to undermine them. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s heart problems and French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s post-jogging collapse were exposed to the full glare of media publicity.
In India, there was public disclosure of 78-year-old Premier Manmohan Singh’s diabetes and heart bypass surgery. Although China has brought in a younger generation of leaders, the official obsession with secrecy on health continues.
Africa’s politicians struggle to stop the fiery local media discussing their health. North African leaders look particularly shaky: Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, 72, suffers from chronic stomach ailments; Tunisia’s President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, 76, was recently prescribed bed rest; there have been several scares for Egypt’s 81-year-old President Hosni Mubarak; and at 67, Libyan leader Moammar el Gadaffi is a comparative stripling but his rambling oratorical style prompts claims of drug abuse. A picture of health at 85, Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe confounds his opponents’ hopes for his retirement, and along with the equally robust Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, flies the flag for octogenarian leaders in Africa. (AFRICA CONFIDENTIAL 4 December 2009 Vol. 50, No. 24)
But let us now consider the phrase “Being economical with the truth”: The meaning is “Conveying an untrue version of events by leaving out the important facts. It is a euphemism for lying, in short. More literally, it describes a careful use of facts so as not to reveal too much information. This is a trademark of politicians all over the world and is not unique to Nigerians; the only problem being that in Nigeria, it assumes very dangerous, disastrous and lethal proportions and consequences.
Although it had its origin from the 18th century, and rarely used, the phrase was brought into the contemporary language by the UK Cabinet Secretary, Sir Robert Armstrong, who used the phrase during the Australian 'Spycatcher' trial in 1986:
Lawyer: What is the difference between a misleading impression and a lie?
Armstrong: A lie is a straight untruth.
Lawyer: What is a misleading impression - a sort of bent untruth?
Armstrong: As one person said, it is perhaps being "economical with the truth".
What Armstrong left out (perhaps he knew but was being economical) was that the 'one person' was Edmund Burke. In 1796 Burke wrote: "Falsehood and delusion are allowed in no case whatsoever: But, as in the exercise of all the virtues, there is an economy of truth."
In 1992, Alan Clark MP, was cross-examined during the Matrix Churchill case and embroidered the phrase a little:
Clark: Well it's our old friend "being economical", isn't it?
Lawyer: With the truth?
Clark: With the actualité
Will somebody or some bodies, tell us the truth for a change?
Truth, I believe, is very relative and subjective. It depends on who is claiming to be saying the truth and who is hearing it. For example, there are times I tell my wife the truth, and she takes it as a lie. I am convinced I was telling the truth, while she is convinced I was lying. That makes truth, or for that matter, falsehood, relative and subjective issues of life.
Therefore there is nothing like absolute truth, or rather, truth cannot be absolute.
Truth ...“Is the opposite of lies.”, “What is truth but what we believe to be truth?”, “I don't believe that there's one truth. There are so many different people, and there are so many different ways you can look at things. I don't see how there could be just one truth.”
These quotes, giving vague descriptions of truth, point toward relativism – a doctrine instructing that truth and morality are relative and not absolute. Relativism asserts that what is accepted as truth is relative to a person’s situation or standpoint, and denies that any standpoint is uniquely privileged over all others.
If truth is relative, then absolute right and absolute wrong become doubtful and obscure. And if truth is relative, then only subjective and indefinite answers exist for the purpose and meaning of life. So is there any absolute or real truth in this complex and uncertain world?
And it is because of this that I have actually stood back and watch the saga of President Yar ‘Adua’s health and the implications of this on the running of the country play themselves out.
This is because each of the 140 million or so Nigerians have different views on the issue; with so many different hidden or open agenda, interests and opinions. And you know what? All of them are either true or false or both. We do not know the truth or the lies. Permit me to outline this strange conclusion of mine below:
News: “We also call on those whose duty it is to ascertain the situation of things to act constitutionally without any further delay. …However, if (Yar’Adua) is found to be incapable of discharging the functions of the office, it is a constitutional duty and as patriotic a duty as any to resign. - The Nigerian Bar Association
This is true. Especially the last sentence, as stipulated in the Constitution.
News: 56 prominent Nigerians demanded that Mr Yar’Adua hand over power to his deputy. The statement’s signatories included activists and opposition figures and heavyweights from the ruling party, PDP, including Ken Nnamani, a former Senate President, and Aminu Bello Masari, a former Speaker of the House of Representatives. “He is not able to run the country the way it should be run,” said Annkio Briggs, an activist from the oil-producing Niger Delta region. “He doesn’t want to admit how precarious his condition is,” said Nasir el-Rufai, a former minister who has clashed with the Yar’Adua administration and also signed the statement. “This kind of power vacuum is very dangerous in a young democracy.” Mr el-Rufai faces corruption allegations which he says are politically motivated.
True! But who are these “prominent Nigerians” and how prominent are they in the state of the Nigerian nation today? What have earned them their “prominence”? And just because they are “prominent”, should we take their words for it just like that? Haven’t most of them been, whether in the past or now, helped run the country to ground, or just sat back and made no difference?
News: There is no time limit for Yar’Adua to return to the country to continue his job. There are concerns over his health, even in the United States, but that is not enough for him to resign. “The Constitution does not make provision for how long the President can stay out of the country after which he would lose his job. So, if he spends one year abroad, of course you have a Vice President who will be acting in his place. But I don’t think there is anything for any person to worry about. That is why it is good to always create a system. Nobody is bigger than a system. So, if we have a system that is running, even if the President is not there, hopefully, I am sure that things will move normally.”- Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu (That is the same view expressed by former Head of State, Yakubu Gowon, and former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar)
They are right and constitutionally saying the truth, backed by experience and knowledge. The problem is “Will the Vice President be allowed to take over officially?” or “When will the VP take over officially – 2 months, 6 months, 1 year?”
News: The office of the President is not for sick people. “We cannot have any progress if Yar’Adua continues to remain in office as President of this country. The man, we all know, is seriously ill and a sick man does not have time to preside over serious matter concerning development of the country, as he will be busy searching for medical attention; and this we see in Yar’Adua. Since he became president in 2007, he has been frequenting hospitals for medical attention. …..It’s obvious now that the President can no longer cope with the responsibilities of the office of the President, particularly which of the Executive President as provided for by the 1999 constitution. The constitution should be followed to the letter in resolving the present crisis facing the country and Vice President Goodluck Jonathan should take over the mantle of leadership, if the president resigns or dies” - Alhaji Balarabe Musa, former governor of Kaduna State.
Again, this statement is right, and is the truth that many will agree with.
News: The Nigerian Governors Forum, observes as follows: We commend the sense of leadership demonstrated by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) under the leadership of the Vice-President. This demonstrates that government, at the Federal level is alive to its responsibilities and it is being complemented by the 36 governors.
Constitutionally, in the absence of any incapacitation on the part of the President, it is precipitate and diversionary to call for Mr President’s resignation. It is on this basis that the Nigerian Governors Forum considers the calls for Mr President’s resignation as a betrayal or a lack of respect for the Constitution and the system of government for this country. On the basis of this foregoing, therefore, the Nigerian Governors Forum hereby restates our firm commitment to the peace, progress and stability of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. We wish Mr President, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, quick recovery as he continues to lead our country." – Nigerian Governors Forum
The Governors are right and are presenting the truth the way they see it or want to see it. They must not be seen as undermining the democratic and political process. Remember that any one of them could find himself in that same situation. But if the President is not “incapacitated” by being in a foreign hospital for almost 2 weeks now, then let the Governors tell me what “incapacitated” means.
Also, some former state governors who have seen corruption probes quashed on his (Yar ‘Adua’s) watch, have much to lose if he resigns.
News: The Action Congress (AC) has described as unprincipled, self-serving and predictable the stand taken by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on the issue of President Umaru Yar’Adua’s health. “FEC’s contention that the government is running properly in the absence of the President and with no one in charge is the biggest joke of the year, and shows that the members do not have the interest of Nigerians at heart”, it said. AC noted, however, that it would have been surprised if the FEC, the only body Constitutionally mandated to initiate a probe of the President’s health, had acted otherwise.
The AC, as an opposition political party, assumes righteous indignance and may be speaking the truth, to call for the President’s resignation. If they do not, they cannot be considered a credible opposition.
News: "Oppose Umar Musa Yar'Adua and die!" Plot to assassinate some Katsina State indigenes who signed the petition calling on Yar'Adua to resign from office, as ministers start propaganda war. – Saharareporters
Getting nasty now, are we? Another truth, perhaps, but deniable. I will not put it past our politicians, well known for their murderous inclinations to stay in power.
So the truth? Everybody is saying the right thing and making the right noises, but I can’t find the real truth in what they are saying.
Politicians across the world raise questions about their opponents’ health to undermine them. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s heart problems and French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s post-jogging collapse were exposed to the full glare of media publicity.
In India, there was public disclosure of 78-year-old Premier Manmohan Singh’s diabetes and heart bypass surgery. Although China has brought in a younger generation of leaders, the official obsession with secrecy on health continues.
Africa’s politicians struggle to stop the fiery local media discussing their health. North African leaders look particularly shaky: Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, 72, suffers from chronic stomach ailments; Tunisia’s President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, 76, was recently prescribed bed rest; there have been several scares for Egypt’s 81-year-old President Hosni Mubarak; and at 67, Libyan leader Moammar el Gadaffi is a comparative stripling but his rambling oratorical style prompts claims of drug abuse. A picture of health at 85, Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe confounds his opponents’ hopes for his retirement, and along with the equally robust Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, flies the flag for octogenarian leaders in Africa. (AFRICA CONFIDENTIAL 4 December 2009 Vol. 50, No. 24)
But let us now consider the phrase “Being economical with the truth”: The meaning is “Conveying an untrue version of events by leaving out the important facts. It is a euphemism for lying, in short. More literally, it describes a careful use of facts so as not to reveal too much information. This is a trademark of politicians all over the world and is not unique to Nigerians; the only problem being that in Nigeria, it assumes very dangerous, disastrous and lethal proportions and consequences.
Although it had its origin from the 18th century, and rarely used, the phrase was brought into the contemporary language by the UK Cabinet Secretary, Sir Robert Armstrong, who used the phrase during the Australian 'Spycatcher' trial in 1986:
Lawyer: What is the difference between a misleading impression and a lie?
Armstrong: A lie is a straight untruth.
Lawyer: What is a misleading impression - a sort of bent untruth?
Armstrong: As one person said, it is perhaps being "economical with the truth".
What Armstrong left out (perhaps he knew but was being economical) was that the 'one person' was Edmund Burke. In 1796 Burke wrote: "Falsehood and delusion are allowed in no case whatsoever: But, as in the exercise of all the virtues, there is an economy of truth."
In 1992, Alan Clark MP, was cross-examined during the Matrix Churchill case and embroidered the phrase a little:
Clark: Well it's our old friend "being economical", isn't it?
Lawyer: With the truth?
Clark: With the actualité
Will somebody or some bodies, tell us the truth for a change?
Saturday, 5 December 2009
Health Checks.
Experience is the best teacher and we have no reason not to learn from our past, except we want to play tricks on ourselves. I am writing this piece in respect to the acknowledgement by Aso Rock/Presidency that our president is suffering from acute pericarditis. This has taken the Presidency almost two and half years to admit or to tell Nigerians that their President is ill. Yet this same administration preaches transparency and openness. The health of a leader is not something to be hidden from the people. Every leader or aspiring leaders should understand that, their lives (health, family, finances, etc) will be in public domain. In the United Kingdom, almost every one knows that Gordon Brown (British Prime Minister) has an eye problem. This was an injury he sustained while playing Rugby sports. The dates of all his medical examinations since he became prime minister are reported by the press.
Agreed that the President can be ill just like any other human being, but when the sickness affects his ability to discharge his presidential duties, then something has to be done. The constitution is clear on this. Nigeria is too big, too fragile and too complex not to have an able president. Be that as it may and in view of the fact that our presidents ill health has costs the nation a lot (delays in performing government duties, the costs of which cannot be quantified in monetary terms). I will propose to all the political parties to always do a comprehensive health check in future, before giving any aspirant their ticket/nomination to contest election. Though there is no guarantee against ill health, but an idea of one’s medical history is important. This should be applicable to all elective positions in the country, starting from the ward councilors to the president.
