President of the National Association of Nigerian Footballers (NANF) Harrison Jalla has explained how the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) organised the use of men of the Nigeria Police to invade his Lagos office to abduct and detain him using a complainant he had never met to frame up allegations against him.
Speaking in a telephone interview fromhis house yesterday, Jalla who had been the arrowhead of opposition to the board of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) said, “I was in my office when the Policemen arrived. I was abducted and denied any means of communication, taken to away and detained.”
When my arrest was effected, the complainant who I had never had anything to do with neither have I ever met him pulled a call through to Ademola Olajire, the NFF’s Chief Media Officer, detailing how I was arrested. That was the point I realised it was the NFF that organised the latest arrest and charges.
I was detained by the police and denied access to my lawyers or relations. I was however released on Saturday night. The arrest and detention has shown how much new level of desperation the NFF people are bringing into this matter. This is the third time they are using the Police as an instrument of oppression wrongly and unjustly.
Asked what will be his latest reaction to this, he said, “I will respond accordingly in due course. One thing is certain, I an not going to be daunted by all these. You know what? The entire arrest and detention was not incidented by the police meaning it was likely an illegal operation. You will get further details in days”, he promised.
Earlier in the interview, he revealed that, “they had planned to use hitmen to eliminate 10 of us. I am one of the 10. It was that I was battling with that Friday when my office was invaded. The list include some prominent persons who are regarded as disturbing their peace. My sources had told me the list of the people on the elimination scheme. I won’t release the list now. I, however, promise to make the list available to you in a matter of one or two days.”
Information available to 247ureports.com indicate that the State government of Kaduna may be entangled in a knotted tussle with the striking workers/employees of the State owned tertiary institutions over a previously agreed salary scale. The state university workers had gone on a strike May 12, 2012 following the failure of the Kaduna State government to honor a previously agreed salary scale.
The two major institution that announced their strike were Sate College of Education and the State Polytechnic. The strike was said to come days before the start of final exams.
With the announcement of the strike, the Kaduna State government were reported to resume intense meetings with the leaders and representatives of the striking workers. The meeting began at minutes after 1pm and lasted till minutes past 9pm without producing a resolution between the two parties to end the strike. Sources involved in the negotiations tell our correspondent that the negotiations have not gone well between the two parties. The source indicates that the Kaduna State government had given an ultimatum to the striking workers to return to work or face immediate sack similar to the actions of the Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola in sacking the 788 striking medical doctors.
To which, the striking workers rebuffed the government’s threat – telling the government that they were willing to face the threat of sack – rather than allow the Kaduna State government renege on agreed salary scale for the workers of state owned tertiary institutions.
Nonetheless, the State government maintains that the state is cash strapped and will not be able to pay the new salary scale demanded by the striking workers. One of the mouth pieces of the Kaduna State government, Reuben Buhari in confirming to 247ureports.com that the negotiations had reached a partial deadlock indicated that the State government remains determined to resolve the issue soon. He admitted to the complexity of the issues involved.
Meanwhile, the Kaduna State government maybe faced with another labor related tussle in June 2012 – as the labor unions arrive in Kaduna State to protest the non-payment of the N18,000 minimum wage. It is expected that the streets may witness another round of organized protests.
[Stay Tuned for “Why The Kaduna Government Cannot Pay Its Workers“]
By Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde
A fight between the dog and the baboon must be one of those very rare encounters in the Animal Kingdom. Animals fight over territory, food, mates, and in defence of their lives, or of the young. It is very hard to foresee the two animals fighting over any of the above because on most of items, the paths of the two animals hardly cross.
In Africa and particularly in Hausaland where this near impossible idea was contrived as a proverb, such a fight can only happen under the influence of man when in hunting he sets the dog to catch the baboon or its baby. In that case, that fight would surely be one to witness.
The dog uses its power of speed and strong canine teeth, the baboon his powerful shoulders, limbs, claws, hands, and under extreme conditions, his teeth. And this condition is extreme – a fight for his life or that of his baby. So we better assume that the baboon will deploy his entire arsenal.
The camera of kare jini biri jini Hausa proverb often pictures a very fierce and inconclusive fight between two contenders. We can picture the dog first barking incessantly, with its jaws wide open hoping to scare the baboon into submission. The well-built baboon, on the other hand, is not a coward. He would not jump up the trees to escape the attacking dog; he would not fly. He turns wild too, flexing his muscles, beating his wide chest and destroying the surrounding shrubs to intimidate the dog. He jumps at a branch, breaks it and hurls it at the dog, but the carnivore remains recalcitrantunder the command of his master, barking, barking … and now ready to charge.
And the fight ensues and continues for several minutes and, perhaps, hours…
As the proverb depicts, the fierce fight ends inconclusively with both parties sustaining deeps cuts and innumerable browses. Each contender was lucky to survive it and returns to its shelter licking its wounds. The dog gives up hunting for that day, returns home and is granted a sick leave by its master. The baboon keeps his life and his baby and remains in his territory or migrates to a safer one. The only conclusion reached was that the dog learned to avoid the baboon henceforth, while the baboon learned to include the dog among its dangerous enemies in the Kingdom.
In the above, I have tried to capture the proper context and scenario of the proverb. It simply connotes a situation where the fight for something is fierce, where you give your challenger a good run for his money, but where despite the ferocity of the contest, its outcome was not conclusive. In short, when you tell your contender that za a yi kare jini biri jinni, it simply means the battle will be fierce. In the case of Buhari, he was promising his supporters from Niger State that 2015 elections will be fierce; or put in another way, the PDP wIll not have it easy. Simple.
How this simple statement translated into a political missile that says Buhari is promising a bloodbath come 2015 remains one of those sad stories in our practice of journalism.
Let us have a re-read of the mistranslation:
“If what happened in 2011 (alleged rigging) should again happen in 2015, by the grace of God, the dog and the baboon would all be soaked in blood.”
Does this reflect the proper context and meaning of the Hausa proverb kare jini biri jinni that we explained above? No. That is because, among other things, if by the time both the dog and the baboon are soaked in blood, both would have been dead, a picture which the proverb never envisaged. It would have been better for the reporter to say, “Come 2015, I promise you, the fight will be fierce.”
Here, I must say that the words of Buhari were misinterpreted, perhaps deliberately, to entertain the Nigerian public with a sensational story that will keep the presently near-static mill of public opinion running once more, or to invent a weapon to knock him down again in the ring of 2015 presidential contest.
But, to be fair to the reporter also, it was a mistranslation that I think was informed by the history of the General’s consistent call for mass action since 2003, of CPC’s unguarded campaign utterances in 2011 and how they were widely believed to have inspired the post election violence that year, and of the strategy of the General’s supporters of the ANPP especially in Bauchi state in 2007, a la his doctrine of protect your votes, a kasa, a tsare, a raka.
