Is a Nigerian Life Worth a Chicken?

Is a Nigerian Life Worth a Chicken?

For a little over a week now, I decided not to read the newspapers. The much of them I get to know is when, while driving past or in traffic hold-ups, I see headlines as vendors brandish them or when I hear highlights of them on radio. The reason why I took that decision is simply because of the depressing stories that keep coming out from different corners of Nigeria of people being mindlessly killed by some others who have decided to throw away their humanness to the dogs, hence view others humans only as game. It is either the Boko Haram insurgents or the herdsmen. Even this morning as I set out, I was besieged with another such now pestilent monster of headlines about seventy or so persons who have been killed between Benue and Borno. Because I did not read the story, I do not know if that number is just for the day/night before; but it might just be and I am not in the least surprised. But I will never cease to be alarmed. I will never get used to the madness and evil.

During a live radio program on one of the stations in Kaduna some a little over a week ago, the guest, a famer and a public commentator by the name of Shadrach Madlion, while making a passing comment on the insecurity in the country made an interesting analogy. He said if any ordinary poultry farmer with a thousand birds in his pen loses thirty of them by any means, such a farmer would panic and would run from pillar to post until he gets to the root of the problem and solves it before he would rest. One therefore asks the question: is a Nigerian life worth a chicken?!

People are killed every day and they end up only constituting mere numbers; as if they do not have any identity. Every human person has a right to an identity and, whatever the circumstance, such a person must never be divested of his or her identity. If one goes to the Federal government of Nigeria today and decides that they should be furnished with the list of persons that were murdered in Katsina state or the southern part of Kaduna state almost a fortnight ago, one is certain that no such records exist. Even the affected Local Government Councils cannot be confidently said to possess such records. But it is little things like this that form the kernel of any serious minded government and society. It is such efforts that give people a sense that their government knows about them and cares about what is going on with them. On every 11^th day of September, one sees how the United States government reads out the names of the slain victims of the terrorist attacks on that day in 2001, with a firm determination never to let a repeat of that dastardly act, and one feels a kind of longing to belong to such a society. Little wonder, most Americans, of whatever extraction, are ready to lay down their lives for their country.

With the manner in which the Nigerian reality is handled by the Nigerian government, one wonders if the government infact appreciates the problem at hand. Indeed a friend, only last week, was sharing with me his worries having just come back from the Maiduguri axis on an academic field trip in the earlier week. He lamented the situation on ground and doubted if the Nigerian government really sees it for what it is. Upon hearing that, I, in turn, wondered that if there is doubt as to the State’s appreciation of the Boko Haram insurgency, then is there any hope that it sees the raging storm of the herdsmen for what it really is? From Katsina to Kaduna, Zamfara to Tarraba, Kebbi to Benue and all over the place, communities under this onslaught have all seemed to have been left to their fate. What that simply means is “to your tents O Israel”!

No matter what the FG believes it is doing, people, as in Katsina, were unabatedly killed in their numbers in broad daylight; people, as in Southern Kaduna where the military have molested locals in the name of security, are being slaughtered continually: some of the operation lasting through the whole night without intervention from the same military. These peoples do not see the government’s efforts on the ground, not even the least, being the mention of their slain loved ones.

The problem is that it will take a man with a gun to defend himself from another with a gun. Is that what the Nigerian state wants of her citizens?

(Published on BLUEPRINT, Thur Mar 27, 2014, Page 7)

Base Politics

Base Politics

When President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, in his presidential media chat a little over a fortnight ago, insisted that Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the sacked CBN governor, was still the governor of the apex bank, one wonders if the president thought that Nigerians believed him or even took him seriously. Of course the president and his aides must have believed that they pulled a master stroke, given that they knew that the president had no powers to remove the governor, yet they went around it with a suspension and, technically speaking, the relevant laws are silent about that. But the whole world knows that it is fait accompli; even if the suspension is lifted, there is little expectation that Sanusi himself would accept to come back and finish his term. Look, the man is a Prince for goodness sake and princes do not suffer indignities lightly.

But Sanusi’s sack has again brought out the worst in us, most appalling of which is the reaction among many a northern element especially the Kano people. When news of the sack broke out, it was a very vociferous reaction from Kano in condemnation, with the governor of Kano State, Alh Musa Kwankwaso, himself stating before an angry crowd how that singular action of the president was an affront and a specific spite on the Kano people which they avow not to take lightly but will respond in due time; in 2015 very specifically, he assured, they will certainly to return the compliment.