Let President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua,s case be the last for our country. Nigeria witnessed similar episode during the tenure of late General Abacha. Late Abacha was sick and declined to relinquish power to enable him undergo treatment, till he died in office. The national interest should be considered first. The slow down in government activities largely caused by the ill health of our president, should be a big lesson for all political parties to learn in choosing a candidate. However, the leadership of the political parties themselves deserves a health check (mental fitness, etc), because some of their actions (internal party crises, etc) shows that, all might not be well with their health system. It is possible also that they are not normal.
The National Assembly should apply same methods whenever they have to approve ministerial and ambassadorial nominations. All government (local, state, and federal government) advisers should also undergo a health check. Our President might not be the only sick person. It’s possible that some advisers might not be mentally fit to advise him. One wonders the kind of advices that he receives. In an article I wrote to Mr. President titled; My Christmas Present to President Yar’Adua, I challenged his advisers to make public what they have been telling Mr. President in private, with the exception of security issues. The next in line of leaders that need health checks are the present members of the National Assembly. The actions of our lawmakers (inability to pass the freedom of information bill, etc) are reasons why they too deserve health checks.
The private sector (companies, villages, communities, banks, churches etc) should not hesitate to carry out a health check for all their leaders. Banks in particular needs to have their managing directors/directors undergo health checks. Playing with depositors fund is an indication that bank directors deserve health checks. Perhaps a health check would have been able to spot mental fitness or otherwise of the following bankers; Dr Mrs. Cecilia Ibru (former CEO Oceanic Bank Plc. Standing trial for about N160.2Billion mismanage/looted fund), Dr Bartholomew (Former CEO Union Bank Plc), Bassey Ebong, Henry Onyemem, Niyi Albert Opeodu (Ex Directors of Union Bank of Nigeria Plc facing trials for fraud), Erastus Akingbola of Intercontinental Bank Plc(currently being investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for money laundering cases) etc. It is the writer’s view that more agony can be saved the nation, if the banks can starts health checking immediately and removal of unfit bankers. Prevention is better than cure.
The next question becomes which hospital/laboratory in Nigeria will carry out these checks. Do we have “hospitals” in Nigeria? The answer is no, otherwise our President would not have gone to King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He used to visit German hospitals, but it appears that he prefers Saudi Arabian hospital this time. I think the choice of Saudi Arabian hospital was a ploy to deceive Nigerians that he goes there on religious grounds. But their lies could no longer hold water, thus the Presidency had to open up.
Yar’Adua is not the first leader that abandoned Nigerian hospitals. Babangida use to go to France for his medical treatments. Just recently, it was all over the news that Maryam Babangida was seriously ill in a cancer specialist hospital in Los Angeles, America. Late Stella Obasanjo (wife of our former President) died in a Spanish hospital. The list is endless. Perhaps the federal government should also sponsor my friends who are in Nigeria to come for a medical check up overseas. After all Mr. President (Umaru Musa Yar’Adua) approved foreign medical treatment (German Hospital) for ex-governor Turaki of Jigawa State and a serving senator, when he was involved in a road accident. Therefore, if Mr. President can approve oversea medical treatment for Turaki and goes overseas for his own medical treatments, he should also sponsor my friends, after all they are Nigerians. What is good for him (Yar’Adua) should also be good for other Nigerians.
The action(s) of people (Musa Yar’Adua, Maryam Babangida, and Late Stella Obasanjo) mentioned above, shows that the federal ministry of health does not exist. These people are, and have been members of the Nigerian first families (Presidents or wives of Presidents). Therefore, if the first families can’t treat themselves in Nigeria, then it is an indictment on the ministry of health (ministry against health). Perhaps, overseas medical trips are a good avenue to launder money. In that case, those Nigerian first families that went in the past and are still going now are guilty of corruption. Nigerians should hold them responsible for siphoning all the money meant for the ministry of health. Can the authorities (Ministry of health, Senate Committee on Health etc) explain what happened to all budgetary allocations to health ministry at least since the last 10 years? Can the federal minister of health (minister against health) tell Nigerians why no hospital in Nigeria can treat our president. Is it not better that he (minister against health) resigns?
May I use this medium to ask God to heal our President so that he can declare a state of emergency at the Ministry of Health. Let us equip at least one hospital that can treat our leaders and hence stop this national embarrassment. Finally, I wish to appeal to Nigerians to participate and join the fight against global warming. Turn off your electrical appliances/lights when not in use. Plant a tree or sponsor one to plant on your behalf. Government and companies should send less paper work and do more email, telephone, and sms. May God bless Nigeria.
Chinedu Vincent Akuta.
An activist and leader of “Support Option A4 Group” Leicester-UK
akutachinedu@yahoo.com
http://briefsfromakuta.blogspot.com/
Agreed that the President can be ill just like any other human being, but when the sickness affects his ability to discharge his presidential duties, then something has to be done. The constitution is clear on this. Nigeria is too big, too fragile and too complex not to have an able president. Be that as it may and in view of the fact that our presidents ill health has costs the nation a lot (delays in performing government duties, the costs of which cannot be quantified in monetary terms). I will propose to all the political parties to always do a comprehensive health check in future, before giving any aspirant their ticket/nomination to contest election. Though there is no guarantee against ill health, but an idea of one’s medical history is important. This should be applicable to all elective positions in the country, starting from the ward councilors to the president.
Let President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua,s case be the last for our country. Nigeria witnessed similar episode during the tenure of late General Abacha. Late Abacha was sick and declined to relinquish power to enable him undergo treatment, till he died in office. The national interest should be considered first. The slow down in government activities largely caused by the ill health of our president, should be a big lesson for all political parties to learn in choosing a candidate. However, the leadership of the political parties themselves deserves a health check (mental fitness, etc), because some of their actions (internal party crises, etc) shows that, all might not be well with their health system. It is possible also that they are not normal.
The National Assembly should apply same methods whenever they have to approve ministerial and ambassadorial nominations. All government (local, state, and federal government) advisers should also undergo a health check. Our President might not be the only sick person. It’s possible that some advisers might not be mentally fit to advise him. One wonders the kind of advices that he receives. In an article I wrote to Mr. President titled; My Christmas Present to President Yar’Adua, I challenged his advisers to make public what they have been telling Mr. President in private, with the exception of security issues. The next in line of leaders that need health checks are the present members of the National Assembly. The actions of our lawmakers (inability to pass the freedom of information bill, etc) are reasons why they too deserve health checks.
The private sector (companies, villages, communities, banks, churches etc) should not hesitate to carry out a health check for all their leaders. Banks in particular needs to have their managing directors/directors undergo health checks. Playing with depositors fund is an indication that bank directors deserve health checks. Perhaps a health check would have been able to spot mental fitness or otherwise of the following bankers; Dr Mrs. Cecilia Ibru (former CEO Oceanic Bank Plc. Standing trial for about N160.2Billion mismanage/looted fund), Dr Bartholomew (Former CEO Union Bank Plc), Bassey Ebong, Henry Onyemem, Niyi Albert Opeodu (Ex Directors of Union Bank of Nigeria Plc facing trials for fraud), Erastus Akingbola of Intercontinental Bank Plc(currently being investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for money laundering cases) etc. It is the writer’s view that more agony can be saved the nation, if the banks can starts health checking immediately and removal of unfit bankers. Prevention is better than cure.
The next question becomes which hospital/laboratory in Nigeria will carry out these checks. Do we have “hospitals” in Nigeria? The answer is no, otherwise our President would not have gone to King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He used to visit German hospitals, but it appears that he prefers Saudi Arabian hospital this time. I think the choice of Saudi Arabian hospital was a ploy to deceive Nigerians that he goes there on religious grounds. But their lies could no longer hold water, thus the Presidency had to open up.
Yar’Adua is not the first leader that abandoned Nigerian hospitals. Babangida use to go to France for his medical treatments. Just recently, it was all over the news that Maryam Babangida was seriously ill in a cancer specialist hospital in Los Angeles, America. Late Stella Obasanjo (wife of our former President) died in a Spanish hospital. The list is endless. Perhaps the federal government should also sponsor my friends who are in Nigeria to come for a medical check up overseas. After all Mr. President (Umaru Musa Yar’Adua) approved foreign medical treatment (German Hospital) for ex-governor Turaki of Jigawa State and a serving senator, when he was involved in a road accident. Therefore, if Mr. President can approve oversea medical treatment for Turaki and goes overseas for his own medical treatments, he should also sponsor my friends, after all they are Nigerians. What is good for him (Yar’Adua) should also be good for other Nigerians.
The action(s) of people (Musa Yar’Adua, Maryam Babangida, and Late Stella Obasanjo) mentioned above, shows that the federal ministry of health does not exist. These people are, and have been members of the Nigerian first families (Presidents or wives of Presidents). Therefore, if the first families can’t treat themselves in Nigeria, then it is an indictment on the ministry of health (ministry against health). Perhaps, overseas medical trips are a good avenue to launder money. In that case, those Nigerian first families that went in the past and are still going now are guilty of corruption. Nigerians should hold them responsible for siphoning all the money meant for the ministry of health. Can the authorities (Ministry of health, Senate Committee on Health etc) explain what happened to all budgetary allocations to health ministry at least since the last 10 years? Can the federal minister of health (minister against health) tell Nigerians why no hospital in Nigeria can treat our president. Is it not better that he (minister against health) resigns?
May I use this medium to ask God to heal our President so that he can declare a state of emergency at the Ministry of Health. Let us equip at least one hospital that can treat our leaders and hence stop this national embarrassment. Finally, I wish to appeal to Nigerians to participate and join the fight against global warming. Turn off your electrical appliances/lights when not in use. Plant a tree or sponsor one to plant on your behalf. Government and companies should send less paper work and do more email, telephone, and sms. May God bless Nigeria.
Chinedu Vincent Akuta.
An activist and leader of “Support Option A4 Group” Leicester-UK
akutachinedu@yahoo.com
http://briefsfromakuta.blogspot.com/
Thursday, 26 November 2009
Of Death, Rumours, Curses And Superstitions
In a classic illustration of how rumours and hearsay work, Mark Twain described in his autobiography how news that a cousin was dying quickly metamorphosed into the "scoop" that Twain himself was dead. His response became instantly famous: "The report of my death was an exaggeration." Were he alive today, Twain would probably be amused to observe how, in this Internet age, celebrities and well-known figures are confronted by "news" of their own demise on a regular basis.
A premature obituary is an obituary published whose subject is not actually deceased. Such situations have various causes, such as hoaxes or mix-ups over names, and usually produce great embarrassment or sometimes more dramatic consequences. Examples range from arms manufacturer Alfred Nobel, whose premature obituary condemning him as a 'merchant of death' may have caused him to create the Nobel Prize, to Black Nationalist Marcus Garvey, whose actual death was apparently caused by reading his own obituary.
In Nigeria, we have had quite a few high –profile cases of false death rumours: Nnamdi Azikiwe, the First President of Nigeria was declared dead by Nigerian newspapers years before he actually died.
For many years now, the Nollywood actress, Sola Sobowale, popularly called Toyin Tomato has been rumoured as dead. It was said that she was arrested and beheaded in Saudi Arabia for committing drug related offences. Contrary to the rumours however, Toyin Tomato is still alive safe and sound. In fact I see her at Emukay Restaurant in London almost every weekend, the last being just last Friday. We are also constantly on the phone. She has never even been to Saudi Arabia, not to talk of being beheaded. For the past 3 years, everytime I visit Nigeria, people who know that I know Sola always ask me if the rumours were true, and I had to go to great lengths to deny this wicked rumour. Sola Sobowale is alive and well and living it up in London. Sometimes, when visitors from Nigeria visit Uncle Tunji Oyelana and his wife, Kikelomo’s (Sola’s senior sister) restaurant, Emukay in South London, I could see their unbelieving eyes when Sola saunters in and starts dancing.
About two week ago, news reports came that Maryam Babangida, Nigeria's former First Lady, is dead. The former chairperson of the Better Life for Rural Women during her husband's years in office had been hospitalised for ovarian cancer at a hospital somewhere in the US. It was said that her husband, General Babangida, the retired billionaire ex-dictator was granted a US visa on compassionate grounds to be at the bedside of his wife, till her death, because her cancer had reached an advanced stage.
The rumour turned out to be just that: rumour. Not true.