These were the elements in the background that also informed the supporting and opposing comments which trailed the publication of that mistranslated proverb. Nigerians became divided overnight into three camps.
The first group – Buhari’s opponents – jumped at it saying, “Aha. There we go again. This notorious and bloodthirsty coup plotter is still dreaming of a bloodbath.” If Buhari, by his statement, was serving such opponents with a notice of an impending doom, they did not heed to it. They did not show any sign of repentance from the sin he is accusing them of. Instead, they continue to direct their accusing fingers at him.
On the other hand, his supporters, the second group, to me, showed the most disheartening response. They did not take the pain to verify and analyse his statement. Not a single one of them came over to say that he was misrepresented. Have they done so, it would have cooled the atmosphere and reassured us. They adopted the mistranslation, in situ, as if it were right, and presented an alibi, saying, “Only election riggers are be afraid of Buhari’s statement. Would there be a bloodbath in 2015 as a result of rigging, it is the PDP that should be held responsible.”
The third group, we the onlookers, are terrified that we will be disastrously caught in the crossfire, once more, as it happened to hundreds of Nigerians during the 2011 elections, when, especially in Southern Kaduna and Bauchi state, the lives of the innocent were lost and thousands of people displaced to date across Northern Nigeria.
Here was a corper medic, for example, riding an ambulance in Toro, stopped and hacked to death by the very people he came all the way from the East to serve after his long and tedious training as a doctor, at a place where he had nobody to protect him except the mores of civilization. His sin was simply that he did not belong to the ethnic group or religion of Buhari, the opposition presidential candidate. The mob on that fateful day was found wanting in those mores, defective in conscience. That is how many like him paid the ultimate price across the state.
And there was a primary school girl in southern Kaduna, witnessing her primary school teacher hacking her father to death in Zonkwa, Southern Kaduna, for no crime but that the father belonged to the religion other than that of the incumbent President, Goodluck Jonathan. She never thought that the savage gene of the teacher would overcome the etiquette of civility that her familiarity with him would engender. On that fateful day, humanity was lost, the feeling of civilization was gone, and no guarantees were kept. Months after that massacre, the girl would tell her story to the ears of a deaf and dumb nation that allows the assassin teacher to walk the streets freely, earning his salary. That is how hundreds of the like of her father died and thousands of her type continue to suffer as the politicians behind the crimes remain unscathed.
To date, nobody is man enough to directly or remotely claim even a vicarious responsibility for those atrocities. The PDP that is accused of rigging the election refused to admit that it rigged it in the first place. Instead, it shifted the blame to Buhari, citing what it called his “inciting statements” at his campaign rallies. Buhari and his supporters, on the other hand, returned the blame to PDP, with three reasons: he was a victim not a partaker in the violence; the dastardly acts were carried out not by his supporters but by hoodlums who did not spare him either; and that it was in fact the ruling party that instigated the violence in the first place by rigging the elections. So did the trading in blame continued until our father, Justice Ahmed Lemu, inconclusively closed the chapter.
His panel came up with an ingeniously ambivalent verdict, saying both Buhari and the PDP are right. It said it is true that Buhari inspired the violence but it is also true that PDP’s rigging machine provoked it. In effect, the report claimed, there is an egalitarian share of the blame. Case closed. Court!!!
With that we return to our churches and mosques to pray that may God have mercy on those departed souls! And may he protect us, the living, the onlookers, the ordinary citizens, from the evils of power – of its keepers and seekers alike.
I was caught by the same fever when I read the mistranslation in English. I wondered how Buhari could make such a statement after his widely condemned “lynch them” directive of 2011. But when I heard his actual words in Hausa two days ago, I quickly understood that he said nothing unusual, for it is proper for politicians to inject hope in their supporters. Telling a delegation of such supporters that his party will put up a fierce fight next time is just one of those confidence preserving measures.
With this, I hope our journalists will in future show a better sense of responsibility in their reportage. They should use their brains not their minds. We are tired of hearing Buhari mistranslated by a section of the media. More importantly, however, our politicians on both sides of the divide, should refrain from any contemplation of violence or cheating, or asking their followers to take the law into their own hands, whatever the situation would be. If they think that winning an election is a religious duty, then they must not forget that none of our two dominant religions call to violence as a means of winning power or as a reaction to defeat. In Islamic tradition, the injustice of forty years is preferred to the fitna (unrest) of a day.
The government and INEC must do their best to ensure free and fair elections in 2015. The electoral body has two years ahead to fully prepare for it and get rid of imperfections. Let there be a clean fight that ends in a clean winner and a clean loser. If the government is not ready for this, my dear friend, Professor Attahiru Jega, should throw in the towel. The defeated in this case – whether baboon or dog – must accept defeat and allow us live in peace.
If our advice is not accepted, we shall then pray that may our compassionate God deliver us from the evil of that day, when the dog and the baboon fiercely slug it out in the court of Nigerian election. We pray that He restricts their evil to them. And on that day, neither the dog nor the baboon should not return home clean. We are tired.
The information made available to the outside world is that Ogun state government has declared free education in primary and secondary schools. Yes, that’s true. But what they won’t tell people is that our universities are in shambles. What then is the point of laying a firm foundation of good education in primary and secondary schools and then spoil the foundation in the university.
My decision to use Olabisi Onabanjo University as case study is because it is my school, and as such, all information given are firsthand and reliable.
Olabisi Onabanjo University is an institution going through different forms of deterioration. Infrastructurally, OOU is poor. Financially, OOU has been looted into debt. Talk of lecturers, OOU has lost the best of them all. Leadership wise, OOU is governed by clueless people both on the part of the school management and the student union, talk of security, OOU is insecure, welfarism has been relegated to the background.
INFRASTRUCTURE
In a university seen as the main university in Ogun state, it is sad to see that OOU has fallen short of structural standards. It is a fact that OOU has equipmentless laboratories. The laboratories have been converted into emergency classrooms due to the insufficient lecture halls in the school. The libraries are stocked with outdated books. Laboratories can no longer boast of equipments. Someone really needs to start asking questions as to how some courses were accredited in OOU. The visitation panel that visited OOU should be summoned to a panel to ask them the criteria used to pass OOU. We have cases where some students write examinations on their feet, and yet we say we are in a university. Let the Amosun-led government come out and tell the world when last he invested in OOU and how much he gave OOU. Let him tell us how many buildings he has renovated.
FINANCE
Anyone conversant with the ongoings in OOU will know that NASU, SSANU and NAAT just came back from a strike action. They accused the Vice chancellor of mismanaging OOU financially. The truth is that OOU has faced many financial mismanagements in time past. The faulty cars and buses in OOU have been sold cheaply and no one is accounting for why it was sold and where the money has gone. Contributions of staff members in the cooperative society have been spent by the leadership of the school. Salaries are being owed and students are being made to pay for this.
