While the body of the late Biafran leader, Dim Emeka Odimegwu- Ojukwu, waits to be buried in the first week of February, the same kind of incidents that led to his being forced to secede over 40 years ago is beginning to rear its ugly head again. Day in day out, scores of Southerners living in Northern Nigeria are being killed by the terrorist group, Boko Haram, and forced to return to their homes. Majority of these are Igbos, the ethnic group of the late Biafran leader. Unfortunately, many Igbo leaders have refused to make meaningful comments of concern about this. However in this exclusive interview, Debe Odumegwu-Ojukwu, first son of the late general speaks extensively about the injustice that led to Biafra in the first place, and how it may ultimately force the nation back to strife, this time, permanently. He spoke to Correspondent Onukwube Ofoelue also concerning the preparations for the burial of Ikemba Nnewi: ‘With Boko Haram killings, obviously Igbos are no longer welcome’
How will you describe your father, the late Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu?
He was a loving father, a consummate administrator, and a very compassionate leader.
While some have described him as a selfless fighter, others chose to see him as an opportunist who took advantage of the situation on ground to seek power for himself. What do you say about his?
What is opportunistic about a young man who had been at the pinnacle of the local authority administration- he was an ADO, when most of his mates were still leaving secondary school? Then he joined the army- he was the best in the military, among the first graduates to join the Nigeria Army. I don’t see anything opportunistic about it. He was groomed for the position, and he was there at the right time. What is then opportunistic in a man who had gone to England, gone to US an academia, but chose to remain with his people? He could have died during the war. He could have been wounded, but then he decided to brave the odds and vote for this people. I don’t think that is opportunism- rather I will see that as being very chivalrous. It’s the hallmark of the essential leader
. There are those who see him as one who did not exhaust every means for dialogue before calling for secession of Igbo? Being very objective, would you agree?
Those who say that he didn’t explore pacifism to its stretch are those who are somewhat ignorant of the history of what happened during the war. It is on record and undeniable, that at a point, the pogrom came in waves. The pogrom, the systematic decimation of Igbos in the North came in waves. Here was the one that came in May, then the one that came in July, immediately after the assassination of Major General Aguiyi Ironsi, and then, the bigger one in September- here were three waves.
If I were to have a recourse to history, it is well written and it is accepted, and it was witnessed, that after the second wave, he did appealed to the Igbos to go back to the North. In Enugu for instance, Alhaji Altine, who was the Sarkin Hausawa in Enugu, was escorted to the boundaries of the East and North for him to go home peacefully. Having asked our people, even after the killing of Ironsi to go back, and then that third and most decisive wave of September 1966 now happened, he felt tacitly responsible for the death of those ones.
He felt as a benign human being, as a compassionate leader, but for his insistence that they go back, we would have had those best brains being part of the Igbo nation today. He regretted it and that was it. That was the deciding factor. It was what in war they call ‘Crossing the Rubicon’.
Given the current crises of Boko Haram and insecurity in Nigeria today, especially in the North, would you say Ojukwu’s move would have been the best for this country?
Undeniably so. In Mathematics, the most malignant aspect of mathematics is what we call recurring decimal. The issue has kept on recurring. Why not we try that panacea which we rejected? There was an alternative, to become a confederation, if not separation, the main thrust of the Aburi Accord. And it was rejected over the years, running to 40 years. Why has it been difficult for us to try the alternative panacea?
There is the Boko Haram problem in the North today, and it is becoming obvious that the target of the sect is the Igbos, just like in the 60s. What is your take on the loud silence of current crop of Igbo leaders?
It is not always good for us to talk about killings in the North. When there is intense heat, the wise thing to do is to go away from the heat, and realign, and reconsider your position. The ideal thing would have been for the Igbos to come home. Come home and let us renegotiate Nigeria. A visit entails a certain element of risk. When you visit somebody, you could meet with accident, or reception, or acceptance. You could equally meet with ejection. But then, when you are rejected, the wise thing to do is to go home. So my belief is that the correct thing could have been for the Igbos to come back home, and renegotiate Nigeria.
That contradicts what Senator Uche Chukwumerije recently said; that Igbo leaders are not in a hurry to conclude on whatto do about the killing of Igbos in the North by Boko Haram, and that Igbos should stay back in the North. What do you make of this?
He is entitled to his opinion, but as far as I am concerned, the first law of defence is self-defence. You defend yourself first. You run for safety before you realign yourself, reposition yourself before attack. They are the owners of the place, they are northerners, and that is the bottom-line. Obviously, we are not welcome in their homeland. The best thing we should do is to come back home and manage with what we have at home, while we renegotiate.
Igbos in the North are saying that if we insist that they return to the East, what are they expected to do about the heavy investments they have done in the North?
That is the problem. I have my own view about life itself. You don’t gain in life, you don’t lose in life. It is a continuum. You come with nothing and you go with nothing. The most dangerous thing to the existence of our nation is the inordinate attachment to material wealth. The northerner comes to your house with a mat. He is always ready to go, and that is why in most cases, he is like thin air. You go to England; a lot of people are getting detached from property. The whites enter into a house furnished and he comes with his brief case only, and after a year or two, leaves with his brief case for another furnished apartment. But we like to own everything. Most of the things they are investing in the North, they could have invested in the East. Two major things rivet a human being- marriages and material things.
If an Igbo goes to the North and gets married to a Hausa woman, there is nothing that will make him go home, even if they are cutting off his head. It’s the same thing, if you go there and you build the biggest skyscraper, you will not go. Of course when they attack you, the thrust is with a view to acquire what you have laboured for. So the wisdom in acquisition is location of your assets in safe areas.
Since the passing on of Ojukwu, a lot ofcalls have been made for a new leader for the Igbo. Commentators, however, think that there is no one qualified today to step into his shoes, which many believe are too large. What is your take on this?
My father’s shoes are obviously very big. But as I have always told people, the shoes were tempered by the extant situation. You cannot produce an Ojukwu during a peaceful time. You cannot produce an Ojukwu at a wedding reception. You cannot produce an Ojukwu during a gala nite. You need a very strong, debilitating, extinguishing crisis, and then an Ojukwu will emerge.
While sitting very comfortably in my house- the Ojukwu in me will not come out becaue I am enjoying air condition, I am watching Sky News. But when people around me are being exterminated, that devil will come up; that warrior will come out. That unique individual will come up. He was the most popular officer in the Nigerian Army. He taught his mates many things. He taught them etiquettes by virtue of being groomed in England. He was the one that told them where to have the best parties in town, and they always looked up to him.
Then suddenly, something else cropped up. You could imagine the shock, when the man they thought they could always buy stood firmly. Is it Emeka they are talking about, no, he is our friend. But now, it became a question of ‘my people’ and your people. The real him came out, and he maintained that till the end. So it will be out of place for anybody then to say he can fit in his shoes. Anybody that tells you he can fill his shoes is a joker. Look at Boko Haram. Who has tried to get into it and wear half of the shoes?
Nobody is talking, that is the issue. Everybody is corseted by contracts, by political attachments. That is why they are not talking. You can only talk when you are free. You cannot talk when you borrowed money from the banks, and the government is aware that you took the money without collateral. You cannot talk.
What kind of man did you perceive him to be during those troubled times?