Even before Umar Yar ‘Adua became President, due to his well-known kidney problems, there had been rumours about his supposed death. This was of course not helped by his constant disappearance from the public and his many travels for medical check-ups in Saudi Arabian hospitals. During Yar ‘Adua’s campaign in Abeokuta in April 2007, the then President, Olusegun Obasanjo had, in order to douse the rumour that the PDP presidential candidate had passed on, decided to put a call to Yar'Adua in the presence of thousands of PDP faithfuls, and then theatrically proved to Nigerians that “Umaru” was not dead.
Excerpts of the telephone discussion:
Obasanjo: 'Umaru [Yar'Adua] are you dead?'
Yar'Adua: 'I am alive'
Obasanjo: 'What are you doing?'
Yar'Adua: 'I am laughing.'
The President, looking directly at the crowd: 'He is laughing ha! ha!! ha!!!'"
It was the stuff of which jokes are made, even though unkindly; especially knowing how crude Obasanjo could be when it comes to politics.
Since he became President in May 2007, rumours about Yar ‘Adua’s health has persisted and surfaced from time to time. In August 2008, another rumour of his death made the rounds until he himself dispelled it, and just this week (November 2009), another such death rumour surfaced, especially when it was announced that he had gone to for yet another medical check up in Saudi Arabia.
In Nigeria, it is usually believed that such rumours were either contrived deliberately by the subjects of the death rumour themselves or their supporters as a kind of spiritual “juju” sacrifice so that the subjects will then live longer. Sometimes, it might just be wicked, malicious rumours spread by the subject’s perceived enemies or political opponents. Whatever the case or cause might be, the subject usually lasts much longer and stronger.
Please don’t get me wrong; all over the world, history is replete with such death rumours or premature obituaries of celebrities, statesmen and women, political figures, scientists, etc. Even the Queen of England and Ronald Reagan were once subjects of such rumours, not to talk of Hollywood actors and actresses too numerous to mention. Even Hitler and Stalin had all been rumoured to be dead long before they actually succumbed to death. So was Alfred Nobel.
You may not agree with me on this, but Nigerians are still basically a very primitive and very superstitious people. Even those of us who claimed to have fully absorbed Western culture and religion ultimately succumb to inherent African very easily. When Lord Lugard described Nigerians in the 1800s in seemingly racist and less flattering terms, he was saying the truth, at least based on his own observation and experience of the African mind. There is nothing we can do about this. In the darkest corners of Nigeria, and even in the open, dark and evil deeds that in this century would seem to have been jettisoned are still going on, on a daily basis. Take the child witchcraft infanticide still being perpetrated by a questionable female “religionista”, Pastor Helen Ukpabio and others of her ilk in Cross River and Akwa Ibom States, as examples, preying on peoples’ poverty and superstition and illiteracy, with her saying “witchcraft is a problem all over Nigeria”, making money from it and destroying lives in the process and still boasting about it. She could not address the major problems of corruption, poverty, bad governance, but to her, witchcraft the most important problem in Nigeria. Damn her.
We are particularly susceptible to rumours and superstition because we are a very gullible people. The rumours are even fuelled by charlatan, irresponsible and compromised news media, who chose what to write in a style to suit their paymasters. There is no respite. Nobody wants to tell or hear the truth. We also like a higher being or God to fight our fights for us, hence when Mayriam Babangida was rumoured to be dead, we were all jubilant that God had fought for us and exacted punishment on the Babangidas for their corruption and the mess they left the country.
Now, again it is being rumoured that Yar ‘Adua is dead, we just thought, all well and good, good riddance, serves him right, etc not thinking about the repercussion of his death on the Nigerian polity, all because we regard his tenure as illegal and un-progressive. We did not think we could wait for him to complete one term and then try to boot him out via the vote. We want him out now, but we want God to do it for us. As Olusegun Adeniyi, Presidential spokesman recently said, “I think the daily pre-occupation of some people is to kill the President in their imagination and if that makes them happy so be it... I am tired of responding to what has become a common pastime of some idle politicians... maybe when the President comes back I will ask him how he keeps dying and resurrecting everyday”. What we should be praying for, perhaps, is for the sickly Mr President to have the wisdom, the sense and the courage to resign or retire before he dies on the presidential seat.
But should we want Yar ‘Adua (and many of our leaders) dead? Should we wish death on fellow human being, for whatever reason? No! While these people had been short-changing and oppressing us for decades, I would rather have them behind bars serving long prison sentences with very hard labour and all their assets seized.
I often laugh when I read or hear the curses rained down on our leaders. Yes, they do deserve to be cursed and superstitious people that we are, we believe the curses will work, and that is why, for example, Maryam Babangida had ovarian cancer; or it was our curses, or prayers to God, that eventually dispatched Sanni Abacha. Well, what do I know? Maybe, maybe not. But the fact remains that God will not come to the rescue of Nigerians alone to save them from their corrupt, selfish, inconsiderate and oppressive leaders. All people of the world are God’s creation, so why should He give special favours to ungrateful and sinful Nigerians?
Compatriots, things do not work like that. Heaven can only help those who help themselves. You do not wait for manna to fall from heaven. No rumours, curses or superstition will work against our leaders. In fact, they also fuel and exploit their peoples’ superstition and rumour mongering to the fullest for their own selfish ends.
Need I say more?
A premature obituary is an obituary published whose subject is not actually deceased. Such situations have various causes, such as hoaxes or mix-ups over names, and usually produce great embarrassment or sometimes more dramatic consequences. Examples range from arms manufacturer Alfred Nobel, whose premature obituary condemning him as a 'merchant of death' may have caused him to create the Nobel Prize, to Black Nationalist Marcus Garvey, whose actual death was apparently caused by reading his own obituary.
In Nigeria, we have had quite a few high –profile cases of false death rumours: Nnamdi Azikiwe, the First President of Nigeria was declared dead by Nigerian newspapers years before he actually died.
For many years now, the Nollywood actress, Sola Sobowale, popularly called Toyin Tomato has been rumoured as dead. It was said that she was arrested and beheaded in Saudi Arabia for committing drug related offences. Contrary to the rumours however, Toyin Tomato is still alive safe and sound. In fact I see her at Emukay Restaurant in London almost every weekend, the last being just last Friday. We are also constantly on the phone. She has never even been to Saudi Arabia, not to talk of being beheaded. For the past 3 years, everytime I visit Nigeria, people who know that I know Sola always ask me if the rumours were true, and I had to go to great lengths to deny this wicked rumour. Sola Sobowale is alive and well and living it up in London. Sometimes, when visitors from Nigeria visit Uncle Tunji Oyelana and his wife, Kikelomo’s (Sola’s senior sister) restaurant, Emukay in South London, I could see their unbelieving eyes when Sola saunters in and starts dancing.
About two week ago, news reports came that Maryam Babangida, Nigeria's former First Lady, is dead. The former chairperson of the Better Life for Rural Women during her husband's years in office had been hospitalised for ovarian cancer at a hospital somewhere in the US. It was said that her husband, General Babangida, the retired billionaire ex-dictator was granted a US visa on compassionate grounds to be at the bedside of his wife, till her death, because her cancer had reached an advanced stage.
The rumour turned out to be just that: rumour. Not true.
Even before Umar Yar ‘Adua became President, due to his well-known kidney problems, there had been rumours about his supposed death. This was of course not helped by his constant disappearance from the public and his many travels for medical check-ups in Saudi Arabian hospitals. During Yar ‘Adua’s campaign in Abeokuta in April 2007, the then President, Olusegun Obasanjo had, in order to douse the rumour that the PDP presidential candidate had passed on, decided to put a call to Yar'Adua in the presence of thousands of PDP faithfuls, and then theatrically proved to Nigerians that “Umaru” was not dead.
Excerpts of the telephone discussion:
Obasanjo: 'Umaru [Yar'Adua] are you dead?'
Yar'Adua: 'I am alive'
Obasanjo: 'What are you doing?'
Yar'Adua: 'I am laughing.'
The President, looking directly at the crowd: 'He is laughing ha! ha!! ha!!!'"
It was the stuff of which jokes are made, even though unkindly; especially knowing how crude Obasanjo could be when it comes to politics.
Since he became President in May 2007, rumours about Yar ‘Adua’s health has persisted and surfaced from time to time. In August 2008, another rumour of his death made the rounds until he himself dispelled it, and just this week (November 2009), another such death rumour surfaced, especially when it was announced that he had gone to for yet another medical check up in Saudi Arabia.
In Nigeria, it is usually believed that such rumours were either contrived deliberately by the subjects of the death rumour themselves or their supporters as a kind of spiritual “juju” sacrifice so that the subjects will then live longer. Sometimes, it might just be wicked, malicious rumours spread by the subject’s perceived enemies or political opponents. Whatever the case or cause might be, the subject usually lasts much longer and stronger.
Please don’t get me wrong; all over the world, history is replete with such death rumours or premature obituaries of celebrities, statesmen and women, political figures, scientists, etc. Even the Queen of England and Ronald Reagan were once subjects of such rumours, not to talk of Hollywood actors and actresses too numerous to mention. Even Hitler and Stalin had all been rumoured to be dead long before they actually succumbed to death. So was Alfred Nobel.
You may not agree with me on this, but Nigerians are still basically a very primitive and very superstitious people. Even those of us who claimed to have fully absorbed Western culture and religion ultimately succumb to inherent African very easily. When Lord Lugard described Nigerians in the 1800s in seemingly racist and less flattering terms, he was saying the truth, at least based on his own observation and experience of the African mind. There is nothing we can do about this. In the darkest corners of Nigeria, and even in the open, dark and evil deeds that in this century would seem to have been jettisoned are still going on, on a daily basis. Take the child witchcraft infanticide still being perpetrated by a questionable female “religionista”, Pastor Helen Ukpabio and others of her ilk in Cross River and Akwa Ibom States, as examples, preying on peoples’ poverty and superstition and illiteracy, with her saying “witchcraft is a problem all over Nigeria”, making money from it and destroying lives in the process and still boasting about it. She could not address the major problems of corruption, poverty, bad governance, but to her, witchcraft the most important problem in Nigeria. Damn her.
We are particularly susceptible to rumours and superstition because we are a very gullible people. The rumours are even fuelled by charlatan, irresponsible and compromised news media, who chose what to write in a style to suit their paymasters. There is no respite. Nobody wants to tell or hear the truth. We also like a higher being or God to fight our fights for us, hence when Mayriam Babangida was rumoured to be dead, we were all jubilant that God had fought for us and exacted punishment on the Babangidas for their corruption and the mess they left the country.
Now, again it is being rumoured that Yar ‘Adua is dead, we just thought, all well and good, good riddance, serves him right, etc not thinking about the repercussion of his death on the Nigerian polity, all because we regard his tenure as illegal and un-progressive. We did not think we could wait for him to complete one term and then try to boot him out via the vote. We want him out now, but we want God to do it for us. As Olusegun Adeniyi, Presidential spokesman recently said, “I think the daily pre-occupation of some people is to kill the President in their imagination and if that makes them happy so be it... I am tired of responding to what has become a common pastime of some idle politicians... maybe when the President comes back I will ask him how he keeps dying and resurrecting everyday”. What we should be praying for, perhaps, is for the sickly Mr President to have the wisdom, the sense and the courage to resign or retire before he dies on the presidential seat.
But should we want Yar ‘Adua (and many of our leaders) dead? Should we wish death on fellow human being, for whatever reason? No! While these people had been short-changing and oppressing us for decades, I would rather have them behind bars serving long prison sentences with very hard labour and all their assets seized.
I often laugh when I read or hear the curses rained down on our leaders. Yes, they do deserve to be cursed and superstitious people that we are, we believe the curses will work, and that is why, for example, Maryam Babangida had ovarian cancer; or it was our curses, or prayers to God, that eventually dispatched Sanni Abacha. Well, what do I know? Maybe, maybe not. But the fact remains that God will not come to the rescue of Nigerians alone to save them from their corrupt, selfish, inconsiderate and oppressive leaders. All people of the world are God’s creation, so why should He give special favours to ungrateful and sinful Nigerians?
Compatriots, things do not work like that. Heaven can only help those who help themselves. You do not wait for manna to fall from heaven. No rumours, curses or superstition will work against our leaders. In fact, they also fuel and exploit their peoples’ superstition and rumour mongering to the fullest for their own selfish ends.
Need I say more?