STAFF
The politicizing of the educational sector is what caused the emergence of somebody like Alex O as Chancellor in OOU. His reign then was a reign of terror. He sacked lecturers without fear and turned the school to an institution short of lecturers. There are some departments that don’t have a professor, there are some that don’t even have a Dr. There are even some departments with just 3 or 4 lecturers and they are expected to teach 9, 10 courses.
LEADERSHIP CRISES
One of the major problems of OOU is that unqualified and undeserving leaders are put at the helm of affairs. At the management level, a man whose rise from Dr to Professor is controversial, and who was known to be a lazy man in his days as lecturer was chosen to be the vice-chancellor. At the student level, cowards and traitors who have no interest of the students at heart emerge as union leaders and later turn against the students they swore to protect so as to allign themselves with the anti-students school management.
SECURITY
Security in OOU is poor. Just entering the school and seeing aged men guarding the school gate is enough to discourage you. Little wonder, men of the underworld can penetrate and wreak havoc without resistance, and cult groups intimidate students even under their noses.
WELFARISM
The last time a graduation ceremony was conducted in OOU will be 7 or 8 years ago. There has been no promotion exercise for the lecturers for the past 6 or 7 years. Students going for Industrial training and teaching practice are being charged by the school to pay for lecturer’s transport.
WAY FORWARD
If OOU is to retake its place as an institution of great repute, the state government needs to be more involved in running the school. Money should be pumped into the school to renovate the lecture halls. Laboratories should be stocked with equipments and apparatus. Libraries should be stocked with up-to-date books. Politics should no longer influence the emergence of leaders in the governing council and school management role, but people who are passionate about education and who have good plans on how to reshapen our educational sector should be chosen to lead. Qualified lecturers should be employed to take the university forward. Those who are found guilty of having a hand in running OOU down should be dismissed.
Many of Obama’s supporters in the U.S. and abroad believe that, on the issue of marriage equality, he is on the “right side of history,” and I believe they are right, writes Tony Burman.
So what is the world to make of Barack Obama’s historic endorsement of same-sex marriage? Beyond the borders of the United States and the vagaries of its presidential politics, what will the global impact of his statement be? Is this about sex? Is it about religion? Is it about politics, or power? Or is it about human rights, and the slow, tortuous path to expanding them?
There is no consensus in the U.S. about whether the president’s statements will affect November’s election, and there is public suspicion that his view was motivated more by politics than by principle. But in spite of this, Obama’s position has provoked considerable debate abroad — even in parts of the world where homosexuality is illegal and gay marriage unthinkable. Even though Obama’s presidency has been disappointing overall to many people outside of the U.S., the words of America’s first black president still have power. And they have added power when directed to such a controversial and explosive global issue as marriage equality.
In 2001, the Netherlands became the first country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage. Since then, full marriage equality has been introduced in 10 countries worldwide, including Canada, Belgium and Spain. The leaders of both France and Britain have also expressed support. Even in Latin America, the world’s most Catholic region, Argentina has legalized same-sex unions and there have been moves in Brazil and Mexico in that direction. According to Margarita Corral of the Latin America Public Opinion Project, Obama’s widely publicized intervention matters: “It is going to place the issue on the agenda and will generate a debate in Latin America and around the world.”
In many countries, however, homosexuality is illegal, even though it is clearly practised. Same-sex relations are criminalized in more than 70 countries, including five where the death penalty can be applied. The countries with the harshest penalties are the Middle East and Africa. Even in Kenya, where Obama’s father was born and his popularity is immense, the president’s statements caused controversy.
When I worked with Al Jazeera English in Qatar, I was always surprised by how like-minded the English and Arabic journalistic teams were on so many political and social issues — with one notable exception, and that was the issue of gay and women’s rights.
The English-language channel of Al Jazeera had a staff of more than 1000 people, drawn from 50 nationalities. For many of us on the English side, gay and women’s issues were not issues solely of sex or religion, but of fundamental human rights, plain and simple. More often than not, many of our Arab colleagues saw these issues from a distinctly religious — and different — perspective.
Many of Obama’s supporters in the U.S. and abroad believe that, on the issue of marriage equality, he is on the “right side of history,” and I believe they are right. And they are right not only in the American context, but beyond. I think the reason is that, as this 21st century proceeds, more and more people are beginning to see this as a human rights issue, and that view will ultimately win out. Perhaps that is why polls in the U.S. now indicate that more Americans favour the notion of marriage equality than do not.
For many, this issue is no longer one solely of religious belief or discomfort. I was struck by how much attention, both in the U.S. and international media, was devoted in the past week to the number “1138.” In the U.S., that is the number of federal rights and benefits which are specifically related to civil marriage.
In other words, by denying the right of gays and lesbians to marry, they are adversely affected in the areas of social security, housing and food stamps, veterans’ benefits, taxation, employment benefits and related laws, financial disclosure and conflict of interest, etc., etc.
Conflicts in the world are often portrayed as religious disputes, when, in fact, they are really about power, or land, or money. During the 1980s when I was part of the CBC team covering the civil war in Lebanon, we made it to a remote village in the north where hundreds had been massacred. We asked the militia people who were responsible why they did it. They cited a similar “massacre” inflicted on their ancestors decades ago, and they “wanted their land back.”
A lesson for me in all of this is that using one’s religion as a way of smothering someone else’s rights is, in the long sweep of history, a losing strategy.
Tony Burman, former head of Al Jazeera English and CBC News, teaches journalism at Ryerson University. tony.burman@gmail.com
Sanusi Muhammad as a onetime member of the disbanded National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), and now in the fore-front to convincing the dreaded Islamic sect, Jama’atu Ahlis Sunnah Liddawa’ati Wal Jihad (Boko Haram) to accept to dialogue with the federal government for an amicable solution to the lingering security challenges, bared his mind on issues of national interest relating to security challenges poised by Boko Haram:-
Q: It was reported in across section of the media that you have the capacity to convince Boko Haram sect to dialogue with the federal government. Are you a member of the sect or how are you going to achieve the goal?
Sanusi: Well, I have never been a member of the sect but I happen to know few of their prominent members before the sect was founded. I got to know them through interactions as a journalist. My relationship dates back to 2006 when the sect was established not when things went bad. I met with the founder at three different occasions before the eruption of violence and I happen to know most of those in the leadership including some blood relations of the late founder.
Q: But why is it difficult to reach out to the sect?
