What does the Future Hold for Our Children?

What does the Future Hold for Our Children?

Sam hails from Kaduna state. He was born in the late sixties in Tudun Wada, a suburb in Kaduna. He has lived all his live in that same city. He attended primary school in one of the public LEA schools in that same suburb with children from different backgrounds. The area was quite cosmopolitan in nature and all peoples lived together in good neighbourliness. His closest friend in school was Hussaini, from a Muslim home; with whom they would alternately attend Islamic Religious Knowledge and Christian Religious Knowledge classes together, Sam being from a Christian home. It was not a consciously agreed arrangement except for the fact that they both enjoyed each other’s company and would rather not split when it was time for the two religious instruction classes which took place separately. This friendship of theirs and the manner in which they attended each other’s classes were not special or unique to the two of them, for there were many other children in the school who had the same relationship as they. They simply saw each other as human beings and friends and regarded their respective religions and ethnicity as nothing other than mere differences occasioned nature’s chance arrangement – if there is anything as chance in nature.

At home also, Sam, as well as other children, lived and played with children from different ethnic and religious backgrounds. They played street football together. They played all manner of childish pranks and mischief together. Among his many non-Christian friends was Mamuda. During Christmas, Mamuda and other Muslim kids would follow Sam to the local parish for the midnight Mass, after which they would move from house to house gaily dancing and singing with drums till day break in celebration of the feast of Christmas. Sam and other non-Muslim kids also followed Mamuda and other Muslim children to the local Islamiyya every other day. One of the reasons was probably that the children did not want to have fun at play without their peers who had to be at the Islamiyya because their parents rightly wanted them to get sound moral upbringing in the faith, so they accompanied them and, afterwards, they all went to play football or whatever fun activity they laid their hand on for that evening together. Infact Sam, a Christian, learnt how to recite the Suratul Fatiha and other basic teachings his friends learnt at that time. In all of these, the children’s respective parents never minded; they were happy to see their kids play together and were only too eager to correct them all together should the falter, even if it meant disciplining with some lashes of the cane. All children belonged to all parents, irrespective of tribe and religion.

The above account looks like some exercise in romanticism but all children who had a childhood in a northern Nigerian town like Kaduna before sometime in the late eighties into the a bit of the early nineties recognize this environment, and I bet, with a lot of nostalgia in view of the hell that has unabatedly become of our society. Unbeknownst to these children and most of their parents, while they were busy being children and having innocent fun and simple pleasures, some people with dubious agenda were busy plotting mischief: some of which they – these plotters – probably never envisaged the ultimate impact. All they cared about was the immediate gratification. Some of them actually had grander sinister motives and ambitions for which they were ready to sacrifice the futures of those innocents of yesteryears without batting an eye.

So much has happened, unfortunately for the worst, and today Sam lives in the southern part of the city of Kaduna, just as many others like him have relocated to the northern part, all along ethno-religious lines. Sam would think twice before venturing into areas of his childhood for fear of the unforeseen in spite of fond memories which he still treasures inside of him and ditto for other children like him who are on the “other” side. But that is not probably the worst even. Sam has a family now with two beautiful children. While he is occasionally able to talk with Mamuda and Hussaini, who also have their respective families, on phone or when they chance into each other, their children do not know each other. Sam’s children attend some privately owned school that is basically Christian in character – of course due to the area in which they live and also for the fact that public school system has totally collapsed and no serious parents would risk sending their children there. He also hopes to send them to some missionary run secondary school in the near future.

The implication of this is that Sam’s children have probably never met a Muslim child much less befriend one. They perhaps only hear that some people are Muslim only from textbooks, and God only knows how else with whatever colourations and misinformation. Chances are that they will never get close to any until they get into the university, and with the way the public universities are today, many parents already prefer to send their children to private ones and with the many faith-based run universities, they may never have that rainbow opportunity until full adulthood when they must meet them in the larger society. The trajectory is the same for Hussaini and Mamuda’s children. The question is: how will these children’s Nigeria pan out?