I did not see much of him during the war. He was always a marshal man, always strategizing. There is no way you could see a general all the time. He was very busy with strategies, conferring with his war commanders, and you know how tasking that could be. Because of the war, the easiest way to kill a general is to bring his family close to him. He would lose focus, and would not go far. That was why it was a public policy that his family should not be close to him during the war. He fought the war alone, on his own.
What do you think about the controversies on whether he should be given a state burial or not?
I think there shouldn’t have been any controversy. He was mini-fes, and that in itself entitles him to that. Mini-fes means he was among the first graduates of the Nigerian army. He was in the public service; he was a military governor, in control of what today could have been about nine states. Then, he led a country- he led Biafra. Whatever pretensions we make about Biafra could not obliterate the fact that the same Biafra was recognized by four independent states that are still existing.
Those independent states dealt with a country. There were exchange of letters of credence between those states and Biafra. So coextensively, he was a head of state, even though some may deny it, who should be entitled to a state funeral. Ivory Coast is there, there is Gabon, Haiti, and France. Are we saying that these people are no longer countries? Are we saying that they are no longer territories within the ambit of the place that was called Biafra? If they recognized Biafra, then Biafra was a country. It was a state, and he died a head of state. He is entitled, and should have been given a state burial. If for anything, at least to douse the tension between the North and the South. The problem we have in the country is the problem of acceptance. Once we entrench truth and justice, most of these problems we are encountering today will be a thing of the past.
There are those who still strongly believe in Biafra. In fact, there are pointers that 80to 90 per cent Igbo still strongly believe that Biafra will still become a nation, given the state of the nation today. What is your opinion given the fact that your father was the champion of this cause?
I believe in Biafra. I wake up every day a Biafran. But my concept of Biafra today is different from what I had many years ago. My Biafra of today encapsulates injustice. So if you are unjust to me, the Biafran in me rises. If you are just to me, the Biafran in me is doused. The clamour for Biafra today as I extensively discussed with my father is a cry against injustice. If truth it’s fully entrenched in Nigeria, there will be no clamour for Biafra. But it’s the flagrant and perverse injustice in the nation that engenders these pockets of cries for Biafra.
What do you think about the role of MASSOB and other such groups in the South East and South South?
MASSOB is playing a very good role. In French, there is what we call ávante provacateur’, agent of provocation. I see MASSOB as a catalyst. They are there to make sure that the Igbos are not ignorant of who they are. Without that central body, there will be no voice today for the Igbos. MASSOB is there to remind them; even though some might say that some of their methods are crude. But in the absence of every other thing, MASSOB is a welcome development. MASSOB does not act in isolation- that is still that thing am telling you about truth and justice.
When you talk about truth and justice, MASSOB is a bad organisation. Why is Odua People’s Congress not a bad organisation? Why is Arewa Consultative Forum not a bad organisation? It is always easy to write off MASSOB, to give names to MASSOB. If OPC could exist in Yoruba land and play a very good role for them, there is nothing wrong with MASSOB. It is only when it degenerates into a violent organ that it should attract condemnation. But if all they do is peaceful, I endorse them 100 per cent.
Ojukwu is perhaps the greatest Igbo in modern history. How does it feel like to be son to the greatest Igbo man in our times?
It’s out of this world. I sit in my privacy and wonder why I became so lucky. I don’t have any other extra qualities to be that. Ordinary me, his son? Check it from all ramifications, not only am I his son, but I am his clone. He gave me all he had- I have never seen that kind of love before. The approximation could be what you see in the Bible- ‘For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son’. You could also say, ‘For this man so loved his son that he gave him all he had. He gave me his intellect, he gave me his physique- he gave me everything about him. The only question I have never asked him is why I deserve all these. I am the only one he worried about in the whole world, the only person who made him cry when I went wrong. At times, I try to take the liberty of a child playing pranks. He did not allow me. I would do certain things and you would see his eyes redhot, as if he was saying, you did this to me? He took it very personal. That always kept me on my toes, because I never wanted to offend him
The federal government has been advised to review down the current regime of stringent near-impossible conditions set for the establishment of new refineries in the country, to trigger off a massive instant revolution in the sector.
An elder statesman and the immediate-past chairman of Police Service Commission(PSC), Chief Simon Okeke dropped the wise counsel in an interview with the Guardian in his Amichi country home, Anambra state, yesterday.
Reacting to the recent mass protest that greeted the new Year eve subsidy removal, Chief Okeke said, “as an ordinary citizen there is so much hardship in the country today that everyone has legitimate right to question or disagree with any other move to increase the existing burden. So why Mr President and his men did chose to do so? They said it was for the eventual good of all. I believed them. But we have seen what happened.
“The subsidy withdrawal has increased the burden of the masses because the marketers have gone far beyond the price set. More so, I expected the government to remove the subsidy and ask marketers to sell at the market price or the price that suits them instead of pegging it at a point as if we were still under the subsidy control. Something appears unclear really”, the ex-PSC chief noted.
He wondered why all the existing refineries were near comatose, while the inability of the 25 newly licensed ones according to the records of the FG did not agitate the minds of the operators.
He therefore urged President Goodluck Jonathan to liberalize conditions of setting up a refinery (or distillery, as he called it) just like what happened in the Biafra enclave during the civil war era; and to stop the military task forces in the niger Delta to stop destroying and chasing the current operators of such refineries around. He disclosed that Biafra authorities mobilized engineers of the era and they turned every kitchen and oil mills within the zone into a mini-refinery for petroleum products. That it was why there was enough for the vehicles and even for the aircrafts then. That what needed to be done now would be to set up criteria, standard and supervise. That it was the same in the United States of America (USA) and Canada today.
It was his belief that if the small time refineries were encouraged to coexist side by side the mega ones, it would flood the nation with products and crash the current soaring prices of products instantly as low as N30 per litre.
Okeke also canvassed the supply of crude to all the mini-refiners at the same market rate with ease
The House of Representatives Committee on Drugs, Narcotics, Financial Crimes and Anti-Corruption on Friday, January 27th, 2012 called for enhanced funding of the activities and operations of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. Chairman of the Committee, Honourable Jagaba Adams Jagaba made this call at a meeting where the Acting Chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde presented the Commission’s budget proposal to it. A proposal of N10.9billion as allocated by the Budget Office of the Federation was presented. He specifically called for the intervention of the Committee to correct the zero allocation in respect of Legal services, Forensic Laboratory, Information and Communication Technology and Life Insurance for the staff of the Commission. Lamorde said that: “The attention of the whole nation is on the EFCC to rise to the challenge of curbing corrupt practices in our midst. But we need to be funded adequately to do this. Zero budgeting in the critical areas of the Commission’s work requires your intervention” .He also called for better allocation of funds for the construction of the permanent office complex of the EFCC. Jagaba expressed support for the work of the EFCC and assured the Commission of the cooperation of his Committee to address the shortfall in the allocation made for the EFCC by the budget office. “We know your needs. I want to assure you that we will address the problem. Government wants the EFCC to succeed; this is why it gave it a tasking assignment to handle recently. It is dangerous not to fund the EFCC adequately. To do so is to throw it up to the highest bidders and the corrupt and the end will not be good for all of us”, he said. Other Committee members who were present at the sitting also corroborated Jagaba’s position. Honourable Emmanuel Menga Udende, Vice- Chairman of the Committee stressed the need to equip the EFCC in all areas, in order to empower it for optimum performance. Honourable Sheik Umar Abubakar said that the zero budgeting in the areas highlighted by Lamorde could be an error of omission. “It couldn’t have been deliberate”, he said. He however called for an improved relationship between the EFCC and the Budget Office. Other Committee members at the meeting are Honourable Nasiru Sule Garo and Honourable John Dyegh. Lamorde was accompanied on the budget defense meeting to the House of Representatives by the Secretary to the Commission, Mr Emmanuel Akomaye, Director of Organizational Support, Mr. Bolaji Salami, Director of Finance, Mr. Femi Jegede and other top officials of the Commission.