Sanusi: I don’t think it is all that difficult to reach the sect as claimed only that the proper channel is not followed. What blocks the government from reaching out to them from my understanding is the inability of the people to cooperate with the relevant security agencies to achieve that specific purpose. Secondly, most of those trying to assist in reaching out to the sect are either insincere in the assignment or are completely ignorant of the modus operandi of the sect. Thirdly, the sect itself has created artificial barrier between it and majority of the people through lost of confidence in anything government based on what they say from past experience. Most of those that tried to reach out to them were sycophantic and very insincere as I came to understand. In some few cases, those with vital information that can assist security agencies are jittery of the repercussion of revealing such information incase of any leakage to the sect. And, the sect itself has a faction that is not keen on any dialogue for now. One therefore has to be careful to avoid falling into the wrong faction. Again, there was a wrong approach to the problem right from the beginning. At the beginning, the capacity of the sect was under rated and there was no vital intelligent report to the security agencies on the modus operandi of the sect. I have said it times without number that no government has ever fought a group with a hidden identity to succeed. If you like, call it a terrorist group or guerilla or what ever but the truth is that the first approach to the problem was wrong and it contributed to its escalation to what we are witnessing today. For instance, when the founder was arrested in Maiduguri, he was handed over to the police as reported for interrogation and possible prosecution but within few minutes, it was reported that he had been killed. Instead of handing him over to the police, he could have been handed to the DSS for proper interrogation and subsequent prosecution since there was no basis for killing him without interrogation to dig deep down to the remote cause of the problem. There was a wrong approach to the Boko Haram issue right from the beginning through the application of force. The other point is that the international media contributed to the escalation of the problem most especially Aljazeera and BBC television stations by airing the killing of some arrested members without going through the legal process as if Nigeria is a banana country. That film was terrible and it revealed a lot of things to the people relating to the security system in operation. And, most of government efforts are thwarted by unnecessary statements from some of its agents. At onetime, the sect was called a faceless group and at another a security personnel declared that there was not going to be any dialogue with them while another said their days were numbered. Those statements instigated more attacks on their targets most especially the police.
Finally on that question, the government has to change its style of approach and policy towards the sect if anything positive is to be achieved. Governors are expected to set the machinery in motion to reach the sect in their own localities and so on. It is the responsibility of every Nigerian to support the effort of government to address the problem instead of heaping unnecessary blames on security agencies.
Q: Boko Haram has posed a threat to national security and the corporate existence of Nigeria. How then can the Federal Government earn their trust for peace to be achieved?
Sanusi: It is only when the Federal Government itself shows sincerity, determination and commitment towards a genuine dialogue. The Federal Government should identify those it knows have the desired contact with the sect and enjoy their respect and confidence not every Tom and Harry. Those should be secretly appointed as members of a secret committee with specific terms of reference and within a time frame to accomplish the task of reaching the sect leadership to discuss the modalities of ending the problem. It is not a matter of the position one occupies in the society but a matter of who can reach the leadership of the sect for the desired objective. One most important thing the government should know is that the sect is more than what it is rated to be. They have branches all over the federation as I was reliably informed with members even in government. The government should be ready to face the challenges associated with brokering truce because of the high risks involved and should be careful in appointing those to represent it for the dialogue if it eventually holds.
Q: But why did the Dr. Datti Ahmed committee fail to broker truce?
Sanusi: From my discussion with few members of the sects’ leadership, Dr Datti’s committee was becoming a political tool against the wish of the sect. Dr. Datti himself had his internal problem with the sect leadership and there was a communication breakdown between them. What I expected the Datti committee to do was to liaise with the sect leadership and bring them to the negotiating table to present their case instead of being represented. Dr. Datti erred by agreeing to dialogue on behalf of the sect with the Federal Government if that was a correct information. And I don’t think he had the mandate of doing so. Boko Haram should be encouraged to negotiate its problems by itself rather than through representation once they accept to dialogue. Since the authority has agreed to discuss with them, there is no basis for entertaining any fear of arrest or otherwise. Arrest is not a solution to the lingering problem I believe since it has not solved the problem and that forms part of the reason why government wants to dialogue and end the insurgency.
Q: Since the collapse of the first attempt, it seems the sect is no more interested in any dialogue.
Sanusi: That is not correct. I discussed extensively with across section of their leadership and they assured me of their preparedness to appoint some people to represent them in future attempt with the Federal Government. So, there is enough room for other attempts.
Q: But if they refuse to accept to dialogue, what do you suggest as the next line of action?
Sanusi: Government knows what to do next. But as a citizen, I suggest continuity of attempt to convince them to accept to dialogue. No harm in that.
Q: What is your comment on the recent security alert by the United States Embassy in Nigeria?
Sanusi: I see it as the usual threat by America to under rate our security system and send panic into the people as they did before. America does not know Nigeria more than Nigerian security agencies. Why should they under rate our security system? Has America finished attending to its own internal security challenges? Has America defeated the Talibans in Afghanistan? Why should America behave the way it did to Nigeria? Anyway, I am sure something is being done to checkmate future occurrence of such alarm by our government.
Q: How can the state governments assist in the quest for truce?
Sanusi: I was made to understand that some of the state governments are doing their best to bring the problem under control most especially the governors of Bauchi, Borno and Yobe. Governors should be directed to set up reconciliatory committees in their respective states to reach out to the sect. I know of the positive efforts of Bauchi and Yobe state governments to end the problem but the other states, from my observation are yet to identify the critical areas for possible solution. Again, from reports of what is considered as the extra-judicial killing of their Supreme leader in 2009 and the demolishing of their houses and places of worship in some states in the north-east sub-region coupled with what they call indiscriminate arrest of their members on the orders of some of those state governors, they can never agree to listen to any request from any of those state governments without an intermediary. The other point according to them is that they were betrayed by the former Borno state administration under Ali Modu Sheriff and some governors in the sub-region. Presently, they are ready to accept to dialogue with the federal government but their worry is that their members are still being hunted by security agents, which to them indicates that if they finally accept to attend any meeting, they could be arrested or even killed.
According to them, the arrest of one of their principal members in Kaduna, Abu Qaqah is an indication to what they should expect if they accept the invitation for dialogue.
At one of my telephone conversions with them, I explained to them the true position of things relating to the arrest of Malam Qaqah in Kaduna and the sincerity of government to dialogue with them without strings. Their principal member was not invited for any meeting as erroneously reported by the media but was arrested from information at the disposal of security agents. Their leaders confirmed to me that actually Qaqah was not authorized to attend any meeting on their behalf. So, there is no cause for alarm or any fear of possible arrest at any meeting if they accept the invitation.