The fact is that even with some lingering memories of a rainbow Nigeria, this country is already messed up as it is; what with the wanton killings and maiming along sectarian lines. Every Nigerian is defined in terms of which side he comes from. And all of these owe to the failure of the past, with injustice and impunity running in endless circle. The northern Nigerian society is the worst hit in this tragedy and as it stands no one is ready to listen to anybody because there is a serious dearth of courage to confront Truth. The level of social, economic, structural and legal injustice is enormous and it has destroyed and is still destroying our society. What we have failed to realize is the fact that, as Martin Luther King Jnr once said, injustice anywhere in the world affects everyone everywhere. While we sit idly by in our little perceived comfort zones without doing anything to address these injustices that seem to affect others, we wallow in self deceit as it they are inching in on and will surely catch up with us. The Boko Haram demon that is now tormenting us from left, right and centre started and many of us did not do anything, believing that it is “their” problem, or probably even secretly happy that the demon is here to deal with “them”. Well, now we know better.

This generation of Nigerians must stand up for posterity. We must do something to redeem the future for our children else our memory will forever remain an anathema in their hearts. We must rebuild the broken bridges. We must decide that every Nigerian is equal before the law. We must accept that everybody is indeed a human being created in the image and the like of God the almighty. This is the only way by which we can avert the impending doom that awaits our children.

Published on The Nigerian Newsday, April 27, 2014

Nyanya et al: Out of these Ashes…

Nyanya et al: Out of these Ashes…

“Out of the ashes of my dying today; I see the breaking of a brand new day…”

Chris Delvan Gwamna, singer

If one sits down and plans a project, it gets to the point when he begins the execution. Of course he sets out to achieve some stated goals with his project and by the time he finishes every bit of the project activities he is able to see whether or not he is on course. He continues if he believes he is on course until the end of such a project. Of course he is happy when he has achieved such stated objectives. Infact he is elated.

I have tried to imagine the feelings of the masterminds and executors of heinous acts such as the bomb blast we saw penultimate Monday at the commuter bus station in Nyanya on the outskirts of the FCT, Abuja, among hapless people whose only sin is that they woke up in the morning and set about to make ends meet. The explosion killed 71 persons with a couple hundred others left with different degrees of injury, some quite life threatening as it stands now. I still find myself unable to imagine that some persons that bear the semblance of or appear human are laughing or celebrating the horror. But then of course I also think to myself that events like that don’t happen by chance: someone actually sits down and plans it. Such a person expects the kind of outcome we saw. It is a project for him and, as with any other project, the success must be thrilling. So I am left with no other option than to reason that someone somewhere, guided by whatever interest, philosophy or belief, is jubilating at the success of a well planned and executed project.

The only problem, however, is that such persons or quarters have demonstrated themselves far beneath humanity; for, warts and all, humanity is beautiful and that beauty derives from the simple yet awesome fact that humanity itself is a product of God, the good God, and there is nothing that proceeds from this God that is not inherently good and beautiful because a product bears the imprint of its maker. For such quarters to be capable of such brutality, and with relish to boot, means that they have divested themselves of every shred of humanness and are only good to be, proverbially, trampled underfoot by all humans.

Humanity, therefore, must not succumb to anything subhuman! Clearly what these subhuman quarters want of humans in Nigeria is for them to rise against each other and when the state of anarchy is rife, they swoop in on all of us. Their reign can only but be a reign of terror and we are being generously dished out a foretaste; sure enough it is sour, foul and repugnant. Some Nigerians have already, rather erroneously, concluded that it is a certain section of the Nigerian population that has vowed to mar the government of Goodluck Ebele Jonathan by rendering the country ungovernable. Nothing is farther from the truth. These same subhuman quarters will hand the same deal to any other person on the seat of president regardless of where he or she is coming from or what his or her religion is, in so far as such a person does not fit their defined subhuman standards. By the way, no matter anything anybody wants to do or say today, the power matrix of this country has changed and it will never be the same again. Nigerians must get used to that.

Thus, Nigerians must perish the thought about some sections of the population working against the presidency of any other. No section is spared of this woe, hence we must all come together to ensure that humanity, good and beautiful that it inherently is, does not give in to evil.