By Osae Brown
As Nigerians were on the street protesting over fuel subsidy removal, a British based man was being arraigned in UK over the shipping of 80,000 rifles and pistols and 32 million rounds of ammunition to Nigeria. The shipment included 40,000 AK47 assault rifles, 30,000 rifles and 10,000 9mm pistols.
According to a report by the BBC, the man whose name is Gary Hyde, shipped these huge arm cache without receiving permission from the relevant government department in the UK.
Gary Hyde was not alone in this deal. It was carried out with his business partner Karl Kleber, a German national based in Germany, the court was told.
The pair acted as middle men between two Polish companies acting for the Nigerian buyers and Chinese companies, the court heard, according to the BBC report. Both men received commission payments for the deals totaling around $1.3m (£840,000) or N351 million.
The story apparently left several questions unanswered. Who were the Nigerian buyers? Were these guns really delivered to Nigeria eventually?
It is also interesting that since this story broke out in the British media, the Nigerian government has not come out with any specific statement on it. Were these weapons imported by the Nigerian government? If they were not imported by the Nigerian government, have they made any efforts to trace the importers of these large numbers of weapons into the country? Thirty two million rounds of ammunition are enough to kill thirty two million Nigerians, assuming each bullet will kill a Nigerian? This may be an exaggeration, but there is no doubt that if there is this amount of guns and ammunition out there outside the control of the government, then every Nigerian has a serious course to be worried at this time.
The reputation of Gary Hyde, the man at the centre of the storm shows that Nigerians have to be concerned that he has set his eyes on supplying arms to the country. A report in February 2011, in The Observer in UK shows that Hyde is also facing charges in the US for smuggling arms into the country. The Observer describes him as “Britain’s very own lord of war; an international arms dealer, whose chief currency is the AK-47 assault rifle”
The Observer reports that US officials arrested Hyde in connection with the alleged illegal import into the US of almost 6,000 Chinese-produced AK-47 magazines, each capable of holding up to 75 rounds of ammunition.
The Observer also quotes a Wiki leaks release of confidential US embassy cables which shows that in 2008 York Guns, where Gary Hyde is a director, tried to ship 130,000 of the assault rifles to Libya. The WikiLeaks revelation shows that Gary Hyde through his company acted as an intermediary between an unidentified Ukrainian arms manufacturer and Libyan officials. “The size of the deal raised eyebrows in diplomatic circles, as Libya has only 70,000 ground-force troops and these would be unlikely to use a weapon as dated as the AK-47. The cable noted that the export licence was rejected because the “UK is concerned that the intention may be to re-export the weapons, particularly to armed rebel factions backed by Khartoum and/or Ndjamena in the Chad/Sudan conflict”.
Kleber, Gary Hyde’s German partner also has a reputation that does not sit well with the authorities. The Observer reports that “in 2008 the German federal police agency, the BKA, launched an investigation into Kleber to determine whether he had been involved in “the illegal sale of machine guns via Croatia to Iraq”. This was in response to allegations that companies linked to Hyde had sold tens of thousands of guns to Ziad Cattan, the former head of military procurement at the Iraq Defence Ministry, without an appropriate arms brokering licence. Cattan fled Iraq after a warrant was issued for his arrest amid allegations that he had siphoned off millions of dollars in corrupt deals.” What emerges from these reports is that the two men now being named in connection with supply of arms to Nigeria should raise serious concerns in Nigeria. Have they supplied some other arms into the country, that the authorities are not aware?
The concern becomes even more real considering the fact that at the same time Gary Hyde was being arraigned in UK, the Ghanaian authorities intercepted a truck loaded with arms and ammunitions heading to Nigeria. The ammunitions included pump action rifles and live rounds. These arrests are coming at time the Boko Haram insurgence is getting worse in Northern Nigeria as bombs explode on almost on daily basis and masked men go on killing spree with sophisticated weapons. The activities of Boko Haram, the continuous crisis in Jos is no doubt raising serious concerns and fears of retaliation from other ethnic groups. Could this inflow of arms be linked to ethnic groups arming themselves? Are they arming themselves to defend themselves or to go on the offensive?
This is a critical period in Nigeria’s history and all people of goodwill must stand up and douse the rising intention. As I said in my earlier post, the Rwanda trip will be a dangerous place for Nigeria to go. The government must also act and act fast.
This is also the time the international community must come to the aid of Nigeria. It is clear that the Nigeria intelligence agencies do not have the capacity to deal with the emerging challenge. They must offer their help at this time. They cannot wait for a Rwandan type crisis to develop before they intervene. China, especially, should caution its business community. This is not the time to fuel the crisis in Nigeria for monetary gains. Nigeria is China’s biggest market in Africa. An unstable Nigeria will not be good for China’s long term economic interest.
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Article culled from http://osae-brown-insights.blogspot.com/2012/01/who-is-sending-guns-to-nigeria.html
Today, the Nigerian Supreme Court gave a ruling that sacked five state governors – Liyel Imoke (Cross River), Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), Ibrahim Idris (Kogi), Wamako (Sokoto), Timipre Silva (Bayelsa).
The Supreme Court ruled that the five state governors have no legal mandate to remain in office beyond May 2011. The justices in declaring their positions vacant stated that the tenures of Timipre Sylva of Bayelsa, Murtala Nyako of Adamawa, Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko of Sokoto, Ibrahim Idris of Kogi and Liyel Imoke of Cross Rivers state had since expired since last year.
SOME indigenous oil players in the Niger Delta, Nigeria’s main oil and gas hub, and a radical group in the area, rose from a meeting on Thursday, resolving to be more active in the on-going anti-corruption war in the country’s problematic oil and gas industry.
They jointly agreed to put more pressure on both the executive and legislative arms of government, to broaden the on-going searchlight on nthe industry to include ”sharp practices” in the content regime.
They are arguing that effective implementation of the country’s Local Content Act, will help to vigorously combat graft in the industry which they claimed, ”has soiled” the image of the country.
The local oil servicing players, rose from ”a strategic interest meeting” with the Niger Delta Indigenous Movement for Radical Change (NDIMRC) in Warri, the commercial heart of Delta State, on Thursday, resolving to allow the group to push their agenda.
A correspondent of AkanimoReports who covered the closed door parley, reports that emerging interest group agreed to employ every method necessary to ensure that the sector was sanitised.
While the local oil chiefs mandated the group to champion their agenda, the meeting however, called on President Goodluck Jonathan, to direct the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, to take ”serious steps” to encourage the full implementation of the content law in a bid to curb some of the leakages in the industry.
The Act was signed into law by President Jonathan on April 22, 2010.
The minister had on January 24, 2012 flagged off visit to key local content facilities across the country on critical assessment.
Ernest Nwapa, a top public functionary, says the facility tour will take the minister to fabrication yards, logistics bases, training institutes and service centres in Abuja, Lagos, Warri and Port-Harcourt.
According to him, ”the tour is expected to encourage the investors of the full support of the government and industry to meet the aspirations of the Nigerian Content Act”.