However, by his very stellar performance at the apex bank, Sanusi proved his mettle: a sound intellectual, a progressive Nigerian, a courageous administrator who was ready to take on formidable blocs to right the system. He did that very eloquently by the very way he took on the top brass of the banking and finance sector as a whole, people who hitherto were untouchable, and rescued the sector. He brought back confidence to it and gradually things began to look up.  Through the policies he pursued, he earned respect for the nation’s financial sector from foreign players. He gave many Nigerians a reason to be proud internationally, for he showcased, once again, the intellectual power that abounds in Nigeria; he proved that Nigeria is capable of throwing up talented and courageous people onto the it leadership sphere who are worth their salt any day, anytime and anywhere. For whatever reason, the sack of Sanusi under the given circumstances was a national problem and not that for the Kano people of for any region alone for that matter. Therefore, for Kwankwanso and other northerners to take to whatever sectarian trenches to register their displeasure was a manifestation of how base politics have gone in Nigeria. To think that one like the Kano governor, with his national level exposure in leadership and the very wonderful work he is doing in his state, will be found in such dimensions of defining events in Nigeria is quite a travesty and indeed very telling.

The northerners are not alone in this. Many others, especially from other parts, and apparently enlightened too, have argued that a CBN governor should not raise any voice contrary to a government he is working under. They say that Sanusi should have resigned before blowing the whistle which, anyway, has turned out to clearly be his swansong irrespective of all pretensions. Such positions have been nothing but frustrating, and one asks, what is governance without checks and balances? The office of apex bank governor is not the same as that of a minister who, in Nigeria, has turned out to have to sheepishly do the bidding of the president.

Finally, amidst all the hue and cry, the national confab will take off next week if it does not suffer a similar fate as it did this week given that there are issues, as flippant as the lodging of the delegates, which are yet to be sorted out. Are Nigerians sure that, with such level of sectarianism and lack of goodwill that this country continues to see, the confab is going to birth resolutions capable of giving us the Nigeria or society we all look forward too?

PS: Last week, this column was published bearing the name of another writer. It was unforeseen; it tells you that even in this digital age, the printer’s devil is still very much raging.

(Published on BLUEPRINT Newspaper, Thur Mar 13, 2014)

Lent for Nigeria and Nigerians

Lent for Nigeria and Nigerians

The season of Lent, which begins on Ash Wednesday, is a forty-day period of fasting, prayer and almsgiving. Christians are marked with ashes on their forehead with the words: “Remember, man, you are dust and unto dust shall you return”. This activity serves to draw the attention of man, from the usually overwhelming ups and downs of everyday living, to the purpose for which he was created, which is service to his maker and to fellow humanity and creation for which man shall render account of his stewardship on the last day.

The period of lent is an imitation of the Lord Jesus Christ who, before beginning his public ministry of service and redemption, went into the wilderness, having been baptised by John, to fast and pray so as to prepare himself for the task ahead. During this period Christians are called, as earlier mentioned, to pray more earnestly, to fast and to give alms. While indeed the life of a Christian should be one of prayer in season and out of season, prayer during lent is deliberately emphasised for reflection and meditation on one’s service to God and stewardship to creation. As a Christian, one may need to ask: “of how good a service have I been to my neighbour and to Nigeria?”

Fasting during lent is to, amongst other things, discipline the physical body from pleasures and indulgences. When one fasts from food, for example, one is able to be in solidarity with the many poor people who do not have food to eat and one is able to feel their pain and in so doing, work for a more just and better society, where the dignity of every human being is upheld and put before any other interest. 70% of the Nigerian population lives below the poverty line: Nigerians, especially those in positions of authority, are invited during this period of lent to self-denial and to enter into solidarity with the many poverty-stricken others in order to work to give some dignity to their personhood.

The almsgiving emphasised during lent, apart from also meaning the giving out of alms in the literal sense, is a metaphor for charity in its broader sense. Christians are invited to always be of a generous spirit, which is the basic disposition of service. They are invited to work for the good of the other and the society at all times. That can be done in the way and manner they dedicate themselves to their duties in their work places and how they engage in and transact business. The focus must be service to God through humanity, and Nigeria today so badly needs this kind of disposition in order to move forward!