We may weep, but let us never lose sight of the fact that evil can never win against good. For out these ashes of death, as the singer puts it, we must see the breaking of a brand new day, in which the name of the good God, the creator, alone is glorified.

May God receive and rest the souls of all who continue to die in this carnage. Nigeria will emerge better and stronger… but only if humans are determined to keep hope alive.

(Published on the BLUEPRINT Newspaper of Thur April 17, 2014)

Kafanchan: When Lady Justice Goes to Sleep

Kafanchan: When Lady Justice Goes to Sleep

Events unfolded last week in Kafanchan, a well known railway town in southern Kaduna, which would have turned out rather catastrophic if not because things were nipped in the bud. Southern Kaduna has been under Fulani onslaught for a while now. Some forty or so Fulani were apprehended in the town by security operatives with a variety of arms, such as AK-47 and the likes, and a handsome amount of ammunition. News quickly spread and many angry youths thronged the spot where these suspects were being held and demanded that they be handed over to them, by now an irate lot. Of course they were out to mete jungle justice on the arrested Fulani. But the military, as expected and rightly so too, would not hand them over. A serious altercation was by then brewing as the locals became insistent and the military stood their ground. Things began to get out of hand and the security operatives began to shoot into the air to disperse the mob, bent on their intent. Whether or not the vertical shots were having the desired effect is not clear, but a couple of shots turned horizontal with some persons felled and one reported dead.

The mob dispersed but there was a sense that all was not over, therefore, a twenty-four hour curfew was slammed on the town. By the very following morning, it was scaled down to fourteen hours, 4pm to 6am, so as to allow especially those young ones writing their WAEC school cert examinations to carry on.

The arrested Fulani have since been brought to the headquarters of the state police command in Kaduna. But in a rather interesting twist, Miyetti Allah, the pan-Fulani socio-cultural association, came out with a statement that those brothers of theirs arrested in trucks at Kafanchan were actually hunters on their way on a hunting expedition. We shall return to this.

It is rather sad that security operatives would arrest anybody and civilians will insist on taking over custody of such a person for whatever reason outside the decision of a competent court of law much less to want to dispense their own kind of justice. It never happens in any civilized clime and for it to happen here speaks volumes of what our society has turned into. Derisive as the actions of the Kafanchan locals are, it is necessary to interrogate their motives. These locals claim that people, whom they continually allege to have attacked them in those parts of the state, have severally been arrested with arms and ammunition, and even right in the act, only to be released without justice seen to be duly done. These locals claim to know some of these persons so arrested and released. Infact they claim to have either helped the security operatives in arresting some or even done some of the arrests themselves and handed to the security people only to hear nothing of their cooperation with the state or for such persons to be brazenly released. Frustration is bound to set in. Confidence, whatever modicum of it that remains, in the state and its organs is bound to deplete. People are bound to resort to self-help. Infact people are bound to even antagonize the state and its agencies, which is exactly what we have seen play out in Kafanchan last week.

The Nigerian state must walk to talk. Nigerians keep hearing “we are on top of the situation” yet they are decimated in their hundreds every other day with the perceived complicity of even the systems put in place to protect them. Self preservation is a natural human instinct to which people will resort.

Back to the claim by Miyetti allah that those arrested were on a hunting expedition: it is quite interesting that hunters now use sophisticated and lethal weapon like AK-47 for hunting. Hunting at that scale among Fulani is also novel! The group’s response to the security raid in Laduga, in Ikulu land, in the same southern Kaduna is also curious and probably even telling. One is tempted wonder: so, Miyetti Allah knows about the movement and motives of every Fulani person and group in Nigeria!

Regardless of claims and counter claims, rule of law remains the only way out for Nigeria. In as much as some persons or group of persons continue to subvert the law, Nigeria continues to inch to the precipice. That is the challenge that the President of this country must take up inspite of himself and his ambitions. Justice must be done. Justice must be seen to be done. Otherwise, Nigerians may as well conclude that this government is out to pontificate the decimation of this country.