Spokesman for the group, Nelly Emma, has said that the move was a welcome development, noting that local companies in the region have built capacity to face the challenges in the oil and gas industry and they need to be supported with good jobs so as for them not to go down.
”We really welcome the Local Content Assessment visit of the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, a true daughter of the Niger Delta region, but her visit will be meaningless if it does not translate into good jobs for our people who have invested heavily in capacity building,” he said.
The group has always claimed that the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) was the main culprit in the subversion of the content law and should be checked now to avoid crisis in the Niger Delta region.
”Our investigation, as a watchdog group, has revealed that Shell does not want local contractors in the oil and gas industry to survive. The company wants our people who have invested billions of dollars in the sector, to go bankrupt. This explains why the company has been giving every support to Saipem, Daewoo, O.P.I. and Acergy. We are saying that this is wrong because it is driving our people out of business”.
Shell, according to them, is allegedly out to frustrate local investors that they do not have dealings with. Shell has programmed all its major projects from 2011-2020 to the oil servicing majors such as O.P.I., Saipem and Daewoo to the detriment of the local investors.
Before now, the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Mr. Ernest Nwapa, had visited some local contractors to see things for himself.
The Niger Delta group is imploring Mrs. Alison-Madueke, to encourage those from the region who have invested heavily in capacity building with good contracts and give allocations and oil blocks to our people because it is our oil.
”Fix our people in sensitive positions in NNPC instead of allowing such positions to be occupied by the Hausas and Yorubas who are not supporting the administration of President Jonathan. The Petroleum Minister cannot afford to fail the people of the Niger Delta region”, they said.
The step taken by the Supreme Court of Nigeria to consult and seek views of some legal luminaries on the very sensitive issue of tenure elongation which was brought before it by some governorship aspirants and the Independent National Electoral Commission of Nigeria against some State governors is very pleasing as it has expanded opportunities for Nigerians to contribute to the development of the nation’s democratic process.
The three legal giants have independently conducted their research and made their respective recommendations in a nonpartisan and transparent manner. Though the legal experts may well have played an important role in proffering advice and supporting their respective positions with some legal authorities, it still remains individual views on a vital national issue because the Supreme Court Judges as the ultimate deciders on legal issues will determine the legitimacy or not of tenure elongation. The final position of the Supreme Court which be made public tomorrow is a long awaited decision that will have diverse effect on Nigeria’s democracy especially on its modernisation of the electoral administration and transition processes.
Without necessarily seeking to interfere in the opinions of the legal gurus or attempting to pre-empt a case before the highest Court of law, it is important to state that the initial action taken by the Supreme Court in setting out to consult extensively before reaching a definitive judgment on a political issue of national significance is a wonderful trend toward making positive democratic changes that may restore integrity and public confidence in Nigeria’s democratic process especially given that the conduct of credible and acceptable elections has continued to haunt most developing countries.
In Nigeria, the process of strengthening the electoral process has been a recurring one. After so many years of military rule and several interrupted democratic dispensations to the return of seeming stable civil rule in 1999, the electoral law on the conduct of elections has been amended after every election resulting in the enactment of the 2001, 2006 and 2010 electoral acts. However, the issue of tenure elongation throws up some fundamental constitutional, legal, moral, economic, practical and strategic challenges that must be addressed to ensure that we raise the standard of our general elections to deepen our democracy.
At the moment, given the existing Appeal court ruling on elongation of tenure, already dates for holding gubernatorial elections have been scattered in such a way that presently five of Nigeria’s thirty six states conduct their elections on dates that are different from the general gubernatorial elections. Again, with a myriad of cases in different courts of law challenging the election results of 2011, it would not be surprising if after the election tribunals conclude their respective sittings, another five states or more join the tenure elongation camp with likelihood that other States may join after every general election until such a time that the so called date for gubernatorial general elections may have little or no relevance during general election year.
Presently, the case in the Supreme Court which challenges the constitutionality of elongation of tenure is set to be a judgement that will either rationalise or introduce greater consistency to the timetable for elections throughout the nation. However, beyond the legal battle, it is obvious that there are serious political or economic grounds to consider on the issue of tenure elongation. To understand the major consequence, it is important to realize that tenure elongation is a structural constraint to democratic governance in Africa as it brings with it inconsistency of election periods which is very detrimental to countries undergoing democratic growth with huge funding support from the International Community.
Inconsistency in electoral periods as a result of tenure elongation threatens the financial support of development partners particularly given that this may bring about incomprehensibility in monitoring elections and may erode the potency of INEC’s harmonised programme of activities. For example, an intervention agency like the UNDP which funds International Election Assessment Delegations to conduct programs that support democratic development in Africa, Asia, Europe, the former Soviet Union, the Americas and the Middle East may find it difficult to get involved in observing and assessing elections that do not have fixed periods. For emphasis, an agency like INEC which in the year 2011 was provided with a budget grant of 107 billion Naira approximately 535 million Euros to conduct the voter registration and the General Elections may lose the financial backing of the International community because of serious doubt on its credibility .in conducting elections without fixed period. Indeed, such will neither attract concrete nor continued response by the UN system and there may be decreased support from sympathetic partners like the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and European Union EU) on assistance to elections and necessary electoral reforms in Nigeria.
Granted that early elections can be held in case of resignation, ill-health, impeachment or death, nevertheless, fixed election periods are reliable, dependable dates that voters could count on and plan for, like the fixed date for America’s presidential elections: Every four years on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November. However, while acknowledging that there are challenges in seeking to introduce greater consistency across elections; fixed election periods are the only fair and democratic way to ensure that we retain the goodwill of the international community.
Elections in Nigeria has to be more timely, efficiently targeted and coordinated to enable Nigeria access substantial funding from a basket of donor agencies in the interests of a more transparent and democratic system. However, in a situation where the Supreme court of Nigeria rules in favour of tenure elongation, it will not only discourage coherent international development assistance but diminish national efforts to build democratic practices and mechanisms that can foster stronger democratic accountability.
On the other hand, if the Supreme court ruling does not favour tenure elongation especially now that Primaries elections have already been conducted in some states, what it means is that the entire platform on which the conduct of the recent elections were based would collapse. Indeed, this would be a best option as political parties would have to revert to status quo.
Besides, Nigeria needs a real fixed election period and concrete days every Nigerian can depend upon. The need for fixed period election legislation cannot be overemphasized as it will create a regular cycle of planned general elections, with specific, predictable election dates and a fixed term for elected officers. The ruling of the Supreme Court of tomorrow may just provide the best solutions to resolving the political conflicts within the PDP in Kogi and Bayelsa states where the supporters of Alhaji Jibrin Isah Echocho and Timpriye Sylva claim their candidates are the people’s choice but for the machinations of the PDP leadership, democracy has been made to stand on its head.
*PHRANK SHAIBU,A public communications consultant wrote from Abuja.