They opined that in 2010, their members arrested in Bauchi and given a token amount by the state government to repent and return to their families but that the same state government later ordered for the arrest of those members. Again, I explained to them that it was not true that Bauchi state government ordered for the arrest of their members as erroneous reported. What happened was that the state government out of magnanimity directed that their members who repented should be given a token amount to soften the effects of resettlement with their nuclear family members. That was all not that the governor later betrayed the trust and directed for their arrest.
Q: Former President Obasanjo while trying to broker peace in Borno state, met with a member of the group. But his host was later murdered perhaps for receiving the former president.
Sanusi: Well the former president did not meet with any Boko Haram member but met with an in-law of the late leader whom they thought could be of any assistance to brokering truce with the sect. The in-law from my investigation was not mandated by the sect to speak for them or to even make any reference to them which he did. That was what provoked them and attracted the sentence passed on him. At the meeting with Obasanjo, he forwarded some financial requests that include the payment of compensation as ruled by the Supreme Court etc. The sect felt betrayed and insulted and therefore passed a death sentence on Obasanjo’s host. Secondly, the arrangement to meet with the in-law was faulty by itself because he had no business with the affairs of the sect. The sect is neither a family affair nor a traditional one but purely religious and there was a leadership in place that could have been reached instead of the in-law.
Q: Apart from the bombings of police stations and other security formations, the sect had severally claimed responsibility for many bomb attacks targeted on Christians and Churches or is the sect on a religious war?
Sanusi: Honestly, I cannot categorically say either the sect is on a religious war or not but I know it as a religious organization implementing its agenda its own way that is not pleasant to majority of Nigerians across religious divide. The various attacks targeted on Christians and their places of worship may be another strategy of pushing the country into a religious war for possible disintegration of the federation along religious line. It is a strategy of war I believe and it is left for the government to apply the right strategy if the amalgamation is to remain. But definitely, across section of the Muslim community I met are not happy with the unfortunate development. After all, to me, religion is a personal affair of those that believe in it. No person was mandated by the Almighty to destroy others for any reason in the two religions I know (Islam and Christianity). At any rate, from my investigation, not all attacks on Churches were carried out by the sect as erroneously reported. Some of the attacks were master-minded by criminals to achieve a hidden agenda against fellow Christians and the corporate existence of Nigeria. Take for instance the case of a woman attempted to set a Church ablaze in Bauchi before she was arrested, the case of those eight persons arrested in Miya Barkatai of Toro LGA, Bauchi state for attempting to bomb a Church for selfish reason and a similar case in Gombe that was reported and few others. The case of COCIN Church bomb blast in Jos needs further investigation to authenticate the truth. Anyway, I really appreciate the efforts of our security agencies despite their inability to nip the problem in the bud and not that they are inexperienced to handle such ugly situations or so but because Nigerians are not cooperating with them as required. The problem is beyond what Nigerians think. The group is already sophisticated and possibly enjoys foreign support that cannot be ruled-out.
Q: What exactly is the grouse of the sect against the government of Nigeria and Nigerians?
Sanusi: Oh! They said it times without number that the extra-judicial killing of their founder in 2009, indiscriminate arrest and detention of their members, extra-judicial killing of their members as aired by BBC and Aljazeera. Wanton destruction of their houses and places of worship are some of their grievances against the government and security agencies that compelled them to declare a Jihad (Holy war) against Nigeria.
Q: But why are they targeting Christians and Churches as if they are responsible for what happened to them?
Sanusi: From my discussions with some of them, they never claimed responsibility for any attack on a Church or a Christian apart from that of Madalla. I asked for the reason of that attack in Madalla and they said it was to serve as a warning to those that attacked Muslims in 2011 on Sallah day in Jos. I faulted that decision of attacking innocent worshippers in a different environment that has nothing to do with the unfortunate incident in Jos. I pleaded with them to stop all those attacks in the name of the Almighty Allah since government is prepared for a dialogue. Attacks have no meaning and add nothing positive to their plight other than hatred. As for attacks on security formations, they said it was the same security agencies that killed their leader, members and making arrests.
Q: There are reports that the sect is funded by international terrorists groups and some state governments including Bauchi state. How true is that?
Sanusi: Well, I am not very close to them to know their source (s) of funding but I know Bauchi state government does not contribute to their funding for whatever reason. Bauchi state has a sizeable number of their members but the security agencies there are doing their best to contain the situation not that the government is funding the sect for any reason. The governor shall be the last person to fund violence. I know the man having worked closely with him so I am talking out of experience. To be fair to him, he does not fund the sect for any reason and he should not be associated with their operations. What happened was that in 2010, some of their members incarcerated in Bauchi prison agreed to renounce violence and promised to return to their homes for a change of life. Based on that promise, the state government extended an olive branch and doled out a token amount to soften the effects of resettlement back home having suffered in the struggle as I said earlier. It was that gesture that was orchestrated and blown by mischief makers to mean funding the sect.
Q: From your information, is Kabiru Sokoto their member?
Sanusi: Yes please but not a serious member that can be of any assistance to the security agencies because as they said, he is insane but never can tell.
Q: What of Konduga who implicated Senator Ali Ndume?
Sanusi: As for Konduga, they said he has never been their member but a member of ECOMOG a Borno based notorious killer group that was used by politicians.
In his testominy as I read in the papers, Konduga lied by saying that he was the deputy spokesman of the sect. That is a lie because the spokesman of the sect, Abu Zayyad had Abu Qaqah as his deputy and when Zayyad was removed, Qaqah continued acting without a substantive deputy. That I know from what they told me.
Q: But were those paraded before journalists for kidnapping a Briton and an Italian national, members of the Boko Haram Shura?
Sanusi: That I cannot say yes or no because I have never met any member of their Shura before and even if we met, they were not introduced to me as members of the Shura and I am not their member. But since the DSS has said they are members of Boko Haram Shura, then it may be so and the sect has not denied that either.
Q: How far have you gone in your effort?
Sanusi: I have gone very far. I have established the necessary contacts, I have discussed my dialogue plans with their leadership and my request was accepted for consideration. I am just waiting for a reply of time and date as they will announce it themselves. I have no doubt in my mind that I shall succeed in the project and Nigeria shall have peace.
Q: Do you enjoy any financial assistance for the project from any quarter?
Sanusi: Not at all. It is purely my business to fund my efforts. After all, I was not assigned by anybody to embark on the project. So I don’t expect any funding from any person or organization. It is purely my effort to contribute to the peaceful coexistence of Nigerians.
Q: But you must be rich to have embarked on such an expensive project without an external support.
Sanusi: First, I am a struggling man trying to take care of myself, family and chain of dependants from my meager resources. The project is not expensive at all but only time and energy consuming. I have not expended much since I started in 2011 including several travels to neighboring countries and within. I have never given or promised the sect any monetary assistance since I don’t have. I only manage myself. But if there has been proper funding and support, I could have by now achieved my goal. I thank God for the support and encouragement I receive from those than know and appreciate the effort. If I have the resources, I could have engaged the service of others to achieve the target within a short period of time. But I have no regrets and I am determined till I succeed for Nigeria to appreciate.