(Published in The BLUEPRINT Newspaper of April 10, 2014)

Rule of Law and Jobs for Nigerians

Rule of Law and Jobs for Nigerians

About three weeks ago, a national tragedy happened when the Ministry of Interior conducted a recruitment exercise into the Nigeria Immigration Services (NIS) and over a score of Nigerians, determined to get a legitimate means of livelihood, were killed in the process. The tragedy sparked a justifiable outrage with calls for the sack of the concerned Minister, Mr. Abba Moro. Clearly, there are immediate reasons why the exercise went awry which border on the way and manner the Ministry went about the conduct of the exercise; but what concerns us here is why, in the 21^st century with all of the opportunities it offers, tens of thousands of young Nigerians will go fighting for only 4500 positions in the NIS. It only speaks to the fact that in Nigeria generally, people do not see how they can easily plug into the economy and make a reasonable and legitimate living outside government. The truth anywhere, however, remains that governments can hardly provide jobs for 20 percent of their population directly. This piece seeks to show how remotely at the back of disasters like this is simply the lack of rule of law.

The Duhaime.org online legal dictionary defines rule of law thus: that individuals, persons and government shall submit to, obey and be regulated by law, and not arbitrary action by an individual or a group of individuals. The World Justice Project sees the rule of law as a system of rules and rights that enable fair and functioning societies. It asserts that four universal principles are upheld in this system: first, the government and its officials and agents as well as individuals and private entities are accountable under the law. Second, the laws are clear, publicized, stable, and just; are applied evenly; and protect fundamental rights, including the security of persons and property. Third, the process by which the laws are enacted, administered, and enforced is accessible, fair, and efficient. And fourth, justice is delivered timely by competent, ethical, and independent representatives and neutrals who are of sufficient number, have adequate resources, and reflect the makeup of the communities they serve.

The World Justice Project goes on to point to some critical factors in an environment of rule of law, some of which include the following: constraints on the government; absence of corruption – conventionally defined as the use of public power for private gains; open government, which involves engagement, access, participation, and collaboration between the government and its citizens; order and security; civil justice, where ordinary citizens are able to resolves their grievances and obtain remedies in conformity with fundamental rights through formal institutions of justice in a peaceful and effective manner, rather than resorting to violence and self-help; and effective criminal justice, which constitutes the natural mechanism to redress grievances and bring action against individuals for offences against society.

Nigeria scores very low on the whole in the above context, and this has stifled investor confidence, especially with regard to SMEs which really form the rump of opportunities in terms of jobs in any economy. The big investors that have seemed to flock into Nigeria only do so for the entropy that reigns and their ability to further deal unfairly with the system. But the fact is that commitment to the rule of law is able to provide immense job opportunities for the teeming able-bodied and willing Nigerians so that they don’t have to go and get mangled to death for positions whose successful candidates have long been known. We will look at only one law, the Copyright Act.

One drives on the streets and sees, at hold-ups, books like Witness to Justice by Bishop Kukah being sold for N1500.00 as against the minimum of N5000.00 that it ordinarily goes for from the proper sources as yet. One also sees CDs and DVDs of Nigerian artistes and movies pirated thus, rendering many hardworking people hungry. Some years ago when the president gave a grant to Nollywood of N20 or so billion in a bid to boost the industry, I was pained because it was clear that the issues are not well understood. If the president had instead committed to fight piracy by enforcing the law as enshrined in the Copyright Act, he would be protecting investments in that sector and thus, giving it the opportunity to boost.

A simple example will suffice here. Nigeria has an estimated population of 170million. If an artiste retails a CD at N150 and targets only a quarter of the population, being 42.5million, in two years and makes a net profit of only N10 per CD, he will be raking in the sum of N425m in that period. That leaves the sum of N140 per CD, by 42.5million, to be shared within all the showbiz works which include the record company, the songwriters, the musicians, the PR people, the marketers, the lawyers and taxes. This is huge opportunity!  Banks and insurance companies will fall over themselves to have a piece of that huge cake. Writers and actors will be protected. Huge allied opportunities will emerge, only because one law – only one law – is made to work.

If we, especially the leadership of this country, want to be taken seriously, then rule of law must be enthroned. That way, young Nigerians will not troop out only to be killed for legitimately looking for means of livelihood.

(Published in the BLUEPRINT Newspaper: April 3, 2014)