The prevailing, western civilization (About 700 years now) driving by continental Europe, US as its inalienable part, seems to have reached its saturation. The apparent collapse of their economies as trillions of Dollars are sunk to put the war ravaged or fix terror- war consumed political economies are fast side tracking the best strategist and economic gurus available. The political architecture has already lost many Generals and seasoned and senior diplomats key Government officials across Europe and America, as consequence of the discovered lies to perpetuate the war in Iraq in 2003; the failure of which Barrack Obama admitted as troops finally withdraw in late 2011. The economic collapse has already thrown away Prime ministers of Greece and Italy as more are expected to suck up as the collapse continued to be imminent. At the social front, consumerism, excessive individualism, broken homes and sexual perversion take the centre stage. The latest attempt at social assault is the efforts to create an entirely new, strange frontier for ethics, morality and rights. The attempt to redefine marriage to mean anything worse than bestial is meant to provide new concepts and phrases that would give a new outlook altogether to the civilization which would serve as crucial process to undo itself. Trying to moralize the infamous Sodom and Gomorrah. With US, UK and EU at the forefront of promoting lesbianism and homosexuality among many forms of sexual deviance is part of the recent tactics at ideological war that is set to mobilize everything at their disposal to promote them. Before now, the efforts were geared against cultures that marry out their daughters at the early start of their reproductive maturity. What the antagonists called early marriage! All attacks from child abuse to the spread of VVF are widely used to blackmail such cultures; and at times when younger ages across Europe are producing fatherless, street children. In UK for instance there are cases of nine year girls that illegitimately conceived and delivered, adding burden on the social scale. While places like Nigeria are compelled to redesigned their laws to punish parents who married out their daughters at the of 14-16 years.
Broadly, human civilisation is predicated on the invaluable concepts of Right and Wrong, Evil and Good as symbolized by the first generation of humankind, i.e. Cain and Abeel. It is this value of Good and the Evil that the prophets of God through the Divine Religions came to promote. The Anglican Britain and Protestant US being inalienable adherents to divine religions.
With the Queen as head of the church of England and IN GOD WE TRUST as the philosophy of America one becomes completely lost when same societies ,their governments to sound mild and political, are all ought to fight Nigeria and others, especially African societies that not only frown at lesbianism and homosexuality as evil but spelt out penalty to its perpetrators in the precedence of God himself, small as the penalty is , unlike God who destroyed the entire community of Lot, to concur with modern civilisation.
Preservation and respect for the provision of International Human rights law is the reason why the west decides to be as Godless as shown in its desperation to promote sexual perversion. According to Devine religions, the only law that is immutable and eternally valid is Divine law itself. There is nothing sacrosanct about Human rights whose convention was signed in Dec. 8th, 1948, with lopsided, few Anglo-Saxons as signatories. In a world that has its 2/5 as Buddhists. over 1/6 as Muslims, over half of the world as non European non-Judea Christian, Christian Europe has no universal rights to claim definition, least, to impose human rights law, taking into consideration the role religion is playing today in world politics, with issues of anti veil and anti minaret as the sharpest symbols of parliamentary and governmental reactions in continental Europe. Today there are 192 members of the UN on whose auspices the UNDHR was signed by only 49 countries. A convention whose other optional protocols to the convention were signed as late as 1976.This very human rights law, recent and as human as it is, has undergone 168 amendments. Depicting all the weaknesses and shortcomings of human made laws, delegimising any claim to universality of perfection; the laws Anglo Saxons are audaciously and barefacedly invoking to punish others .More than any other time, the crucial role culture plays in International relations today demands for a total overhaul of the UNDHR to reflect the overall values and traditions of the various world communities, the majority of which are neither Europeans nor Christians ,for the Christian teachings they are all out to destroy. Imperfect as it remains ,the office of the High commissioner for Human Rights, Important as “Human Rights” is, Resolution 48/141 of 20th Dec.1993 of the General Assembly of the UN that created the office .As if to ask ,whither human rights hitherto. The essence of any law, human rights in this case, must be to preserve the dignity of human kind and upholds the humanity in human kinds, anything short of this, such laws are meaningless and useless .Promoting same sex is an outright efforts at undoing humanity; thus, is not only criminal, it denaturalizes the harmony and orderliness of creation as fully expressed by the law of opposites. The significance and value of anything is in its opposite, heaven and earth, man and woman or the almighty negative and positive.
It is valuable to note that the clatter over rights of the lesbians, homosexuals and all other forms of sexual deviants is an issue of the most recent 21st century .US and the Europeans nations behind the brash have just amended their national laws by decriminalizing the deviance. It was in June 2011 US, EU and South Africa led the first ever UN resolution in human rights of LGBT; after amendment of their national laws in 2010. It was as late as Oct.20th 2010 when the United States cosponsored High level panel on LGBT rights at the UN in Geneva along with Argentina, Brazil, Columbia ,East Timor ,Finland, France, Ireland Mexico ,Netherlands ,Norway ,Romania ,and Slovenia . All countries promoting sexual pervasions as rights are guilty of violating International human rights and deserve the punishments accordingly; and if they have rights to arbitrarily amend, change and alter the criminal provisions of such perversions, other nations have equal rights to criminalise same in their national laws ,as at issue is to decriminalize or criminalise at will. Law for its rule to prevail must not be selective. In Euro-america for example, polygamy is illegal, denying the rights of those who believe in it, despite the fact that it’s part of cultural cum religious system, because it runs contrary to the societies norms and traditions, by the same argument, other societies have outlawed lesbianism, homosexuality etc because is against their norms and traditions, someone from the outside is invoking a law that he refused to see in his own case, what an injustice, at best a double standard. No nation is more sovereign than another ,no nation has right to impose its caprices and whims on another as no nation has the prerogative to define rights and wrongs for others .No nation has the cultural rights to define the values and traditions of others, and if there is anything International ,it must be an aggregate consensus of all cultural groups and communities of the world, otherwise, there is nothing universal about International human rights laws as it negates the values and tradition of others. Just as US reserves the rights to refuse to sign International Criminal Court and the Kyoto agreement, among so many international conventions, so any other nation also reserves the rights to refuse any convention that is repugnant to its national values and traditions. Of what essence is international law if it purposes is to destroy the fabrics that uphold a country’s honour, domestic dynamics and national cohesion??? It’s in this context the call by people like Kofi Annan and Henry Kissinger to restructure and redesign the United Nations become more impending. The Anglo Saxon, narrow and hegemonic character of the UN must give way to multilateral, independent and just framework. Just like EU is structured as a cultural foundation with its root well formed in the ontology and epistemology of greek civilization ,and then, an economic and political association, so UN must be so to be a universal configuration of the world cultural realities with their ontological and epistemological values put together to command international legitimacy.
The climax of sexual deviance is reached with Barrack Obama signing the presidential memorandum no 6 on 6th Dec.2011. Directly linking Development assistance, Diplomacy and sexual deviance and perversion, Obama directed all US agencies engaged abroad to ensure that they use foreign assistance and diplomacy to promote and protect the rights of LGBT –Lesbian Gay, Bisexual And Trans gender persons . The Directive includes among so many instructions: Decriminalisation of LGBT, protecting vulnerable LGBT refugees, swift and meaningful US responses to abuses of LGBT persons abroad, engaging International organizations in fight against LGBT discrimination. In other words, rights of lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and transgender are at the centre of US foreign policy.
By the same logic any other nation has equal rights to make its laws and also define its foreign policy priority, that is what independence is all about!.
The more you abuse nature, the law of nature and law of opposites insist, the more it reacts. According to scientific findings, vast majority of AIDS cases in north America, Europe and , Africa have been acquired by homosexual or heterosexual intercourse .In the early 1980s when the first cases of AIDS in the US were recognized by physicians in Los Angeles, they found an unusual type of Pneumonia caused by the yeast like pungus Pnuemocystis jirovecii among homosexuals.