Sunday, 22 November 2009
Exchange Programmes
The greatest challenge will be how to raise the standard of education in Nigeria with minimal or no government involvement. Please do not ask me why, because events in and around our educational sector has shown us how serious our government can be when it comes to improving the educational standards. Part of the reason why our “rulers” do not give education the required attention is because some of their children are studying overseas. Many are studying in nearby Ghana and other African countries. This reminds me of a suggestion that I made earlier that all government functionaries should have their children study in Nigeria while they are still in government positions. Exception should be for people on foreign services.
It should be an unpatriotic act to have your children studying abroad while you’re holding a government position. Nigerians should take this matter to the National Assembly and all states Houses of Assembly to pass a law prohibiting children of government functionaries from studying abroad while their parents are still holding government positions. Same should apply to health care. Perhaps a policy in the above direction might bring some seriousness on the part of government officials and thus usher in changes in our education and healthcare system.
Having said the above, I want to propose exchange programmes between the private universities and government universities. I want the 41 private universities, polytechnics, and other privately owned higher institutions to design an exchange programmes particularly for the students of public universities. The idea will be to cross exchange ideas, learning skills, study experiences, share books, journals etc. I want the private universities to take up the challenges of improving the standard of education, by assisting the students of public universities using the mechanism of exchange programmes. On the fallen standard of education in Nigeria, private institutions (universities, polytechnics etc) cooperation with government institutions provides a viable option that can improve the quality of education. Exchange programmes should also be encouraged between government and private owned primary and secondary schools.
A lot has gone wrong with the public schools. The lack of funding (below the UNESCO standard of 26% of annual budgets) is a big factor. The industrial disputes between the government, Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities (ASUU), Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Non Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU), National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) etc, has taken its toll on Nigerian students. Let us also factor in the internal university crisis, like the tussle to become the University of Benin Vice Chancellor etc. All these have negative effects on the students. Obviously, when two elephants fight, the grass will suffer. The grasses in this case are the Nigerian students who are paying the price.
As it stands, I appeal for a rescue plan from the private sector. Education is light and knowledge will forever govern ignorance. Ignorance is also a disease. I want the private sector (parents, teachers, non governmental organizations, business community, churches etc) to embark on a massive campaign to raise the culture of reading. Let the private sector do whatever it will take to get Nigerians reading. We need to read more to improve our standards. Let the Nigerian people take this as a challenge to encourage children and youths to read, as this will have a clear and positive effect on academic achievements in school and outside the school. Another fact we need to understand is that, low levels of literacy can lead to poor outcomes amongst students, which in turn can lead to high unemployment, crimes, etc.
Nigerians need to encourage their children and the youths to read more science and technology courses. It gave me serious concern when I learnt that South African government is recruiting mathematics and sciences teachers from Nigeria. This is an area we need most. This is also another brain drain, but again they will remit foreign exchanges back home. In the absence of our oil revenue, remittances from Nigerians abroad are the second largest source of foreign exchange. Though that I will not blame any teacher that leaves Nigeria, but my advise is, let them fashion a way of transferring their foreign experiences back to Nigeria.
We need also to encourage our people to study skills acquisition in addition to their normal academic programme. We can design skills acquisition courses at the end of every academic year for our children/youths etc. This will take away their mind from crimes etc. An idle mind is a devils workshop. Let us also encourage our people to take overseas distance learning courses. Exposure to overseas distance learning might be a better way for people to experience the standards of education in the western world. Quiz competitions amongst students should be encouraged as well.
I will recommend adult education for parents and families who are not educated. There is need to educate our uneducated parents and families. I have said these because, the child’s first and most important teachers are the parents or the family members. Educated parents will likely engage in their children’s education. Better still, there could be home study programmes if parents are educated. In a report on Time Magazine of November 23 2009 edition, many Chinese students spend twice as many hours doing homework than their United State counterparts, partly due to family involvement. I will ask private educational providers to design programmes whereby tutors can visit people at their work places or business places to deliver lecture. I understand some people might be too busy to leave their offices/business to attend adult education centers, in such situation, tutors can visit such people.
I will also propose the establishment of community libraries and learning centers in every community. This project should be undertaken by the communities. It could be a room or two. Nigerian communities/villages should build community libraries the same way they established community banks. Many communities established community banks, same spirit should adopted to build community libraries. It should be equipped and managed by the communities. Nigerians at home and abroad should donate books to these libraries.
I will recommend an arrangement whereby the federal, state and local governments will grant tax waivers to private institutions in return for them to increase their yearly students’ enrolment, offer scholarships, studentships, funding, etc. Let me also propose more private sector (companies, banks etc) collaboration and funding of research projects in private universities.
Finally, I wish to appeal to Nigerians to participate and join the fight against global warming. Turn off your electrical appliances/lights when not in use. Plant a tree or sponsor one to plant on your behalf. Government and companies should send less paper work and do more email, telephone, and sms. May God bless Nigeria.
Chinedu Vincent Akuta
An activist and leader of “Support Option A4 Group” Leicester-UK
akutachinedu@yahoo.com
http://briefsfromakuta.blogspot.com/
It should be an unpatriotic act to have your children studying abroad while you’re holding a government position. Nigerians should take this matter to the National Assembly and all states Houses of Assembly to pass a law prohibiting children of government functionaries from studying abroad while their parents are still holding government positions. Same should apply to health care. Perhaps a policy in the above direction might bring some seriousness on the part of government officials and thus usher in changes in our education and healthcare system.
Having said the above, I want to propose exchange programmes between the private universities and government universities. I want the 41 private universities, polytechnics, and other privately owned higher institutions to design an exchange programmes particularly for the students of public universities. The idea will be to cross exchange ideas, learning skills, study experiences, share books, journals etc. I want the private universities to take up the challenges of improving the standard of education, by assisting the students of public universities using the mechanism of exchange programmes. On the fallen standard of education in Nigeria, private institutions (universities, polytechnics etc) cooperation with government institutions provides a viable option that can improve the quality of education. Exchange programmes should also be encouraged between government and private owned primary and secondary schools.
A lot has gone wrong with the public schools. The lack of funding (below the UNESCO standard of 26% of annual budgets) is a big factor. The industrial disputes between the government, Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities (ASUU), Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Non Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU), National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) etc, has taken its toll on Nigerian students. Let us also factor in the internal university crisis, like the tussle to become the University of Benin Vice Chancellor etc. All these have negative effects on the students. Obviously, when two elephants fight, the grass will suffer. The grasses in this case are the Nigerian students who are paying the price.
As it stands, I appeal for a rescue plan from the private sector. Education is light and knowledge will forever govern ignorance. Ignorance is also a disease. I want the private sector (parents, teachers, non governmental organizations, business community, churches etc) to embark on a massive campaign to raise the culture of reading. Let the private sector do whatever it will take to get Nigerians reading. We need to read more to improve our standards. Let the Nigerian people take this as a challenge to encourage children and youths to read, as this will have a clear and positive effect on academic achievements in school and outside the school. Another fact we need to understand is that, low levels of literacy can lead to poor outcomes amongst students, which in turn can lead to high unemployment, crimes, etc.
Nigerians need to encourage their children and the youths to read more science and technology courses. It gave me serious concern when I learnt that South African government is recruiting mathematics and sciences teachers from Nigeria. This is an area we need most. This is also another brain drain, but again they will remit foreign exchanges back home. In the absence of our oil revenue, remittances from Nigerians abroad are the second largest source of foreign exchange. Though that I will not blame any teacher that leaves Nigeria, but my advise is, let them fashion a way of transferring their foreign experiences back to Nigeria.
We need also to encourage our people to study skills acquisition in addition to their normal academic programme. We can design skills acquisition courses at the end of every academic year for our children/youths etc. This will take away their mind from crimes etc. An idle mind is a devils workshop. Let us also encourage our people to take overseas distance learning courses. Exposure to overseas distance learning might be a better way for people to experience the standards of education in the western world. Quiz competitions amongst students should be encouraged as well.
I will recommend adult education for parents and families who are not educated. There is need to educate our uneducated parents and families. I have said these because, the child’s first and most important teachers are the parents or the family members. Educated parents will likely engage in their children’s education. Better still, there could be home study programmes if parents are educated. In a report on Time Magazine of November 23 2009 edition, many Chinese students spend twice as many hours doing homework than their United State counterparts, partly due to family involvement. I will ask private educational providers to design programmes whereby tutors can visit people at their work places or business places to deliver lecture. I understand some people might be too busy to leave their offices/business to attend adult education centers, in such situation, tutors can visit such people.
I will also propose the establishment of community libraries and learning centers in every community. This project should be undertaken by the communities. It could be a room or two. Nigerian communities/villages should build community libraries the same way they established community banks. Many communities established community banks, same spirit should adopted to build community libraries. It should be equipped and managed by the communities. Nigerians at home and abroad should donate books to these libraries.
I will recommend an arrangement whereby the federal, state and local governments will grant tax waivers to private institutions in return for them to increase their yearly students’ enrolment, offer scholarships, studentships, funding, etc. Let me also propose more private sector (companies, banks etc) collaboration and funding of research projects in private universities.
Finally, I wish to appeal to Nigerians to participate and join the fight against global warming. Turn off your electrical appliances/lights when not in use. Plant a tree or sponsor one to plant on your behalf. Government and companies should send less paper work and do more email, telephone, and sms. May God bless Nigeria.
Chinedu Vincent Akuta
An activist and leader of “Support Option A4 Group” Leicester-UK
akutachinedu@yahoo.com
http://briefsfromakuta.blogspot.com/
Wednesday, 18 November 2009
Corruption And The Death Penalty
NEWS: “SENATOR Smart Adeyemi, representing Kogi West Senatorial Constituency at the National Assembly, has called for a law prescribing death penalty for public officials found guilty of corrupt practices, saying such stiffer punishment would encourage the ongoing fight against corruption”.
Everybody knows my views on corruption in Nigeria. I totally abhor it and would do a lot of things to fight corruption. The fact realistically remains that in any society, we cannot have zero corruption, but we can have zero-tolerance to corruption. The best we can do is managing corruption and/or reducing it to a manageable level. Even the Western democracies will admit that this is what they have been doing and which has made their societies better for their people.
When I first read Senator Adeyemi’s call for the death penalty to be applied to corrupt public and political officials in Nigeria, my first instinct, being very cynical of our politicians, was to think maybe he was just playing to the gallery; maybe! I had this feeling that he was not sincere, coming from him, himself a beneficiary of a corrupt system of politics and governance. However, it was a most noble and brave call.
It is certainly a good thing to hear that a Senator in Nigeria is speaking out the frustration of the rest of us who seem neglected, ignored and unheard. The problem I see in this discussion is that there are no significant apprehension (or even attempt to apprehend and prosecute sincerely) of corrupt officials yet, and for the few so indicted (but not convicted yet), they are still roaming around free and daring the rest of us to do something about it. It is a collective slap in our faces. Senator Adeyemi certainly was highlighting the damage that goes with what public officials have made of Nigeria, and her hijacked resources. As a remedy however, the death penalty is controversial as a resolution of the problem of corruption, certainly not in a democracy, no matter how poorly we practice our own version in Nigeria.
There are punishments better than death. Death takes only a few seconds to initiate. In the 50s and 60s, sentencing to long prison terms “with hard labour” was just that – hard labour, reminiscent of the “chain-gangs” of the correctional system of the United States. Long prison sentences, naming and shaming and hard labour in prison will always be effective deterrent against corruption. Can you imagine Bode George, Tafa Balogun (and even the yet-to-be-convicted James Ibori) with cutlasses, spades and shovels working on a building site or cutting down trees on state farms under the hot sun and watchful eyes of brutal warders? Truth be told, even while I live in a country (the United Kingdom) where there is not death penalty even for the most heinous of crimes, I am a believer in the Mosaic Law of “an eye for an eye”, and will advocate the death penalty for crimes such as murder, armed robbery, terrorism, etc. But for corruption? This is against my better judgement, and I will spell out my reasons.
Death penalty may not be the appropriate punishment for corrupt officials if democracy is what we claim to practice. While we all condemn the act of corruption by any public official, enacting laws that prescribe death penalty may be an over kill. The right prescription in my view is to have them prosecuted, recover all funds stolen and then have them serve time in prison. Furthermore, this will be more effective because no court in Nigeria will condemn anyone to death for corruption even if it was the law of the land.