During this year’s forty days of lent, Christians and indeed all people of goodwill are invited to join in prayer so as to examine our commitment to God and humanity and rededicate ourselves to service; to enter into solidarity with the underprivileged so as to work for a better society; and to be people of goodwill and generosity of heart for the sake of neighbour and country.

Of critical attention here are the victims of the terrorism and insurgency now on in Nigeria. In the last few weeks, there is no day that has passed without innocent people being murdered in the most heinous of circumstances. Nigerians, especially persons in positions of authority of whatever kind, must use this opportunity that Lent provides to really examine their roles in the whole equation that has engendered this quandary that we find ourselves in, directly or indirectly, either by commission or omission, by action or inaction. It is pertinent to very specifically call on the President of the Federal Republic, the National Assembly and the top brass of the Armed Forces of the Federation. Nigerians are dying in the hands of mindless and criminal elements; you have been entrusted with the responsibility to protect them. Clearly, there is failure on your side. Whatever has occasioned this failure remains another question. This is an apt period for you in your various individual capacities to examine yourselves in the light of the Lenten tripod of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Do you truly think you have done your best in the light of the prevailing circumstance? Can you go to sleep and truly sleep because you have done what is expected of you with every sense of goodwill and charity? Keep the answers to your respective selves.

(Published, wrongly with the name of Prof Ujo, on BLUEPRINT Newspaper, Thur Mar 6, 2014) 

Where are the Armed Forces?

Where are the Armed Forces?

Tuesday this week greeted Nigeria with horror when sixty harmless and hapless boy-students of the Federal Government College, Bunu Yadi, in Yobe State were sent to early graves in the most heinous of circumstances – a sad and even more dreadful reminder to the same barbarity that took place last September at a College of Agriculture in the same State. Their slaughterers reportedly set their dormitory alight and then went ahead to either hack down, with machetes, or slit the throats of all those tried to escape being roasted to death in the fire. As for the female students, they were said to have been set free with a clear instruction to go back home and get married. Without any confirmation of responsibility for the attack, it bears every hallmark of the Boko Haram insurgents. Yet this remains only speculatory until there is such confirmation, either from the Nigerian security system of from the perpetrators themselves.

But to begin to worry about who the real perpetrators are and what their reasons are for attacking and killing these unarmed lads, and indeed their motives, is not what I seek here. For if indeed it is the insurgents, as suspected and is most likely, then their motives are probably pretty well known. Moreover, whoever would commit these acts is a renegade and the Nigerian state does not pay anyone to be a renegade and to put the lives of citizens in danger. On the contrary, people are paid and structures are set up to deter renegades; because there will always be renegades and criminals. It is a matter of expediency, therefore, to pose the question: where are the structures put in place with all the people so “well armed, paid and motivated” to protect Nigerians from the onslaught of renegades?

It was reported that shortly before the attack, the soldiers at a check point close to the school were withdrawn, or is it nowhere to be seen? The Yobe State Governor, Alh Geidam, while commenting to newsmen, when he visited the scene, lamented the fact that for the about five hours that the killers operated, they had a field day, with no security intervention whatsoever. The import of this is clearer when one considers the fact that Yobe, along with Borno and Adamawa States, has been under emergency rule since May last year.

About ten days earlier, it had been a killing spree in Borno State, from Konduga to Bama and other towns, leaving hundreds dead. Probably out of frustration and despair or just stating mere facts, Gov Shettima decried that the insurgents were far better armed and motivated than the Nigerian military. The response from the presidency was rather shocking: the poor governor was excoriated and called names. By the last Sunday, we saw screaming headlines that he might be replaced with a military administrator. Despite denials from the presidency, the President, Dr Jonathan, would make comments on Monday in response to Shettima’s claim that one finds rather ghastly. He said if Shettima thought that the military was not doing enough in his state then they will be withdrawn for a month, and it will be left to be seen if the he will remain in the Government House. Jonathan went ahead to add that if the governor is not there after the one month, then the military would summarily take over the state. That statement is also quite a give-away!

The truth is that the president is not the one on ground in those states even if he commands the security structure ultimately. If therefore the governors on ground make such statements as those by Gov Shettima, they must not be trivialized on the platter of politics. What it implies is either that the security budget is insufficient or is not properly deployed to execute this war on terror. However, Nigerians believe that the vote is more than enough, which leaves the second scenario. The expectation is that if Jonathan believes that he is doing more than enough and, yet, is hearing something else from the field, then he should look inward and ask more questions of the campaign rather than the kind of responses we saw.