The direct link of sexual deviance to International development assistance now refreshes and sharpens the old debate on the aids as tool for interference and control of the receiving states. Mildly, the west has to swaddle its economic crisis, inevitable collapse and obvious inability to aid others in the LGBT rights. In the normal rhetoric of President Obama one would have ignored him if not because of the context he “speechified” the issue as if he is ignorant of the Quantity and quality of the much celebrated assistance. Contrary to the UN recommendation to Developed nations to assist poor countries with 0.7% of their annual GNP/GNI as far back as 1970, especially the 21 rich nations of OECD, they have failed drastically .From 1970-2010, they had short failed to the value of $4.17 Trillion Dollars (58%).The $3.04Trillion (42%) given is largely spent in maintaining the consultants that accompanied the assistance and overpriced and unwanted purchases of goods and services from the Donors. In 2011 when EU and the US are threatening nations over sex, of all things, OECD assistance (ODA) is 6.5 % increase, it is still averaged 3.2% of the combined GNI of the donors while the US had, between 2007-2010 a meager of 0.21%, in 2010 its overall ODA is 0.2% ; the least donor (except 2009 when it ranked highest).Its focal to note, US is not among top donors to Nigeria between 1999-2007(UNESCO 2009).Its constructive to understand that of all the ODA, the US of which is only $3 billion to south Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa annually, is less than 1 % of the national budget of Nigeria. Thus, Does Nigeria even need such token? Are such handouts not even a compromise on the nations pride and independence? Our human, oil, mineral and agric resources are enough to feed all the countries of the DAC (development assistance committee), if not the sellouts in Nigeria and Africa allowed to become surrogates of the hegemons in forging the unpatriotic and exploitative alliance that allows governance and leadership to perpetuate poverty and backwardness that give the cover for such meager amounts that we are even threaten to suffer of it for deciding to uphold our sovereignty. That as it is, of what progress or assistance has the development assistance done? Is the country not rated among the most fraudulent Democracies in the world? Is the continent not the poorest part of the world, and by definition the Nigeria? Is the country not among the poorest infrastructures in the world despite the billions of dollars that pour in the country as multilateral assistance (this time credits) to fix electricity, education, water, health etc, courtesy of the World Bank. In other words the assistance we are threaten to suffer for, has not been any source of comfort to people, small as it is or meaningless as it has been.
It would be topical to also explore the linkage with such institutions like the World Bank to understand why such loans fail to make the difference .The Bank has its headquarters in the district of Washington, with the Managing director, as American, appointed by American Government. The overall American influence, nay, dominance of the Bank was put in place far back 1945. According to government General Accounting office, “US influence in the International development institutions is predominantly measured by how much funding the United States provides to these institutions. The US funding decisions must provide for support which does not fall below levels at which US influence would be adequate to defend or promote our interests or where the multilateral structure would be weakened. In other words, the institutions appear International, but meant to serve US foreign policy objectives.”The US Govt. has special division called National Advisory Council (NAC) in charge of World bank/IMF and related International financial activities under Treasury department. It’s strategic to note that since 1972, the Treasury Dept .holds a seat on the National Foreign Intelligence Board. It is in this context, one would have a good understanding of what the Director USAID says in 1995, testifying to congress that, 85 cents of every Dollar of aid goes back to US economy in Goods and services purchased. Since 1980’s US assistance worldwide is conditioned to world bank/IMF structural adjustment policies .According to Benjamin F. Nelson, aid is established as a priority influencing domestic policy in the recipient countries. In 1985, George P. Shultz, professor of economics, US secretary of Treasury 1972-74, Reagan Secretary of state and Presidential campaign Advisor of George W. Bush in 2000 stated flatly that “our foreign assistance programs are vital to the achievement of our foreign policy goals”
Tied aid is a good coinage that describes how countries are cajoled and coerced to do what they would not have done ordinarily. This entails using aids resources to purchase overpriced Goods or services from the donor country, hire consultants, engineers and all sorts of experts when the receiving nation has better and cheaper alternatives, at home or elsewhere. According to Earth scan, 71.6 per cent of US bilateral aid is tied to the purchase of Goods and services from the country.
In a sharp criticism of the celebrated aids, Professor William Easterly submits:
A tragedy of the world’s poor has been that the west spent $2.3 trillion on foreign aid over the last five decades and still had not managed to get twelve cent medicine to children to prevent half of malaria deaths. The west spent $2.3 trillion and still had not managed to get four dollar bed nets to poor families. The West spent $2.3 trillion and still had not managed to get three dollars to each new mother to prevent five million child deaths
It is on record that growing poverty, conflict and crises in Africa are directly linked to economic policies imposed on national government by IMF and the World Bank. The connection between growing hunger and famine in Africa, in terms of military assistance, with wide spread illegal arms and the formal arms purchases from the US is obvious .According to some survey, out of every four illegal weapons, three are from US
Between 1985 and 1995, the belligerent parties in forty-five conflicts around the globe obtained $42 billion worth of weapons from the United States. Out of about 90 percent of the fifty most significant conflicts in 1993-94, one or more parties received U.S. weapons or military technology. 45 Through trafficking, arms sales, and military aid, the United States helps keep dozens of civil wars and other armed conflicts around the world alive and thriving. Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya are the most recent examples.
African Growth And Opportunity Act (AGOA) is another contraption developed to further control the resources of Africa .It’s an American trade mechanism that is foremost subjected to the broader conditionality of World Trade Organisation (WTO), and strategically shrouded in the usual protectionist policies of the industrialized world in the pattern of the old mercantilism. An observer comments on how AGOA works, to take one example, much has been made of America’s generosity towards Africa under the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). This provides what, on the surface, looks like free market access for a range of textile, garment and footwear products. Scratch the surface and you get a different picture. Under AGOA’s so-called rules-of-origin provisions, the yarn and fabric used to make apparel exports must be made either in the United States or an eligible African country. If they are made in Africa, there is a ceiling of 1.5 per cent on the share of the US market that the products in question can account for. Moreover, the AGOA’s coverage is less than comprehensive. There are some 900 tariff lines not covered, for which average tariffs exceed 11 per cent.
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the benefits accruing to Africa from the AGOA would be some $420m, or five times, greater if the US removed the rules-of-origin restrictions. But these restrictions reflect the realities of mercantilist trade policy. The underlying principle is that you can export to America, provided that the export in question uses American products rather than those of competitors. For a country supposedly leading a crusade for open, non-discriminatory global markets, it’s a curiously anachronistic approach to trade policy. Since 2000 when the act was signed, Africa has nothing to show as its benefits.
It is a known fact how nations targeted by such mechanism are forced to vote on the side of major powers, US in this case, or lose their trade privileges, in multilateral agencies, as if the privileges are real.
Indeed the amount of money aids recipient nations transfer to the donors is about 4 times what they receive, notwithstanding the conditionality embedded. Kofi Annan of all people raised the alarm when he noted that in 2002, developing countries made the sixth consecutive and largest ever transfer of funds of about $200 billion abroad. This is a transfer on an aid of about $70-100 billion. Debt servicing, trade imbalance and other questionable financial maneuvers from the poor to the rich. This is the context Nigeria also transferred $18 billion to Paris club in 2006-7 in return for debt relief on $32 billion foreign debt which the then President, Olusegun Obasanjo severally and glaringly, doubted and questioned!