Capital punishment is particularly risky in Nigeria where the courts are ridden with corruption and, at times, politicking takes precedence over thorough investigations. The Nigerian judicial system has lots of problems with corruption and nepotism, so there is no guarantee that a sentence is objective. Unfortunately, it is known that the extra-judicial killings and executions by the Police have been used as a way to avoid further investigation into serious crimes.
Furthermore, prescribing the death penalty for corruption will require a social, cultural, as well as legal shift.
I have trawled through numerous comments made by Nigerians on this call, and while they are of importance to the debate, and generally favourable of very severe punishment for corruption, not many people support the death penalty for corruption.
“No stolen money or property is worth a life. Confiscation of money stolen and all other assets owned by a public fund embezzler, including commitment to many years in the prison, should be enough punishment for these kleptomaniacs”, somebody opined
One Taiye Olaniyi said “Not until we start treating corruption as a treasonable crime it will not stop. I will even go a step further in advocating in addition to the death sentence the seizure of all property they have acquired from the time they are suspected of committing the crime. This may put pressure on their family members to prevail on the criminals because they will also stand to loose. We should remember how effectively this penalty worked during the Buhari/Idiagbon regime in combating drug trafficking. Any prospective criminals will in this way look at their options, (and) of course the government must engage in nation-wide campaign to enlighten people of the consequences of corruption, something similar to the war on indiscipline campaign.
One Mr Mbuk said “If we can’t enforce the laws as they are today to prosecute suspects and jail culprits, who will enforce a new law prescribing death penalty? Does the senator know that election rigging is also corruption that deserves death?
While Marcel Okpara postulated “May God bless Senator Adeyemi. If Nigeria must march forward and become economically strong, then corruption must be dealt a heavy blow. And one strong way of discouraging corruption in public offices is to make capital punishment the punishment for offenders”.
Enyimba (NaijaPolitics) wrote “"Since death penalty does not deter Nigerians from committing crimes, I suggest longer sentence with hard labor. Make them feel the pains their crimes are causing Nigerians. Quick kill will not help."
Said a Dr Godwin of NIDOA “It will depend on how they define corruption and how it is certified by the law. They should also include rigging elections or election malpractice like dumping voting cards, disrupting voting boots, bribing election officials, vote selling, vote buying, paying election thugs, delaying election materials and failure to send voting cards as expected by the law, death or threats to political opponents, harassment and physical threats to opponents or their assistants. The worst corruption in Nigeria is that relating to elections and office ascendancy. So the senators should first atone or confess their past involvement in election frauds, rigging and vote buying”.
Advocates of capital punishment for corruption say that the death penalty is an effective means of state-driven innovation, especially against entrenched or widespread defective social structures. Its use against corruption is not in itself new, it is still applied for that reason in China. The recent expenses scandal in the United Kingdom is a reminder, that corrupt politicians are not found only in developing countries. Corruption, self-enrichment, and nepotism are part of the political culture in western democracies - so much so, that they form a major argument against democracy itself.
Furthermore, they say, the introduction of the death penalty for corruption and nepotism, is the only guaranteed effective way, to end the culture of corruption among western politicians. Widespread application of the death penalty, with low thresholds, would ultimately disable the political parties, and end recruitment to the political class. In that way, it would remove two primary sources of corruption.
Of course some people have moral objections to the death penalty. However, they are not overriding: the state is not obliged to accept the views of these people, as a universal moral norm. They are a private moral preference, at most. It is true that we recognise that the death penalty effectively deters corruption, however distaste for a society with frequent executions, is probably the main factor in rejecting the death penalty for non-violent crimes.
Corruption in China is a crime that draws capital punishment. Vietnam is another country that prescribes death for official corruption. According to Chinese Criminal Law, the death penalty applies only to those criminals committing extremely serious crimes while those who are not subject to immediate execution may be sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve. Specifically, embezzlement conducted with more than 100,000 yuan (US$ 12,353) is subject to no less than 10 years in prison or life imprisonment with property confiscated while those with particularly serious circumstances can be executed. The circumstances of the crimes are taken into account. In addition, capital punishment must also undergo further judicial review after first and second instance trial procedures to guarantee accurate applications of death penalties.
In the case of China, as of 2005, more than 4,000 officials fled the country, taking with them nearly US$50 billion. Since China does not have extradition agreements with most of the countries harbouring the fugitives, they cannot be always brought back to face Chinese justice. Also, many of these countries do not hand down the death penalty for corruption. So extraditing the fugitives would be tantamount to sending them to death row.
To facilitate the extradition of such criminals, (and criminals indeed are Nigerian corrupt politicians and public officials, make no mistake about that) China's legal experts have suggested abolishing the death penalty for corruption.
It's true that about half the world has abolished capital punishment altogether and the other half that still has it hands it down only for heinous crimes like murder.
So we can see that having the death penalty in place for corruption will strain our relationship with countries where these criminals normally carry their loot. However, I will admit that I have never heard of any Nigerian corrupt official being extradited from the UK, the US or any other country in the last 50 years, despite the agreements we have with such countries. The problem is that no Nigerian Government had ever asked for this important bi-lateral cooperation to be applied. And the simple reason is that no Nigerian administration, military or democratic, had ever been sincere about fighting corruption; in fact the Administration itself, in most cases, is corrupt. And it is in their interest not to seek the extradition of such criminals.
Corruption, rampant and prevalent as it is, poses a serious threat to Nigeria’s political stability and sustainable development. Hence, it warrants utmost care and sincerity in its handling, especially at a time when the government is seeking to be in good relationship with the larger world, and also with their “re-branding” efforts to position Nigeria right.
Having said these, this current Government and the ruling party, PDP, as we currently have both, are not even in the position or have the vision, capability, political and moral will to even advocate and implement a death sentence for corruption. You must be kidding me.
Again, capital punishment doesn't seem to deter "capital crimes." I remember in the early 70s when armed robbers used to be executed publicly in our cities. Have the incidents of armed robbery subsided now in the 2000s? In fact it has escalated. This of course is attributable to several social factors such as poverty, corruption itself - free-for-all looting of the treasury by the very people entrusted to look after it, government indiscipline and lack of focus and vision, unemployment, etc, brought on and exacerbated by decay in the moral and religious values of the society as a whole.
My take on this is that Nigeria, both the government and the governed have not been sincere and truthful about fighting corruption. The political will has never been there; even as we gave credit to Obasanjo for taking the first ever step to fight corruption by creating the tools: EFCC and the ICPC. The absence of this political will therefore negate the call for the death penalty to fight our endemic corruption problem.
On the other hand, we must remember how Buhari/Idiagbo sacred Nigerians shitless when they executed three drug-smugglers. Yes, Buhari scared the living daylights out of us, and the death penalty as a deterrent for drug smuggling seemed to work until he was overthrown by the so-called Evil Genius took over and practically legalise drug smuggling.
There are other social, moral and economic issues which must be addressed first before we even talk of prescribing death (much as I would love a severe punishment for these criminals); the government and the ruling party must be seen to be more sincere in fighting corruption by continuously and vigorously exposing and prosecuting criminals, and not shielding them (like the case of Ibori and the complicity of the Attorney General in the legal standstill we have today) the judiciary must be cleaned up; the Nigeria Bar Association must deal with its errant members who are stifling the corruption fight in courts, laughing all the way to the courts by employing delaying tactics; the government must also pro-actively tackle poverty, unemployment and illiteracy, etc.
Also, government or public service must not be seen as a quick route to making money, hence this “do-or-die” politics. The salaries and other remunerations of out political office holders must be pruned in such a way that only those who really want to serve will be the ones going for these positions, and when they get there, do not have easy or any access to stealing money.
Please make no mistake understanding my viewpoints. At this juncture, and with my, and most Nigerians of goodwill’s frustration, there is nothing more I would like to see than seeing certain corrupt public officials and politicians lined up against a wall and shot. I feel they would deserve it, because much as we say that no stolen money or property is worth a life, if we carefully consider the effect of their corrupt practices on our lives, wellbeing and survival, then these people have also committed genocide, directly or indirectly – millions of Nigerian people do die as a result of their misdemeanour.
However, methinks the whole idea of death penalty for corruption is fraught with danger, the danger being the application of this very severe penalty with consideration of the systemic, intrinsic corruption we have itself – the corrupt lawmakers who are going to make the law; the enforcement agencies who will investigate the crime, the corrupt judiciary who will try the corrupt criminal; the corrupt and opportunistic lawyers who will defend or prosecute the case, and, you might not believe it, the corrupt society itself.
Yes, we, the public. We cannot exonerate anybody. We are all complicit in the making and spread of the corruption problems of Nigeria. There must be a bribe giver to have a bribe taker. Also, it stands to reason that you cannot be a part of the problem and at the same time be part of the solution.
Akintokunbo Adejumo is the Global Coordinator of CHAMPIONS FOR NIGERIA (www.championsfornigeria.org), an organisation devoted to celebrating genuine progress, excellence, commitment, selfless and unalloyed service to Nigeria and the people of Nigeria.
Everybody knows my views on corruption in Nigeria. I totally abhor it and would do a lot of things to fight corruption. The fact realistically remains that in any society, we cannot have zero corruption, but we can have zero-tolerance to corruption. The best we can do is managing corruption and/or reducing it to a manageable level. Even the Western democracies will admit that this is what they have been doing and which has made their societies better for their people.
When I first read Senator Adeyemi’s call for the death penalty to be applied to corrupt public and political officials in Nigeria, my first instinct, being very cynical of our politicians, was to think maybe he was just playing to the gallery; maybe! I had this feeling that he was not sincere, coming from him, himself a beneficiary of a corrupt system of politics and governance. However, it was a most noble and brave call.
It is certainly a good thing to hear that a Senator in Nigeria is speaking out the frustration of the rest of us who seem neglected, ignored and unheard. The problem I see in this discussion is that there are no significant apprehension (or even attempt to apprehend and prosecute sincerely) of corrupt officials yet, and for the few so indicted (but not convicted yet), they are still roaming around free and daring the rest of us to do something about it. It is a collective slap in our faces. Senator Adeyemi certainly was highlighting the damage that goes with what public officials have made of Nigeria, and her hijacked resources. As a remedy however, the death penalty is controversial as a resolution of the problem of corruption, certainly not in a democracy, no matter how poorly we practice our own version in Nigeria.
There are punishments better than death. Death takes only a few seconds to initiate. In the 50s and 60s, sentencing to long prison terms “with hard labour” was just that – hard labour, reminiscent of the “chain-gangs” of the correctional system of the United States. Long prison sentences, naming and shaming and hard labour in prison will always be effective deterrent against corruption. Can you imagine Bode George, Tafa Balogun (and even the yet-to-be-convicted James Ibori) with cutlasses, spades and shovels working on a building site or cutting down trees on state farms under the hot sun and watchful eyes of brutal warders? Truth be told, even while I live in a country (the United Kingdom) where there is not death penalty even for the most heinous of crimes, I am a believer in the Mosaic Law of “an eye for an eye”, and will advocate the death penalty for crimes such as murder, armed robbery, terrorism, etc. But for corruption? This is against my better judgement, and I will spell out my reasons.
Death penalty may not be the appropriate punishment for corrupt officials if democracy is what we claim to practice. While we all condemn the act of corruption by any public official, enacting laws that prescribe death penalty may be an over kill. The right prescription in my view is to have them prosecuted, recover all funds stolen and then have them serve time in prison. Furthermore, this will be more effective because no court in Nigeria will condemn anyone to death for corruption even if it was the law of the land.
Capital punishment is particularly risky in Nigeria where the courts are ridden with corruption and, at times, politicking takes precedence over thorough investigations. The Nigerian judicial system has lots of problems with corruption and nepotism, so there is no guarantee that a sentence is objective. Unfortunately, it is known that the extra-judicial killings and executions by the Police have been used as a way to avoid further investigation into serious crimes.
Furthermore, prescribing the death penalty for corruption will require a social, cultural, as well as legal shift.
I have trawled through numerous comments made by Nigerians on this call, and while they are of importance to the debate, and generally favourable of very severe punishment for corruption, not many people support the death penalty for corruption.