If, for example, you employ a guard to watch over your property and yet thieves break in and rob, the first person to answer to any query is the security guard. You would not worry much about the robbers for they will always be there, which is why in the first place you pay the guard to keep watch.

If the above analogy is anything to go by, then we, Nigerians, must ask the President and the armed forces, of which he is commander-in-chief: why are defenseless Nigerians being continually slaughtered without any resistance from the military in states that have been under a state of emergency for almost a year?

  
(Published on BLUEPRINT Newspaper, Thur Feb 27, 2014)

My Throes of Ambivalence

My Throes of Ambivalence

Sometime around October-November last year the Nigerian public space was awash with pictures of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan in the Holy land, Israel, on pilgrimage. It was a “presidential pilgrimage” of sorts, the first of its kind from a Nigerian leader of Christian extraction, led by the president himself. At least we had been used to seeing leaders in Nigeria who were Muslim go on pilgrimages with robust entourage in the past, but not the Christians; but that is beside the point. GEJ was pictured in the Holy Land earnestly praying, along with many others, for Nigeria. We got to know that even the now relieved Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah, also rather miraculously found her way overnight, in the heat of her armoured vehicle scandal that would later prove her waterloo, to the Holy Land to join the president in prayers. Some videos that found their way to the social media showed the men of God that were privileged to join the president on the pilgrimage doing everything possible to outdo each other in praying and prophesying for the country and the president.

It was indeed an interesting sight. But I found it laughable and rather disgusting.

I believe in God alright. I always have. Infact never in my life have I, warts and all, been surer of my belief in God than now. Sometimes I even sit back and chide myself “hey boy, you’re becoming too conservative in this your faith, lighten up a bit”. I also pray. But my contempt for this kind of prayer we see around in Nigeria and especially amongst our political leaders arises from what I have come to refer to as a mere show of religiosity. I was sharing with a friend about that spectacle of prayer in the Holy Land and he joked rather sadly that he had tried to imagine the leaders of other great countries of the world, like the US, UK, Germany and the rest, in prayers for their countries in such outlandish manner but has helplessly failed. To my friend, the image our president cut was one of wishing away the country’s problems in the hope that God would come down to earth to solve them for His beloved Nigeria, instead of rolling up his sleeves and getting to work like those other presidents. After all did St Dominic not say laborare est orare, to work is to pray? No one has captured the scenario in Nigeria better than Bishop Kukah when he said that Nigerians have outsourced their responsibilities to God. Hence you see someone who has a headache that requires some good rest or, at worse, two tablets of paracetamol refusing to do the needful and rather banging the same head on the wall in prayer to God for healing, thereby, demeaning the same God, to whom belong that good sleep and the knowledge that gave birth to medicine. So, there lies my disgust, especially with our political leaders that troop to Mecca and Jerusalem with huge entourages on state resources, claiming that they are praying for Nigeria.

But events in the North-east of the country last week, into the weekend, have again shaken me seriously. People in their hundreds have been slaughtered and are still being slaughtered as we watch, almost helplessly. The Jama’atul Ahlus Sunna lida’wati wal Jihad, popularly known as Boko Haram, have continually targeted civilians, helpless civilians. Has the death of innocents become pleasure now? If so, pleasure to whom? Man or God? Or is it a god? One cannot help but to wonder what is driving this ghastly slaughter, but whatever it is, it defies normal human understanding and reasoning. I think Nigerians must pray and pray indeed, because only God can save us as the solution to this plight of our nation lies in God’s ability to break men’s hearts of stone and give them those of flesh to be able to understand and to see Him in the other human being.

Perhaps, after all, we need to really pray like the president has tried to demonstrate but, deep down in my heart, I do not believe that it is that kind of prayer that he and other politicians have exemplified: the kind of prayers that strike one as mere show as they are lacking in concrete backing with action. While we pray, we must engage in concrete action like playing our civic roles actively and conscientiously, challenging evil from whatever direction it emanates and treating other human beings with respect and charity in defiance to those who slaughter them, whether with swords and guns or with the pen.

 

(Published on BLUEPRINT Newspaper, Thur Feb 20, 2014)