Q: But are security agencies aware of your efforts?
Sanusi: Oh! Yes please. I could not have embarked on such a risky assignment without the consent of the security agencies. It is a very sensitive and risky assignment. I am determined to succeed with the support and encouragement of security agencies.
I so much appreciate their understanding and guidance.
Q: Can you name some of the security agencies that support you?
Sanusi: What for? There is no need of mentioning names. It has no business with this interview.
Q: You are a journalist and a former member of NADECO, why did you embark of such a risky project to facilitate a meeting between the Federal Government and the sect?
Sanusi: It is purely to satisfy the urge in me for the sake of the corporate existence of Nigeria as I met it and for the patriotism in me and to support the efforts of the government towards achieving peace for the benefit of all.
Whatever the reason, we should not allow the disintegration of the federation. Nigeria has come along way, I was born in a united Nigeria and I want to die in a united Nigeria as I found it.
Q: Are you please expecting any reward from the government if the project succeeds?
Sanusi: Not at all. What for? I have not even thought of that. If I finish the assignment and it pleases the powers that be to reward me, I would not say no but if nothing is offered, glory be to God. But I must appreciate the encouragement I have been receiving from great Nigerians and security agencies including members of the sect who prefer dialogue than violence
Q: Finally, is it true that there is a faction in the sect?
Sanusi: I was made to understand there is a faction that is not healthy to the effort of dialogue. But whatever the case, once the recognized sect led by Sheikh Abubakar Shekau accepts to dialogue, the other faction will go into oblivion
Q: But is Shekau prepared for dialogue?
Sanusi: Yes he is prepared once he is convinced of the security arrangement of his appearance and that of his lieutenants. To achieve that, I suggest government should first appoint a contact committee to reach the sect and prepare them for the dialogue which should include suspension of all attacks as the arrangement goes on. Then, a dialogue committee should be appointed to meet with representatives of the sect for the final resolution. All these can be achieved within 30 days if there is proper planning and commitment from both sides.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Southwest has said both the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and its leader, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu do not have the required moral rights to comment on election rigging, saying; “Tinubu and his ACN must first explain to Nigerians what happened to the last year local council elections, result of which has not been made public up till now.”
The PDP, which described the ACN as a party of hypocrites, said it was shameful that Tinubu, who openly committed electoral crime during the controversial Lagos State Council polls by voting without his voters card was the one accusing PDP of rigging elections.
In a release issued by the PDP Zonal Publicity Secretary, Hon. Kayode Babade, the party said; “If Tinubu and his ACN people are not shameless, they won’t be running their mouths, talking about what will happen in 2015 if elections are rigged.”
The statement read; “It has become imperative that we tell these bunch of shameless hypocrites in the ACN to shut up their obviously stinking mouths and allow credible people, who are directing the affairs of this coountry, especially as regard the conduct of elections to do their jobs.
“For the avoidance of doubts, Tinubu and his ACN do not have any moral rights to speak where people of honour and integrity are talking because they lack both.
“Or was it not in this country that Local Council elections were held in Lagos State and winners were not declared until four days after the elections? And even when the purpoted winners were declared, was the ACN owned Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC) able to announce the election results? Has the results been announced up till today?
“So, can a party that openly and scandalously rigged council elections in Lagos be the one to accuse PDP of rigging a presidential election in which it claimed to have even supported the PDP candidate against its own candidate?
“Or is the Lagos Council polls experience not enough to show how elections in Nigeria would have been if the ACN were to be the party running the affairs of the country?
“Therefore, if Tinubu and his ACN must talk about election rigging, they must first tell Nigerians how the Lagos State Council polls were rigged, why Tinubu was allowed to vote without his voters card, and why the election results were not released up till now?”
Iranian government prepares for the second phase of the cut in subsidies which firstwas launched in November 2010, Iranian media reported Tuesday.
The news agency ILNA reported that the parliament in its open session has approved the revenue of $53.8 bn to be achieved by the government through cut in subsidies paid on energy carriers.
Based on the budget law every Iranian will receive IRR 55100, equivalent to $33 at free market exchange rate which will be $12 less the amount paid in the first phase of the economic reform.
ILNA also adds that the amount of the revenue could be hypothetical since the revenue from the first phase was predicted at $54 bn but only $22 bn was materialized, thus the government was forced to cover the cash compensation on the people from other sources such as loans from the Central Bank and revenues from crude sale.
Nigerians wake up daily to witness one form of political controversy or the other. It is fair to state that the polity is tensed up to a level that the North/South divide has become evidently manifest because of the near- total capacity of politicians to manipulate members of the public to perceive every development from the prism of ethnicism, regionalism and religious affiliations.
Governors of the Northern states met recently in Kaduna and decided that come 2015 only a Presidential candidate of Northern extraction would get the votes of the northern electorate. This bunch of unpatriotic elements forgot conveniently that Nigerians of other geographical entities still live in the North in spite of the torrents of terror-related attacks by armed Islamic fundamentalist group in the North.
Currently, one major tension that has built up all around the country is the groundswell of divergent opinions and interpretation given to the statement credited to Nigeria’s one time military dictator- General Muhammadu Buhari.
Buhari has contested the position of the President of the Federal Republic under different opposition political platforms since 2003 and he has consistently emerged the runner up to the eventual winner. He has also had the honour of becoming the only Nigerian alive to have dragged eventual winners of three consecutive presidential elections from the lower election petition tribunals to the highest court in the Land-the Supreme court of Nigeria. Buhari lost in each of those hotly contested legal cases and in each of those times he experienced judicial misfortune, he is known not to have accepted any of the verdicts with equanimity.
For the powers-that-be in the Peoples Democratic Party, the fear of General Muhammadu Buhari is the beginning of political wisdom. After Buhari lost at the polls in the 2007 presidential election, he decided as usual to challenge what he assumed was huge electoral fraud at the election Tribunals but midway into the hearing of his matter which he instituted alongside his then running mate at the election- the now late Chief Edwin Umeezuoke, Buhari suffered a monumental set back when his once trusted running mate at the election and a co-plaintiff in the election petition decided to pull the rug off his feet when he shockingly withdrew from the matter at the presidential election Tribunal thereby exposing General Buhari to ridicule before his political adversaries.
Buhari never recovered from this disappointment which eventually made him to leave his then political family-The All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) to form his own party- Congress of Progressive Change (CPC).
From the above analysis, it is safe to adduce that General Buhari has had a dose of political misfortunes.
The Presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in the 2011 presidential elections, major –General Muhammadu Buhari while receiving some of his party loyalists from Niger state in his Kaduna home tasked the Federal government to either organize free and fair election in 2015 or face the consequences of bloody revolt from the electorate.
According to Buhari, “…We have resolved with your leaders that by 2015, either they uphold the principles of justice in the election or it will be bloody. God’s willing by 2015 something will happen. Either they conduct free and fair election or they will be disgraced.” Buhari was even quoted to have stated that if election is rigged in 2015, monkeys and baboons will soak in their blood which is an expression that bloody violence will greet any suspected manipulations of the outcomes of 2015 General elections.
The above apprehensions raised by no other a person than Muhammadu Buhari regarding a possible doomsday scenario in the country comes the year 2015, goes to show that many important factors are at play here.
First, Buhari’s doomsday tale is substantially in tandem with a recent study by some controversial researchers under the umbrella of the National intelligence council in the United States of America who had about two years ago predicted that Nigeria may disintegrate by 2015 because of a combination of factors which may include religious; terror-related; political and regional conflicts.
Besides, the United States report which predicted the doomsday scenario by 2015 in Nigeria had raised a very critical point that; “other African Countries-including some failed states-plagued by poor leadership, divisive ethnic politics, decayed government institutions, geographic constraints, and a brain-drain may be unable to engage the international economy sufficiently to reverse their downward trajectory”.
The kind of regional politics most politicians play in present day Nigeria is a justification of this study by the Americans on Nigeria’s future comes the year 2015.
Secondly, a good look at the prediction of blood- bath by 2015 as made by the politician- Buhari would show that he has quality amount of historical body of evidence backing up his claim especially if we take closer look at the violence that preceded the Western regional elections in Nigeria in the 1960’s which snowballed into the first ever military over throw of government which brought in the then General Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi whose administration was toppled and he alongside his close military aides were gruesomely murdered.
Nigeria also fought bloody 30-months civil war when riotous Northern crowds executed what is still considered in some quarters as systematic genocide of the Igbos who lived in the Northern part of the country and the then Eastern regional military administrator-Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu [late] rallied his supporters to declare a separate political entity to protect the human rights of the Igbo speaking people who were at the receiving end of mass killings.
It is fair to say that Buhari’s doomsday scenario deserved comprehensive psychoanalysis to anchor it properly within faultless historical perspective.
Buhari’s submission ought to have generated deep introspection, retrospection, critical appraisal and should not be dismissed with mere wave of hands or with the usual angry tone with which the ruling People’s Democratic Party always treated criticism from respected quarters. It is a fact that wise persons when confronted by an upsurge of verbal firepower as has happened with the statement of General Buhari, the best way is for the people in government to be in their best of forms, restrain themselves into jumping into the bandwagon of verbal combat but should reflect on all the possible imports of such weighty comment.
Bill Newman in his scholarly book titled; “10 laws of Leadership”, rightly stated that; “wisdom is the ability to apply knowledge and experience to any given situation”. The same author further stated that ‘one of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency’.
The truth is that the current political leadership in Nigeria has not accepted the truth that our electoral system is rotten and therefore is in urgent need of comprehensive overhaul. I am not one of those that would be carried away by the false belief that because the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission Professor Attahiru Jega came from a labour union background therefore the weighty operational challenges confronting that electoral institution are healed overnight.
The fact is that Nigeria’s electoral system is bad and therefore a careful psychoanalytic reflection on the doomsday scenario in 2015 created by Buhari would reveal that this is possible if we do not unbundle the crises of credibility afflicting the Independent National Electoral Commission, a body that is anything but independent.
Samuel Anayochukwu Eziokwu in his book “Good governance; Theory and practice”, stated that “current method in Nigeria where the President wakes up and appoints a particular person to head the electoral body is becoming archaic and obsolete… a credible selection of the head of electoral body is a rudiment of any free and fair election.”
Charles Onunaiju, a public policy analyst had in 2006 stated rightly thus; “Any good constitution must think of the South African experience where members of the electoral commission are chosen through popular consensus and all political parties are represented and not one handpicked by the President and ratified only by the National Assembly”.
It is therefore imperative that the National Assembly should amend relevant sections of the constitution on the composition of members of the electoral agency and borrow the South African model if we want to avoid the doomsday scenario of 2015 predicted by Buhari. In the 2011 elections in most parts of the country, INEC officials followed the tune dictated by the pay masters in Government.
· Emmanuel Onwubiko, Head, HUMAN Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria writes from www.huriwa.com.
Rivers State is one of the thirty-six (36) states that make up the political structure of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The state was created on the 27th May 1967 by the then military government of General Yakubu Gowon. Why was the state created out of the then Eastern Region? Some said it was to balkanize the Eastern Region which was under the rulership and control of the Igbo, thereby reducing the numerical, economic and political support for the Igbo in the event of a major political conflict between Nigeria under Gowon and Eastern Region under the late General Chukwuemeka Odimegu Ojukwu. Others posited that it was to enable the Gowon administration free access to the emerging quantum petro-dollar from the state. It had also been argued that the state was created to satisfy the long agitations from the minority ethnic groups clustered around the area up to Calabar for a state of their own [recall that this agitation actually started in about 1954 through to 1958 at the Willink’s Commission when the peoples of the areas involved asked for the creation of the Calabar-Ogoja-Rivers (COR) State].
Whatever the reasons for its creation, the purpose of this article is to assess the state in terms of its development efforts and suggest ways for better progress. It is instructive to note that out of the forty-five (45) years of its existence, indigenes of the state had ruled it for twenty-six years and this translates to 58%. Let us also agree that development goes beyond the building or provision of infrastructure or social amenities. Development is the consistent improvement of the people’s environment, human beings, resources, valued systems and traditional occupations.. The environment consists of the forests, water bodies, rocks, valleys, mountains and the entire landscape owned by the people. Human beings include their brains and especially their talents, experiences, knowledge and philosophies embedded in their spiritual minds and psychologies that propel them to act, re-act or take no action. Resources here refers to all the surface and under the surface things of material value including land, vegetation, crops, trees, minerals, heat-energy, gas, coastal areas etc. Valued systems refer to those generally accepted traditional principles or customs with which life is lived. They include the governmental system, principles that guide private relationships, inter-communal relations, sports and entertainment, law and adjudication, etc. Traditional occupations refer to the economic systems of engagement for the production of wealth and sustenance of life. These occupations were derived from the nature of the people’s environment, their known talents, resources and valued systems. In all of these, no particular mention or attention is paid to infrastructure or social amenities because they are the palm oil with which development is consummated. In order words, they are facilitators of development; they cannot be development on their own. Hence I insist that infrastructure is not development.