“No stolen money or property is worth a life. Confiscation of money stolen and all other assets owned by a public fund embezzler, including commitment to many years in the prison, should be enough punishment for these kleptomaniacs”, somebody opined
One Taiye Olaniyi said “Not until we start treating corruption as a treasonable crime it will not stop. I will even go a step further in advocating in addition to the death sentence the seizure of all property they have acquired from the time they are suspected of committing the crime. This may put pressure on their family members to prevail on the criminals because they will also stand to loose. We should remember how effectively this penalty worked during the Buhari/Idiagbon regime in combating drug trafficking. Any prospective criminals will in this way look at their options, (and) of course the government must engage in nation-wide campaign to enlighten people of the consequences of corruption, something similar to the war on indiscipline campaign.
One Mr Mbuk said “If we can’t enforce the laws as they are today to prosecute suspects and jail culprits, who will enforce a new law prescribing death penalty? Does the senator know that election rigging is also corruption that deserves death?
While Marcel Okpara postulated “May God bless Senator Adeyemi. If Nigeria must march forward and become economically strong, then corruption must be dealt a heavy blow. And one strong way of discouraging corruption in public offices is to make capital punishment the punishment for offenders”.
Enyimba (NaijaPolitics) wrote “"Since death penalty does not deter Nigerians from committing crimes, I suggest longer sentence with hard labor. Make them feel the pains their crimes are causing Nigerians. Quick kill will not help."
Said a Dr Godwin of NIDOA “It will depend on how they define corruption and how it is certified by the law. They should also include rigging elections or election malpractice like dumping voting cards, disrupting voting boots, bribing election officials, vote selling, vote buying, paying election thugs, delaying election materials and failure to send voting cards as expected by the law, death or threats to political opponents, harassment and physical threats to opponents or their assistants. The worst corruption in Nigeria is that relating to elections and office ascendancy. So the senators should first atone or confess their past involvement in election frauds, rigging and vote buying”.
Advocates of capital punishment for corruption say that the death penalty is an effective means of state-driven innovation, especially against entrenched or widespread defective social structures. Its use against corruption is not in itself new, it is still applied for that reason in China. The recent expenses scandal in the United Kingdom is a reminder, that corrupt politicians are not found only in developing countries. Corruption, self-enrichment, and nepotism are part of the political culture in western democracies - so much so, that they form a major argument against democracy itself.
Furthermore, they say, the introduction of the death penalty for corruption and nepotism, is the only guaranteed effective way, to end the culture of corruption among western politicians. Widespread application of the death penalty, with low thresholds, would ultimately disable the political parties, and end recruitment to the political class. In that way, it would remove two primary sources of corruption.
Of course some people have moral objections to the death penalty. However, they are not overriding: the state is not obliged to accept the views of these people, as a universal moral norm. They are a private moral preference, at most. It is true that we recognise that the death penalty effectively deters corruption, however distaste for a society with frequent executions, is probably the main factor in rejecting the death penalty for non-violent crimes.
Corruption in China is a crime that draws capital punishment. Vietnam is another country that prescribes death for official corruption. According to Chinese Criminal Law, the death penalty applies only to those criminals committing extremely serious crimes while those who are not subject to immediate execution may be sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve. Specifically, embezzlement conducted with more than 100,000 yuan (US$ 12,353) is subject to no less than 10 years in prison or life imprisonment with property confiscated while those with particularly serious circumstances can be executed. The circumstances of the crimes are taken into account. In addition, capital punishment must also undergo further judicial review after first and second instance trial procedures to guarantee accurate applications of death penalties.
In the case of China, as of 2005, more than 4,000 officials fled the country, taking with them nearly US$50 billion. Since China does not have extradition agreements with most of the countries harbouring the fugitives, they cannot be always brought back to face Chinese justice. Also, many of these countries do not hand down the death penalty for corruption. So extraditing the fugitives would be tantamount to sending them to death row.
To facilitate the extradition of such criminals, (and criminals indeed are Nigerian corrupt politicians and public officials, make no mistake about that) China's legal experts have suggested abolishing the death penalty for corruption.
It's true that about half the world has abolished capital punishment altogether and the other half that still has it hands it down only for heinous crimes like murder.
So we can see that having the death penalty in place for corruption will strain our relationship with countries where these criminals normally carry their loot. However, I will admit that I have never heard of any Nigerian corrupt official being extradited from the UK, the US or any other country in the last 50 years, despite the agreements we have with such countries. The problem is that no Nigerian Government had ever asked for this important bi-lateral cooperation to be applied. And the simple reason is that no Nigerian administration, military or democratic, had ever been sincere about fighting corruption; in fact the Administration itself, in most cases, is corrupt. And it is in their interest not to seek the extradition of such criminals.
Corruption, rampant and prevalent as it is, poses a serious threat to Nigeria’s political stability and sustainable development. Hence, it warrants utmost care and sincerity in its handling, especially at a time when the government is seeking to be in good relationship with the larger world, and also with their “re-branding” efforts to position Nigeria right.
Having said these, this current Government and the ruling party, PDP, as we currently have both, are not even in the position or have the vision, capability, political and moral will to even advocate and implement a death sentence for corruption. You must be kidding me.
Again, capital punishment doesn't seem to deter "capital crimes." I remember in the early 70s when armed robbers used to be executed publicly in our cities. Have the incidents of armed robbery subsided now in the 2000s? In fact it has escalated. This of course is attributable to several social factors such as poverty, corruption itself - free-for-all looting of the treasury by the very people entrusted to look after it, government indiscipline and lack of focus and vision, unemployment, etc, brought on and exacerbated by decay in the moral and religious values of the society as a whole.
My take on this is that Nigeria, both the government and the governed have not been sincere and truthful about fighting corruption. The political will has never been there; even as we gave credit to Obasanjo for taking the first ever step to fight corruption by creating the tools: EFCC and the ICPC. The absence of this political will therefore negate the call for the death penalty to fight our endemic corruption problem.
On the other hand, we must remember how Buhari/Idiagbo sacred Nigerians shitless when they executed three drug-smugglers. Yes, Buhari scared the living daylights out of us, and the death penalty as a deterrent for drug smuggling seemed to work until he was overthrown by the so-called Evil Genius took over and practically legalise drug smuggling.
There are other social, moral and economic issues which must be addressed first before we even talk of prescribing death (much as I would love a severe punishment for these criminals); the government and the ruling party must be seen to be more sincere in fighting corruption by continuously and vigorously exposing and prosecuting criminals, and not shielding them (like the case of Ibori and the complicity of the Attorney General in the legal standstill we have today) the judiciary must be cleaned up; the Nigeria Bar Association must deal with its errant members who are stifling the corruption fight in courts, laughing all the way to the courts by employing delaying tactics; the government must also pro-actively tackle poverty, unemployment and illiteracy, etc.
Also, government or public service must not be seen as a quick route to making money, hence this “do-or-die” politics. The salaries and other remunerations of out political office holders must be pruned in such a way that only those who really want to serve will be the ones going for these positions, and when they get there, do not have easy or any access to stealing money.
Please make no mistake understanding my viewpoints. At this juncture, and with my, and most Nigerians of goodwill’s frustration, there is nothing more I would like to see than seeing certain corrupt public officials and politicians lined up against a wall and shot. I feel they would deserve it, because much as we say that no stolen money or property is worth a life, if we carefully consider the effect of their corrupt practices on our lives, wellbeing and survival, then these people have also committed genocide, directly or indirectly – millions of Nigerian people do die as a result of their misdemeanour.
However, methinks the whole idea of death penalty for corruption is fraught with danger, the danger being the application of this very severe penalty with consideration of the systemic, intrinsic corruption we have itself – the corrupt lawmakers who are going to make the law; the enforcement agencies who will investigate the crime, the corrupt judiciary who will try the corrupt criminal; the corrupt and opportunistic lawyers who will defend or prosecute the case, and, you might not believe it, the corrupt society itself.
Yes, we, the public. We cannot exonerate anybody. We are all complicit in the making and spread of the corruption problems of Nigeria. There must be a bribe giver to have a bribe taker. Also, it stands to reason that you cannot be a part of the problem and at the same time be part of the solution.
Akintokunbo Adejumo is the Global Coordinator of CHAMPIONS FOR NIGERIA (www.championsfornigeria.org), an organisation devoted to celebrating genuine progress, excellence, commitment, selfless and unalloyed service to Nigeria and the people of Nigeria.
Thursday, 12 November 2009
Kidnapping As A Business
For the past half-century years of my life, I never knew I was wasting my time in this world, or maybe as a Nigerian. My parents spent time, energy money etc on me to have a very good education so that I may get a very good job and be useful to my family, my community, my people and my country.
Fifty three years later, I have been in different jobs, made very little money and still trying to find the right job that will adequately feed my family. Now, at this stage, I should not even start thinking of helping my people and country, because I really should be thinking of my own, and my family’s survival.
I did not realise it, but I was banging my head against brick walls. After 1999, on the advent of the so-called “democratic dispensation” in Nigeria, I realised I was in the wrong racket, the wrong business, the wrong career move, perhaps. I had read and read till I could read no more. I had worked and worked, mostly for the white man in the white man’s countries that I could work no more. I just wake up reluctantly these days and trudge off to a dead-end job, I no longer like.
I used to like my job or career. I am considered a professional, in fact, in the UK, I am something of an expert in my chosen profession (at least, that is what employers and head-hunters say to me). I am in the dark here, somebody open the windows for me!!
Then I realised I could have been very good in other professions which might definitely raise the eyebrows, but knowing how well these businesses are booming and in fact for some of the participants, “crime does pay”, I could really do well.
I have several choices: I could be a drug-smuggler; I could be a political thug or I could be a politician or finally, I could choose to be a kidnapper. I will not even consider armed robbery – too dangerous for my health.
The problem with all these is that they carry certain risks, but of course, as we know, the one with the least hazard is that of a Politician. I stand to make (steal) a lot of money, and with a 99% chance of getting away with it. Politics is the only thriving industry in our comatose economy. That is why people do or die to get in there. They know once they get there they can never go wrong. It has its own hazards too, such as political assassinations, oath takings and juju, but relatively, it is safe as houses.
A drug smuggler? Not in the days of Buhari/Idiagbon, but could have made it during the IBB days when the rules were very much relaxed, but then the thought of swallowing numerous packets of cocaine scares me stiff and silly.
Political thug? The work is dangerous, but the rewards enormous if you are good at it. But, I don’t think I will ever be good at killing people with guns or machetes. It is against my nature. I also can’t take in marijuana and other drugs to make me feel high whilst running around the town killing on behalf of a politician.
Kidnapping is certainly a crime, but in our country, who cares? Corruption is a crime too, at least in most countries of the world, except our dear own country, where it is even seen as a necessity or a certain way of life, a political requisite, or business perquisite. In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against the person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority. This may be done for ransom or in furtherance of another crime.
Kidnapping is a common law offence requiring:
1. that one person takes and carries a minor away;
2. by force or fraud;
3. without the consent of the person taken; and
4. without lawful excuse.
It would be difficult to kidnap without also committing false imprisonment, which is the common-law offence of intentionally or recklessly detaining the victim without lawful authority. The use of force to take and detain will also be regarded as an assault, and other, related offences may also be committed before, during, or after the detention.
In the terminology of the common law in many jurisdictions (according to Black's Law Dictionary), the crime of kidnapping is labelled abduction when the victim is a woman.
I think for me, kidnapping is the safest option, if I want to go criminal and make money. It is certainly lucrative, especially in the South-South and South –East of the country, where the crime was initially introduced by the Niger Delta militants (and I do support them in view of the decades of injustice in that part of Nigeria; they are rightly aggrieved), until one thing led to the other, and kidnapping got out of hand – everybody that has a gun and smoked a few weeds of marijuana can kidnap, and also politicians were using it as a tool against opponents.
As a humane person, I hate to say this, but when I hear that this politician’s mother or father has been kidnapped, or a Niger Delta Chief’s son has been kidnapped, I tend to think “It serves him right”. I am even happy that kidnapping has now moved out of the Niger Delta area and now reached as far north as Kaduna and Maiduguri, whilst not leaving Lagos out. “Them what has gets”.
With ransom money in the regions of hundreds of millions, to be shared by the kidnapper, who says it is not a lucrative business. And how many of them have you heard or read have been arrested by our Nigeria Police? See? It is a safe crime. Will Soludo’s father’s kidnappers ever be arrested? I doubt even if the Nigeria Police Force is conducting an investigation into it – there are too many kidnapping cases to be investigated.