Structural adjustment policy has ,as its major component withdrawal of subsidy by Government in developing nations as conditions for Development, a flash point on the success or failure of Goodluck Jonathan’s administration has he fully withdraw subsidy in the petroleum making the pump price about 170 per cent higher .Same Government is withdrawing subsidy in ferta liser by 2012 ,a main stay of agricultural input and food production. These are happening at a time when Europe subsidizes its Agriculture to the tune of $35-40 billion annually. So also US, providing $190 billion dollar subsidy to its farmers through the US farm Bill.
The US, Europe and Japan spend $350 billion each year on Agricultural subsidies ,estimate as 7 times more than the global aid to the developing nations ,the consequence of which is gluts that lower commodity prices and erode living standard of the world’s poorest people. Mark Mallock Brown of the UNDP observes, these farms subsidies cost poor countries about $ 50,000 billion a year in lost Agricultural exports .In otherwords, the subsidy in Europe has automatically rendered export from elsewhere futile ,making the AGOA framework a farce.
Before I conclude, it will be valid to look briefly how assistance works in the health sector. Here I would not talk on HIV/AIDS, the virus that is arguably produced in US military laboratory to serve as weapon for the Depopulation of the continent. The concern strongly expressed by Euro-America on the growing population of third world nations and how they effectively and frustratingly mobilize everything at their disposal to fight the population lends credence to that technologically modified virus. Strategies from mild family planning campaigns, to deliberately engineered hunger and poverty to birth rate limit and compulsory sterilization by western agencies and organizations suggest a full scale war by other means. The linkage between spread of AIDS and homosexuality is discussed much earlier.
At issue here is how same developed nations accord first class importance to polio in Nigeria. AIDS and Polio brought to fore how private individuals and organizations are integrated in the broad pursuance of their countries foreign policies, United States in particular .World Health Organisation (WHO), on behalf of the UNO, naturally, USAID, American government naturally, and Bill Gates, on behalf of global corporations and International philanthropists, naturally also have stormed Nigeria, fully committed to eradicate polio. What are crucial here is how the development experts and partners define our health needs, how they prioritise it and how they mobilize everyone, from the innocent child through district head to the minister of health, from the volunteer health worker to Mr. President to believe that number one medical problem of Nigeria is Polio. You can imagine such importance from the visit of Bill Gates to Nigeria on the disease September 2011; virtually provided the paradoxical angle I want to see the issue. He said his association was determined to eradicate polio worldwide and other related diseases. According to him India with a population of over one billion had one polio case recently due to measures taken by his foundation. He said the situation in Nigeria needed urgent attention with about six cases by 2010.
Six cases indeed! The president of Nigeria had to also assure G8 in Geneva on his Government commitment to fight polio. To fight the 6 people and perhaps 100 older cases! During this visit he signed MOU on $500,000 grants to further fight the disease. One wonders six cases in a population of about 200, million, with about 70 percent living below poverty line and about 40 per cent unemployment rate. Bill, on behalf of all polio stake holders has failed to see the destructive effect of hypertension and its effect of stroke and paralysis that is becoming attribute in every average house hold in Nigeria. So also Diabetes that is fast becoming common disease among Nigerians. A survey suggests about 80-90 percent of Nigerians are hypertensive, one of the leading killer diseases in Nigeria. Also high maternal mortality rate that is destroying mothers in the country. Surprisingly, polio crusaders are all out for it simply because there are additional six persons victims. And with all the fanfare that followed the visit, it is about $ 500,000 donation! Overall ,Bill Gates, through his foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates foundation have so far disbursed 218 Million worldwide for research and immunization of the polio ,malaria and measles, though the focus is Polio. One asks who determine our health problem. Do we identify our medical needs or are done by outsider? So also the wider question of development, who define, identify and proffer solutions to our development needs, us or foreign, alien financier? Precisely this is where the problem is. Nobody has the actual knowledge type and nature of our development needs but ourselves, but the painful irony is that someone outside you tells us our problem and its solution that at the end hit the wrong target and at worst compounds the problem more. Otherwise Gates would have invested in establishing cottage industries that would process the ample raw materials in the country to meet International demands .By this he would have created jobs, empower the army of beggars he has seen and make employment to teeming youths, all of which would contribute to improved health and higher living standard, the whole mark of development and succeed in cutting off the roots of the diseases he fights which are mere symptoms of the problem. By simple arithmetic, Gates need to assist each of the 774 local Govts in the country with only about $ 50-100 thousand investment in the cottage industry with an adjustment of plus-minus depending on the Local Govt. The world would see it, and it would surely move us forward much ahead of the millennium goals of Development even. In the northern Nigeria where poverty is seen chronic, go into agric-driven industries. But this would mean our interest, as the needy recipient, but is not ours, is their interest is paramount, which gives the legitimacy to challenge and doubt the honesty of such types of development assistance.
In fact scientific facts are abound on how such vaccines increase the incidence of the diseases are meant to treat .It is on record that before vaccines were introduced ,it was extremely rare for infant to contract measles. The more the vaccines are administered the higher they weaken and compromise the immune system of the recipients. Studies have shown that those vaccinated against the diseases are more likely to contract them. More serious, such vaccines are unsafe .Reports where polio vaccines triggered Aids, increase the incidence of the disease and even outright deaths are readily available. The role of Bulgarian Doctors and Nurses in the spread of Aids among Libyan vaccinated children was one of the most recent cases .Hence the protest by 2 states govts in Nigeria to have the polio vaccines administered in their children as they accused the content to have been deliberately contaminated. The common allegation is that the vaccines are contaminated to alter the reproductive organs of the children when they may have reached reproductive age. What adds more suspicion on such development moves is the insistence of its providers to do so regardless of consent of parents .In fact it is known facts that district heads and other territorial officers are used, especially in villages to carry compulsory vaccinations. There are situations where parents are harassed and maltreated for rejecting the vaccines in their children. As if there is desperate bid to impose, Good, when it is known to be a willing gesture. This further raises the issue of ethics in the overall medical behavior. Parents should be allowed full freedom to accept or reject vaccines for their children. The medical ethics of INFORMED CONSENT is the whole mark of HUMAN RIGHTS. In fact this is the real, not Lesbian/homosexual, rights.
It should be clear that developed nations, especially the United States has perfected it scheme of integrating corporate organizations, private association and individuals in the pursuits of its dominant, hegemonic ,imperialistic objective .Bill gates and co. are sure in this same scheme. He cannot go contrary to this.
Same Gates Foundation that poured $218 million into polio and measles immunization and research worldwide, , has invested $423 million in Eni, Niger Delta, into Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and Total of France — the companies responsible for most of the flares blanketing the delta with pollution, contributing to global warming and spread of diseases , a case attended to in the court of law. Something beyond anything permitted in the United States or Europe.
It is well known that Oil workers for such investment, for example, and the security agents protecting them are a magnet for prostitution, contributing to a surge in HIV and teenage pregnancy, both targets in the Gates Foundation’s efforts to ease the ills of society, especially among the poor. The Oil bore holes always filled with stagnant water, breeds mosquitoes that spread malaria, one of the diseases the foundation is fighting.
It is established in an investigation oil spill clogging rivers are cause of cholera in the area, another scourge the foundation is battling. The investigation asserts that such clogging rivers “became breeding grounds for all kinds of waterborne diseases.”
The bright, sooty gas flares that contains toxic byproducts such as benzene, mercury and chromium are established to lower immunity, and make children susceptible to polio and measles — the diseases that the Gates Foundation has helped to vaccinate.