So, back to Rivers State and at the commencement of the life of the state, the then Commander Alfred Diette Spiff, as the pioneer leader of the state, drew up a very ambitious plan to develop the state. This led to the establishment of the College of Science and Technology ( now Rivers State University of Science and Technology), College of Education ( now Ignatius Ajuru University of Education), School of Basic Studies ( now College of Arts & Science), School of Nursing, School of Health Technology, Nigerian Tide, taking over of primary and secondary schools hitherto owned by churches and establishing new ones, construction of roads, establishment of utilities board, Pan African Bank which died later due to funds mismanagement and those responsible used the stolen funds to float their own banks, Pabod Finance & Investment, Pabod Breweries, Pabod Supplies, Pabod Foods, scholarship and bursary programmes, building of the state Secretariat complex, stadia and providing supports for the establishment of Federal institutions, agencies and facilities like the army barracks, airforce base, naval and police infrastructure across the state. There were NPA, River Basin Development Authorities, NEPA/PHCN facilities and offices, refineries and petrochemicals, University of Port Harcourt, Nitel/Mtel, NIPOST, NAFCON and private businesses represented by the giant oil and gas companies, oil and gas services companies etc. All these in addition to other facilities established by the Eastern Region government including Trans-Amadi Industrial Layout, Hotel Presidential Port Harcourt, Oilmill Factories, Bori Camp etc. Also established were dispensaries, health centres and hospitals.
Later, Rivoc, RisomPalm Ltd, WAGI, Onne Port, School-to-Land Authority, Liquefied Natural Gas projects, Bori Polytechnic were established. There was the expansion of state and federal enterprises and projects in the state. Thereafter, the state hosted the OMPADEC and now NDDC corporate headquarters, and established Omoku Gas Turbine and the state is currently working on the monorail and Greater Port Harcourt City projects. I do not know why a state that hosts these significant infrastructure is still classified as underdeveloped/undeveloped by the UNDP.
Politics was not left out. During the First Republic, NCNC was the dominant party in the state. In the Second Republic, there was strong presence of the NPN, NPP and UPN in the state. We must not forget that it was Rivers and Cross River states that gave NPN the wining votes in the political arithmetics of 2/3 of 19 in 1979 presidential election that gave Alh. Shehu Shagari victory. All through the Maradonic era of the General Ibrahim Babangida military rule, Rivers people were present in good numbers in the SDP and the NRC. It witnessed the creation of provinces, districts, local governments and the existence of a robust three arms of government. Its judiciary had improved from district or provincial courts to magistrate, customary and high courts. Another significant political milestone of the state was that it gave birth to Bayelsa State and today, the state has twenty-three local government areas with over five million heads( see National Population Commission website).
Despite all this, the state is still classified as an underdeveloped state. Why? The reason is simple: In all these achievements, there had not been consciously sustained effort at improving the items of development. That is why today the Rivers environment is endangered and being extinct; the talents of the people are not known ( Rivers State government should put in place an educational system that can discover, grow, mature and sustain the Mercy Chinwos, Monalisa Chindas, Julius Agwus, Finidi Georges, Owugbokiris, Jossy Dombrayes, Jimmy Conters, Tam David Wests, Ken Saro-Wiwas, Obi Walis, Claude Akes, Elechi Amadis, etc). The people of Rivers State do not have the capacity to discover, exploit and refine mineral resources deposited beneath their soils. They cannot even clean-up their environments polluted by crude oil spillages. The traditional occupations of the peoples of Rivers State have not been improved: to proof this, let the state government carry out a research to determine whether or not Agricultural produce in the state had increased in quantity and quality compared to what they were in the 1980s? What about industrial estates where the numerous wasting fruits and vegetables can be processed into other foods, while their chemicals can be used in other industries for further processing to meet high level demands for special chemicals? Given its topology, Rivers State deserves at least ten industrial estates. Besides Trans-Amadi Industrial Estate, is there any other one that can make significant contribution to the ongoing computation of the state’s GDP. What and where are the valued systems of the people? Are they constantly being improved or had been neglected. In Ikwerre ( part of the state) where I come from, traditional wrestling was the “tonic fever” that captured and soothed souls in the land and made more people happy. Where is it today?
What is in vogue in the state are some esoteric weird values that can hardly qualify as values. Elderlys’ secret societies have given rise to rampaging youth cultism whose son was militancy hidden under the phantom resource control agitations. As at today, over 80% of the secondary schools in the state are afflicted with cultism; while about 30% of the primary schools in the state are overdosed with cultism. If care is not taken, in the near future, it will penetrate the nursery and kindergarten schools as well as social homes. All the tertiary institutions in the state are the seventh-havens of cultism practices and they control oil bunkering and illegal mining of crude oil in the state. These are booming because these cultists have strong political support; despite the existence of the state laws prohibiting cultism in the state. At the end, Rivers State had lost its character and life had never been the same again. This is where we are today with the youths of Rivers State and the role of values in our efforts at development.
To worsen the matter, there is high level unemployment of youths, many children of school age still roaming the streets of Rivers State, unresolved inter-community conflicts fueled by cultism, corruption in government, general lack of appropriate development pathways or ideologies.
So, the task before the Rivers State government is to rework its development agenda towards the items of development. It is not just about building roads, bridges, buying and installing transformers etc which had been the case since 1967, but more about to provide them in context since they are needed to improve a particular item of development. Real development is when the people are directly responsible for the transformation of the items of development in order to satisfy their needs.
Rivers environment needs to be preserved. Rivers talents need to be taught and developed via the formal educational system where Rivers children should have unfiltered access to total free education up to the university level. Rivers resources need to be discovered, exploited and refined by Rivers people. Rivers agriculture needs to be constantly engaged to move it from the subsistence level to the commercial/industrial level. Risompalm Ltd and Rivoc are clear examples what is being wasted today. Rivers lands should not be sold outrightly but leased. Rivers State needs a bank to support her development efforts. There is need to strongly redirect economic efforts of the people to resources where they have comparative advantages. For example, it will be appropriate to encourage the Ikwerre, Etche, Ekpeye and Ogba along crop farming; while at the same time encourage the Ijaw along fish farming.
Rivers values must not die because doing so, the people and indeed Rivers State also die in character. Every development requires some level of character or discipline to carry and support it; where that is lacking, no positive development can occur and that is the state of Rivers State and indeed Nigeria today. Nigeria lacks the discipline required to carry and support the development she aspires, hence she had remained under/un developed. The provision of infrastructure should be based on the need for it to facilitate defined item(s) of development.
At 45, Rivers State had done averagely well in building infrastructure. But at 50 in 2017, Rivers State will be expected to become an industrialized state driven by its empowered talents whose focus will be to unleash knowledge and structural growth in the agriculture, resources and values of the peoples of Rivers State.