And even as I write, I read in the papers of at least three new kidnappings: Federal deputy director, driver kidnapped in Edo - No trace of kidnapped Niger perm sec (Nigerian Tribune, Wednesday 11/11/09); A Deputy Director in the Federal Department of Livestock and Pest Control Services, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources, Alhaji Abubakar, on his way to represent Health Minister, Babatunde Osotimehin, had been kidnapped by gunmen (THISDAY, 11/1/09); There is rise in kidnapping in the South-East after Nollywood star actor and comedian, Nkem Owoh was kidnapped.(Vanguard, 11/11/09); Cross River State has witnessed its first kidnap incident, as kidnappers stormed Igoli in Ogoja Local Government Area of the state and abducted Mrs. Victoria Idiege, one of the wives of a member of the state House of Assembly, Honourable Signor Idiege.(Nigerian Tribune, 12/11/09)
Who says kidnapping is not lucrative and safe in Nigeria? Anybody can be kidnapped, and anybody can kidnap. No special skills or experience needed, however, being a former Niger Delta militant will improve your chances.
On the return of Soludo’s father, after ransome of between N200 and N500 million (who really knows?) has been paid, The Guardian’s Reuben Abati had this to say: “His kidnappers dropped him off around 11 pm on Wednesday. The Soludos will not tell whether any ransom was paid or not. They have been busy however jubilating and thanking God. We always have a way of dragging God into every man-made problem in this country! The celebration in the home of the Soludos is so infectious that even the police have joined the alleluia chorus. Except that, that is not the job of the police.
We expect the police not to close the Simeon Soludo file. He may have survived the ordeal but the crime should be addressed. The Police must seek out Pa Soludo's kidnappers and ensure that the law takes its course. Otherwise, these and other kidnappers will be further emboldened to wreak greater havoc in the future. The Soludo brothers have now arranged very heavy security around their father, nobody is allowed to go near him or talk to him about his ordeal. It will be most unfair to turn the old man into a prisoner in his own house just because he has a son who wants to be Governor. He should be allowed to co-operate with the Police in all ways possible. He has a story to tell and it should be told”.
There certainly is more than meets the eye in this Soludo kidnapping saga. The Police said five suspects have been caught; the Soludo family said no ransom was paid (what is the point in the kidnapping then?) The Soludo father was dumped at Uga, a neighbouring area to his Isuofia community in Aguata Local council and later picked up by a police team, (How very convenient and lucky?)
Knowing what I know of many such incidents in Nigeria, was the whole thing a hoax to seek public sympathy for Soludo’s gubernatorial ambition in Anambra State? Or was the kidnapping used to raise money for his election campaign?
I have to go into this kidnapping business, believe me.
I am being cynical here. At the height of the Obasanjo administration, kidnapping was at its best and very vicious. Foreign oil workers were the initial targets by the Niger Delta militants. This later turned into a business. It is well known that after a while, some foreign oil workers from certain countries were actually initiating and orchestrating their own kidnap, in collaboration with the kidnappers. They therefore bilk their own employers and share the ransom with the kidnapper.
Then the Niger Delta politicians (of the Obasanjo era) waded in. Now I have to be careful here. These politicians, including the now ex-governors, were using the militants for their political ends, and after they get want they wanted, they tended to abandon the militants. The militants, not having any source of income, then turned to kidnapping. Initially, they would kidnap either the politicians or the politicians relatives, and demand a ransom, the ransom in this case, usually what the politician initially promised to pay for their services to help him get into power.
It was so bad, that the politicians in the South-South started relocating their families abroad and to other areas in Nigeria.
However the best scenario was that when the kidnapping of foregners was becoming really embarrassing to Obasanjo, he begged the Niger Delta Governors to do something. Here comes a big opportunity to be heroic. Some of these Governors became the Chief Negotiator of the Federal Government of Nigeria to the Niger Delta Militants, but as usual, they did not do it for nothing. They have to line their own pocket, because, as they saw it, it was a risky job. They themselves might get kidnapped.
So what happened? Let’s say the kidnappers demand $500,000. The Chief Negotiator, that is, the State Governor, will collect this money from the Oil Company, but share it with the militant, with him taking the larger share, the kidnappers being simple minded people. Also the money that the Federal Government is sending to keep the militants and kidnappers quiet ends up in the pocket of the Governor.
Very good business for the now-billionaire Niger Delta ex-Governors; and you wonder where they got all that money from. If they tell you they did not steal from their State’s treasury, maybe they are right. There was a more lucrative way of making money, and the oil companies were paying in dollars, not naira.
This article is intended for you to make your own conclusions, or to stimulate your imagination or your conscience.
I rest my pen
Let the truth be told always.
Fifty three years later, I have been in different jobs, made very little money and still trying to find the right job that will adequately feed my family. Now, at this stage, I should not even start thinking of helping my people and country, because I really should be thinking of my own, and my family’s survival.
I did not realise it, but I was banging my head against brick walls. After 1999, on the advent of the so-called “democratic dispensation” in Nigeria, I realised I was in the wrong racket, the wrong business, the wrong career move, perhaps. I had read and read till I could read no more. I had worked and worked, mostly for the white man in the white man’s countries that I could work no more. I just wake up reluctantly these days and trudge off to a dead-end job, I no longer like.
I used to like my job or career. I am considered a professional, in fact, in the UK, I am something of an expert in my chosen profession (at least, that is what employers and head-hunters say to me). I am in the dark here, somebody open the windows for me!!
Then I realised I could have been very good in other professions which might definitely raise the eyebrows, but knowing how well these businesses are booming and in fact for some of the participants, “crime does pay”, I could really do well.
I have several choices: I could be a drug-smuggler; I could be a political thug or I could be a politician or finally, I could choose to be a kidnapper. I will not even consider armed robbery – too dangerous for my health.
The problem with all these is that they carry certain risks, but of course, as we know, the one with the least hazard is that of a Politician. I stand to make (steal) a lot of money, and with a 99% chance of getting away with it. Politics is the only thriving industry in our comatose economy. That is why people do or die to get in there. They know once they get there they can never go wrong. It has its own hazards too, such as political assassinations, oath takings and juju, but relatively, it is safe as houses.
A drug smuggler? Not in the days of Buhari/Idiagbon, but could have made it during the IBB days when the rules were very much relaxed, but then the thought of swallowing numerous packets of cocaine scares me stiff and silly.
Political thug? The work is dangerous, but the rewards enormous if you are good at it. But, I don’t think I will ever be good at killing people with guns or machetes. It is against my nature. I also can’t take in marijuana and other drugs to make me feel high whilst running around the town killing on behalf of a politician.
Kidnapping is certainly a crime, but in our country, who cares? Corruption is a crime too, at least in most countries of the world, except our dear own country, where it is even seen as a necessity or a certain way of life, a political requisite, or business perquisite. In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against the person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority. This may be done for ransom or in furtherance of another crime.
Kidnapping is a common law offence requiring:
1. that one person takes and carries a minor away;
2. by force or fraud;
3. without the consent of the person taken; and
4. without lawful excuse.
It would be difficult to kidnap without also committing false imprisonment, which is the common-law offence of intentionally or recklessly detaining the victim without lawful authority. The use of force to take and detain will also be regarded as an assault, and other, related offences may also be committed before, during, or after the detention.
In the terminology of the common law in many jurisdictions (according to Black's Law Dictionary), the crime of kidnapping is labelled abduction when the victim is a woman.
I think for me, kidnapping is the safest option, if I want to go criminal and make money. It is certainly lucrative, especially in the South-South and South –East of the country, where the crime was initially introduced by the Niger Delta militants (and I do support them in view of the decades of injustice in that part of Nigeria; they are rightly aggrieved), until one thing led to the other, and kidnapping got out of hand – everybody that has a gun and smoked a few weeds of marijuana can kidnap, and also politicians were using it as a tool against opponents.
As a humane person, I hate to say this, but when I hear that this politician’s mother or father has been kidnapped, or a Niger Delta Chief’s son has been kidnapped, I tend to think “It serves him right”. I am even happy that kidnapping has now moved out of the Niger Delta area and now reached as far north as Kaduna and Maiduguri, whilst not leaving Lagos out. “Them what has gets”.
With ransom money in the regions of hundreds of millions, to be shared by the kidnapper, who says it is not a lucrative business. And how many of them have you heard or read have been arrested by our Nigeria Police? See? It is a safe crime. Will Soludo’s father’s kidnappers ever be arrested? I doubt even if the Nigeria Police Force is conducting an investigation into it – there are too many kidnapping cases to be investigated.
And even as I write, I read in the papers of at least three new kidnappings: Federal deputy director, driver kidnapped in Edo - No trace of kidnapped Niger perm sec (Nigerian Tribune, Wednesday 11/11/09); A Deputy Director in the Federal Department of Livestock and Pest Control Services, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources, Alhaji Abubakar, on his way to represent Health Minister, Babatunde Osotimehin, had been kidnapped by gunmen (THISDAY, 11/1/09); There is rise in kidnapping in the South-East after Nollywood star actor and comedian, Nkem Owoh was kidnapped.(Vanguard, 11/11/09); Cross River State has witnessed its first kidnap incident, as kidnappers stormed Igoli in Ogoja Local Government Area of the state and abducted Mrs. Victoria Idiege, one of the wives of a member of the state House of Assembly, Honourable Signor Idiege.(Nigerian Tribune, 12/11/09)
Who says kidnapping is not lucrative and safe in Nigeria? Anybody can be kidnapped, and anybody can kidnap. No special skills or experience needed, however, being a former Niger Delta militant will improve your chances.
On the return of Soludo’s father, after ransome of between N200 and N500 million (who really knows?) has been paid, The Guardian’s Reuben Abati had this to say: “His kidnappers dropped him off around 11 pm on Wednesday. The Soludos will not tell whether any ransom was paid or not. They have been busy however jubilating and thanking God. We always have a way of dragging God into every man-made problem in this country! The celebration in the home of the Soludos is so infectious that even the police have joined the alleluia chorus. Except that, that is not the job of the police.
We expect the police not to close the Simeon Soludo file. He may have survived the ordeal but the crime should be addressed. The Police must seek out Pa Soludo's kidnappers and ensure that the law takes its course. Otherwise, these and other kidnappers will be further emboldened to wreak greater havoc in the future. The Soludo brothers have now arranged very heavy security around their father, nobody is allowed to go near him or talk to him about his ordeal. It will be most unfair to turn the old man into a prisoner in his own house just because he has a son who wants to be Governor. He should be allowed to co-operate with the Police in all ways possible. He has a story to tell and it should be told”.
There certainly is more than meets the eye in this Soludo kidnapping saga. The Police said five suspects have been caught; the Soludo family said no ransom was paid (what is the point in the kidnapping then?) The Soludo father was dumped at Uga, a neighbouring area to his Isuofia community in Aguata Local council and later picked up by a police team, (How very convenient and lucky?)
Knowing what I know of many such incidents in Nigeria, was the whole thing a hoax to seek public sympathy for Soludo’s gubernatorial ambition in Anambra State? Or was the kidnapping used to raise money for his election campaign?
I have to go into this kidnapping business, believe me.
I am being cynical here. At the height of the Obasanjo administration, kidnapping was at its best and very vicious. Foreign oil workers were the initial targets by the Niger Delta militants. This later turned into a business. It is well known that after a while, some foreign oil workers from certain countries were actually initiating and orchestrating their own kidnap, in collaboration with the kidnappers. They therefore bilk their own employers and share the ransom with the kidnapper.
Then the Niger Delta politicians (of the Obasanjo era) waded in. Now I have to be careful here. These politicians, including the now ex-governors, were using the militants for their political ends, and after they get want they wanted, they tended to abandon the militants. The militants, not having any source of income, then turned to kidnapping. Initially, they would kidnap either the politicians or the politicians relatives, and demand a ransom, the ransom in this case, usually what the politician initially promised to pay for their services to help him get into power.
It was so bad, that the politicians in the South-South started relocating their families abroad and to other areas in Nigeria.
However the best scenario was that when the kidnapping of foregners was becoming really embarrassing to Obasanjo, he begged the Niger Delta Governors to do something. Here comes a big opportunity to be heroic. Some of these Governors became the Chief Negotiator of the Federal Government of Nigeria to the Niger Delta Militants, but as usual, they did not do it for nothing. They have to line their own pocket, because, as they saw it, it was a risky job. They themselves might get kidnapped.