It is found that the Gates Foundation has holdings in many companies that have failed tests of social responsibility because of environmental lapses, employment discrimination, disregard for worker rights, or unethical practices.
These are the agents that move round world to give development assistance, the assistance Obama wants to cut, Development assistance indeed.
A call for a new UN would be part of the process to make the world a fair and balanced theatre of actors. Central to this is the principle of sovereignty of nations. This should mean the capacity of nations to define their national laws, needs and priorities in equal and independent patterns any other country does. Nations that appeared weak before hegemonic maneuvers of major powers have to assert this right before International and multilateral institutions, though also in need of restructuring, the assertion of which would be part of the starting point.
International law is manmade; a very recent thought that is still undergoing amendments and reform to meet the higher value of human society, thus nothing sacrosanct about it, and is only universal to the extent it allows other values and traditions to constitute its flexibility and dynamism, representing all the cultural units that make up the world as heterogeneous mechanics that give harmony and stability to the International system
Additionally, if I would be charged to make an African foreign policy as a response to the changing world, in consideration of the economic collapse Euroamerica is facing, persistent poverty and disease in Africa, I would uphold the advocacy, nay policy demand for Europe and America to pay reparation to Africa over slavery and Atlantic slave trade.OAU committee of Slave trade reparation should be reactivated to learn from the holocaust and Lockerbie victims demands for ,and success to earned the reparations from Germany and Libya respectively. The demands should be articulated in approximate of the damage the exercise has done to Africa. Mechanism for pressure and demands is well placed to give Africa new resource that would chart for the continent a course of an important actor in new International relations.
Investments and fair trade relations should be articulated to serve as tools for moving Africa forward instead of the prevailing development assistance that failed to change the continent. The abundant resources in the continent provide an automatic bargain instrument ,conferring independence and sense of belonging as partner rather than a surrogate in the International system. In this context a renewed energy to wholesomely adopt south south cooperation is the fairest and result oriented option. At a time when US is devising new military strategies to ensure its presence cum dominance in the continent,China is expanding its investment in the areas of Turnkey and project finance, as Britain,France ,Germany and other colonial powers are remapping strategies for neocolonial control of resources in Niger, Chad, Cameroun, Sudan Libya, etc,Taiwan,Thailand, Brazil, Venzuela,and even newly new industrialized states like Malaysia and Indonesia are looking for fair trade partners and areas of investment. But for such partnerships to work civil socity organizations that are committed to patriotic,transparent and accountable governments are put in place must effectively work hardest to ensure neocolonial elites who serve as surrogates do not emerge as candidates that would continue to manipulate Democracy; so that they continue to provide linkages to continued exploitation of African resources by the colonial masters that are suppose to delink from such practices long ago.
Africa foreign policy must learn from other part of the world to use private individuals and agencies to push forward the agenda for New Africa, Africa that would truly be independent, progressive and responsive. Corruption, red tapism and foreign interference have subdued the public policy agencies to make head way that make Africa a home of peace and prosperity. Hence the significance of private organizations in African journey to growth and prosperity.
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ELHARUN MUHAMMAD,
CO FOUNDER INSTITUTE FOR POLICY DEVELOPMENT &INNOVATIVE STUDIES, KADUNA elharun@gmail.com
South Sudan has ordered oil companies to shut down oil production within two weeks, a response to the new country’s allegations that Sudan has stolen $815-million worth of the south’s oil, government officials said.
The shutdown could lead to a tightening of the world’s oil supply and cause prices to rise.
Oil companies in South Sudan began shutting down operations on Sunday and have two weeks to complete the process, since oil production cannot be easily stopped, South Sudan Minister of Information Barnaba Marial Benjamin said Monday.
South Sudan — which broke away from Sudan last July to form the world’s newest country — must pump its oil through Sudan’s pipelines. However, the two countries have never agreed on the transit fees that South Sudan should pay Khartoum.
Over the last several weeks South Sudan has made repeated accusations that Sudan is stealing massive amounts of its oil, which Benjamin cited as the reason the south has decided to halt production.
In an address on Monday to the South Sudan’s National Assembly, President Salva Kiir said Sudan has already taken $815-million worth of southern oil. He said the decision to stop oil production came only after his country approached Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia for help in economic negotiations between Sudan and South Sudan.
“The presidents of those countries reached out to President Bashir asking him to stop taking unilateral decisions in regards to our oil. The response from President Bashir is that he will not stop taking oil until we pay what he says — $32.20 per barrel,” Kiir said.
A research note from Commerzbank said South Sudan produces about 350 000 barrels of oil per day.
“Any prolonged discontinuation of South Sudan’s oil production, in combination with the partial shortfall in Iranian oil exports, could lead to a tightening of supply on the oil market and cause prices to rise still further,” Commerzbank said.
In December, Sudan began taking southern oil arriving at Port Sudan as an “in kind” payment. This month, a tie-in pipeline was built that South Sudanese officials say is diverting around 120 000 barrels of southern oil per day.
South Sudan originally offered 70 cents per barrel to use Sudan’s pipelines. Oil Minister Stephen Dhieu Dau said on Friday that South Sudan was willing to pay up to $1 for the use of the pipelines.
Almost all of South Sudan’s government revenue — 98% of it — comes from the oil sector.
It is not immediately clear how South Sudan will manage during the shutdown. But Kiir said the shutdown was necessary to protect South Sudan’s natural resources.
“At this time we have no guarantee that oil flowing through the Republic of Sudan will reach its intended destination,” he said.
Kiir asked Parliament to enact an austerity program in anticipation of the shortfall. He did not give specifics. In the short term, Kiir said the government would be able to function.
“On existing cash reserves, rest assured that the government can operate for the immediate future depending on which cuts are made,” he said.
In a separate statement, South Sudan said it was beginning investigations into the stolen oil and put ship owners and potential buyers of stolen oil on notice. It said the stolen oil is undermining its economic development and its rights under international law and national security.
The owners of four vessels that the oil was loaded onto, the South Sudan government said, “are being treated as trafficking in stolen goods”.
The oil negotiations taking place in Ethiopia are part of a host of unresolved issues left from the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, a deal that ended decades of civil war between the two countries. The talks have continued for over one year with little progress. — Sapa-AP
Nigerian police arrested about 200 people, including 160 from neighboring Chad, suspected of involvement in bombings last week that killed 256 people in the northern city of Kano.
Nigeria’s government has contacted Chadian authorities to investigate the possibility the Islamic militant group, Boko Haram, which claimed responsibility for the attacks, of having training facilities in Chad, said a police official in Kano, who declined to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media.
Boko Haram, which draws its inspiration from Afghanistan’s Taliban movement, is responsible for a surge in violence in the mainly Muslim north of Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer. The group, whose name means “Western education is a sin,”claimed responsibility for a suicide car-bomb attack on the United Nations building in the capital, Abuja, on Aug. 26 that killed 24 people. It’s also blamed for a Christmas Day bombing of a church near Abuja that killed 43 people.
Chad’s government told Nigerian authorities that President Idriss Deby had asked for security forces in the country to investigate and dismantle any training camps, if found, the Nigerian police official said.
The series of coordinated bomb and gun attacks in Kano on Jan. 20 killed at least 256 people, according to Nigeria’s Civil Rights Congress. Police in Kano put the official death toll at 184.
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To contact the reporter on this story: Mustapha Muhammad in Johannesburg at mmuhammad5@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net