So what happened? Let’s say the kidnappers demand $500,000. The Chief Negotiator, that is, the State Governor, will collect this money from the Oil Company, but share it with the militant, with him taking the larger share, the kidnappers being simple minded people. Also the money that the Federal Government is sending to keep the militants and kidnappers quiet ends up in the pocket of the Governor.
Very good business for the now-billionaire Niger Delta ex-Governors; and you wonder where they got all that money from. If they tell you they did not steal from their State’s treasury, maybe they are right. There was a more lucrative way of making money, and the oil companies were paying in dollars, not naira.
This article is intended for you to make your own conclusions, or to stimulate your imagination or your conscience.
I rest my pen
Let the truth be told always.
Sunday, 8 November 2009
Speed Limits.
Ever since I wrote my article on: Alcohol And Road Accidents In Nigeria, published on my blog (http://briefsfromakuta.blogspot.com) and other national and international media outlets, many road accidents have occurred. Thisday newspaper of 10th October 2009 online version, reported that about 70 people were killed in a multiple road accident that occurred at Umunya junction in Oyi local government area of Anambra State . The bigger picture came when Thisday newspaper of 24th October 2009 online version, reported the total number of road accidents in Nigeria as obtained from the Federal Road Safety Commission (F.R.S.C.).
Quoting Thisday newspaper (online version) of 24th October 2009, “The number of reported cases of road accidents on the country's highways has reached 8,553 between January and first week of October. According to a road traffic situation update obtained by THISDAY from the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) in Abuja, about 4,120 persons lost their lives while 20,975 other were seriously injured in the fatal accidents that involved 11,031 vehicles across the nations”. By any standard or measurements, these figures are too high. I am not sure that our country can sustain this number of deaths occasioned by road accidents. Therefore, this is a drastic situation that needs drastic action. Nigerians, the Federal Road Safety Commission, the Nigerian Police, private and commercial transport companies, and all road users have a role to play to minimize road accidents. But the Federal Road Safety Commission has more roles to play.
As a suggestion and armed with figures above on death caused by road accidents, the Federal Road Safety Commission should push for legislation that will set up approved speed limits in urban roads, rural road, and high ways/express ways. The same legislation should outline stiff penalties on offenders and authorize the Federal Road Safety Commission to use speed cameras and other means to catch offenders. Then the next stage should be enforcement. As a starting point, the Federal Road Safety Commission should introduce the use of mobile speed cameras.
There are many types of mobile speed cameras that could be fixed on the road safety vehicles. The Federal Road Safety Commission should combine this process with massive awareness campaign on the introduction of these devices. They can mount these cameras on both unmarked vehicles and marked vehicles. This is a highly effective method to control speeding by motorists. Speed camera was originally invented by Maurice Gatsonides in the 1950,s as a technology for automatic speed measurement of vehicles. This was hijacked for speed control purposes by the authorities in Netherlands .
The mobile speed cameras are portable, such that it could be moved from one point to another. It can be hidden behind a parked vehicle or inside a vehicle. Other types of mobile speed cameras can also be carried by hand. All that the road safety officers need to do is to mount this camera and station their officers few meters away to stop any one caught over speeding. This is not rocket science. It is a very simple technology used by all developed and developing countries. Nigerians should ask for these devices to enforce speed limits. Accidents can kill and devastate people. I understand that speeding alone is not the only cause of road accidents in Nigeria . But if we can enforce speed limits and apply the recommendations on my article on; Alcohol And Road Accidents In Nigeria then we might see some reductions on road mishaps.
It is very much in the interest of Nigeria and Nigerians that speeding is controlled on all roads. The whole idea will be to reduce to the lowest minimum, the rates of road accidents. Private and commercial transporters should enforce speed limits. I remember traveling on ABC Transport and on stopping at Benin , we were giving questionnaires to answer if the driver was speeding and how he drove. This practice should be sustained. Let other transporters device a means of enforcing speed limits on their drivers. Firstly, let passengers know that there is a speed limit applicable. This might help reduce pressure from passengers asking drivers to go faster.
Next advice to the Federal Road Safety Commission should be to ask all driving instructors in Nigeria to register with them. Refresher courses and leaflets should be handed to them. Fitness test should be carried out on them. The Federal Road Safety Commission should produce an updated driving code which every driving instructor should buy. All vehicles for driving schools should be examined and certified by road safety officials. All driving schools should be registered and recognized by the road safety commission. All new drivers should undergo health checks, theory test, and practical test before being allowed to drive. As a way to avoid manipulation, I suggest that the theory test should be online so that the road safety officials will not have a control over it. The practical test should be examined by road safety officials to be randomly selected through balloting. A candidate should be expected to pass all three tests (health checks, theory and practical tests). All parts of the driving test should carry equal marks.
I know that the Federal Road Safety Commission has enough personnel to undertake the above tasks. Otherwise they can call for volunteers whom they should be able to give references as having acquired a working experience from them. Alternatively, the road safety commission can contract out some of these responsibilities to reputable Nigerian companies. I suggest a change of our driving license to a bio-metric system, whereby people should give their finger prints and complete details. The same methods that, the immigration is using to issue the new international passport. The Federal Road Safety Commission, the Nigerian Police, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and other law enforcement agencies can share date base together.
The idea of bio-metric driving license is to avoid obtaining driving licenses by proxy. It will make it easier to track road traffic offenders. It will also help to fight other types of crime. This takes me to another article that I wrote; Reforming Police and Policing Reforms, in that article, I argued for the police to start taking finger prints of suspects. I wish to quote a part of the article here; “DNA fingerprinting will be a valuable tool in the fight against crimes in Nigeria . It will help in investigating cases. Similar technology has been deployed before by the Nigerian government during the registration of ID card scheme. The current e-passport system in Nigeria takes our finger prints. So what the government needs to do is to transfer the national database to the police or the police can share this data base with all relevant government departments. So as soon as a suspect is caught, the DNA fingerprinting should be taken and stored or checked with the ones already in the system”.
Let’s remember that DNA samples are very useful to identify the culprits and the guilty. It also helps to exonerate the innocent. The road safety commission should not forget to come up with vehicle carbon emission level in Nigeria . They (FRSC) should turn the above information with others into decisions. With will, determination, and vision, the road safety commission can accomplish this project. We should remember that no society or country will develop without making efforts. If we don’t do anything, we have to accept what happens. But if we act, we have a chance to improve things.
Finally, I wish to appeal to Nigerians to participate and join the fight against global warming. Turn off your electrical appliances/lights when not in use. Plant a tree or sponsor one to plant on your behalf. Government and companies should send less paper work and do more email, telephone, and sms. May God bless Nigeria .
Chinedu Vincent Akuta
An activist and leader of “Support Option A4 Group” Leicester-UK
akutachinedu@yahoo.com
http://briefsfromakuta.blogspot.com/
Quoting Thisday newspaper (online version) of 24th October 2009, “The number of reported cases of road accidents on the country's highways has reached 8,553 between January and first week of October. According to a road traffic situation update obtained by THISDAY from the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) in Abuja, about 4,120 persons lost their lives while 20,975 other were seriously injured in the fatal accidents that involved 11,031 vehicles across the nations”. By any standard or measurements, these figures are too high. I am not sure that our country can sustain this number of deaths occasioned by road accidents. Therefore, this is a drastic situation that needs drastic action. Nigerians, the Federal Road Safety Commission, the Nigerian Police, private and commercial transport companies, and all road users have a role to play to minimize road accidents. But the Federal Road Safety Commission has more roles to play.
As a suggestion and armed with figures above on death caused by road accidents, the Federal Road Safety Commission should push for legislation that will set up approved speed limits in urban roads, rural road, and high ways/express ways. The same legislation should outline stiff penalties on offenders and authorize the Federal Road Safety Commission to use speed cameras and other means to catch offenders. Then the next stage should be enforcement. As a starting point, the Federal Road Safety Commission should introduce the use of mobile speed cameras.
There are many types of mobile speed cameras that could be fixed on the road safety vehicles. The Federal Road Safety Commission should combine this process with massive awareness campaign on the introduction of these devices. They can mount these cameras on both unmarked vehicles and marked vehicles. This is a highly effective method to control speeding by motorists. Speed camera was originally invented by Maurice Gatsonides in the 1950,s as a technology for automatic speed measurement of vehicles. This was hijacked for speed control purposes by the authorities in Netherlands .
The mobile speed cameras are portable, such that it could be moved from one point to another. It can be hidden behind a parked vehicle or inside a vehicle. Other types of mobile speed cameras can also be carried by hand. All that the road safety officers need to do is to mount this camera and station their officers few meters away to stop any one caught over speeding. This is not rocket science. It is a very simple technology used by all developed and developing countries. Nigerians should ask for these devices to enforce speed limits. Accidents can kill and devastate people. I understand that speeding alone is not the only cause of road accidents in Nigeria . But if we can enforce speed limits and apply the recommendations on my article on; Alcohol And Road Accidents In Nigeria then we might see some reductions on road mishaps.
It is very much in the interest of Nigeria and Nigerians that speeding is controlled on all roads. The whole idea will be to reduce to the lowest minimum, the rates of road accidents. Private and commercial transporters should enforce speed limits. I remember traveling on ABC Transport and on stopping at Benin , we were giving questionnaires to answer if the driver was speeding and how he drove. This practice should be sustained. Let other transporters device a means of enforcing speed limits on their drivers. Firstly, let passengers know that there is a speed limit applicable. This might help reduce pressure from passengers asking drivers to go faster.
Next advice to the Federal Road Safety Commission should be to ask all driving instructors in Nigeria to register with them. Refresher courses and leaflets should be handed to them. Fitness test should be carried out on them. The Federal Road Safety Commission should produce an updated driving code which every driving instructor should buy. All vehicles for driving schools should be examined and certified by road safety officials. All driving schools should be registered and recognized by the road safety commission. All new drivers should undergo health checks, theory test, and practical test before being allowed to drive. As a way to avoid manipulation, I suggest that the theory test should be online so that the road safety officials will not have a control over it. The practical test should be examined by road safety officials to be randomly selected through balloting. A candidate should be expected to pass all three tests (health checks, theory and practical tests). All parts of the driving test should carry equal marks.
I know that the Federal Road Safety Commission has enough personnel to undertake the above tasks. Otherwise they can call for volunteers whom they should be able to give references as having acquired a working experience from them. Alternatively, the road safety commission can contract out some of these responsibilities to reputable Nigerian companies. I suggest a change of our driving license to a bio-metric system, whereby people should give their finger prints and complete details. The same methods that, the immigration is using to issue the new international passport. The Federal Road Safety Commission, the Nigerian Police, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and other law enforcement agencies can share date base together.
The idea of bio-metric driving license is to avoid obtaining driving licenses by proxy. It will make it easier to track road traffic offenders. It will also help to fight other types of crime. This takes me to another article that I wrote; Reforming Police and Policing Reforms, in that article, I argued for the police to start taking finger prints of suspects. I wish to quote a part of the article here; “DNA fingerprinting will be a valuable tool in the fight against crimes in Nigeria . It will help in investigating cases. Similar technology has been deployed before by the Nigerian government during the registration of ID card scheme. The current e-passport system in Nigeria takes our finger prints. So what the government needs to do is to transfer the national database to the police or the police can share this data base with all relevant government departments. So as soon as a suspect is caught, the DNA fingerprinting should be taken and stored or checked with the ones already in the system”.
Let’s remember that DNA samples are very useful to identify the culprits and the guilty. It also helps to exonerate the innocent. The road safety commission should not forget to come up with vehicle carbon emission level in Nigeria . They (FRSC) should turn the above information with others into decisions. With will, determination, and vision, the road safety commission can accomplish this project. We should remember that no society or country will develop without making efforts. If we don’t do anything, we have to accept what happens. But if we act, we have a chance to improve things.
Finally, I wish to appeal to Nigerians to participate and join the fight against global warming. Turn off your electrical appliances/lights when not in use. Plant a tree or sponsor one to plant on your behalf. Government and companies should send less paper work and do more email, telephone, and sms. May God bless Nigeria .
Chinedu Vincent Akuta
An activist and leader of “Support Option A4 Group” Leicester-UK
akutachinedu@yahoo.com
http://briefsfromakuta.blogspot.com/
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