The mortal remains of the former President, Flt Lt. Jerry John Rawlings, who shockingly died last Thursday at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, is likely to be cremated as that appears to be one of his last wishes.
The 73-year old, who is credited with Ghana’s current democratic dispensation, having returned the country back to constitutional rule in 1992, before his demise, had indicated that he wants to be incriminated for a very interesting reason.
Mr Rawlings, sometimes affectionately called Chairman Rawlings, who attended the popular Achimota School in Accra with his wife, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, in one of his many interviews, said he wants to be incriminated and his ashes scattered in the Achimota Forest, where his former Alma Mata is sited.
JJ, in a tribute he wrote for his mother; Victoria Agbotui, revealed he spent more time in the Achimota Forest interacting with nature more than he did on campus.
He disclosed how many occasions his mother will visit him on campus to meet his absence because he had gone into the forest.
According to him, on one occasion, while returning from the forest, he chanced upon his mother angrily leaving a warning with a student for him.
The former Charismatic leader and founder of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), made the declaration during an interview with the Editorial Board of Achimota School’s magazine in 2016.
The long interview, published in April 2016 edition entitled “Walking down memory lane with his Excellency Ft. Lt Jerry John Rawlings” had the ex-Military leader, saying he wanted his remains back in the Achimota Forest to enable plants to grow.
Speaking on a number of issues covering his days at the popular school, the former President said because he loved the Achimota Forest, and he wished that when he dies, his body will be cremated and the ashes spread inside of the thick forest.
“Since I love the Achimota forest, I am looking forward to being cremated and my ashes brought to the forest and used to plant a few trees”, he said when asked what he missed most about the school.
His wish, which shocked the Editorial Board made of young Achimita students, was followed with a question by the late former President retorting “How else can we protest the forest for you?
He asked, “Are you afraid my ghost will be appearing?
But in his usual jovial self, Mr Rawlings laughed at what he had said explaining, his request is to get the forest which is one of the few historical sites left on the national capital preserved.
He laughed “Hahahahaha. So, let people believe it; that way, it will help preserve the forest”, The NDC founder went on by imploring others to emulate his wish, but was quick to add that in the event that others do not tow his line, he will be glad to be kept all alone.
“Some others should also do the same, if they don’t, the fewer the merrier. I don’t mind having that whole place to myself”.
The reaction to last week’s column which corrected former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s story of the People’s Democratic Party’s (PDP) 2003 convention came fast and thick. Obasanjo claimed former Vice President Atiku Abubakar had backed Dr. Alex Ekwueme, who was VP in late Shehu Shagari’s 1979 -1983 presidency till Ekwueme and Atiku had lost that bid, did Atiku return to Obasanjo’s corner, and a graceful Obasanjo forgave him and still retained him as Vice President.
As congratulatory calls poured in, questions about why I “stupidly” gave the story to Daily Independent instead of publishing it in a book, dropped in very often. Many said they were too young to take those events of about 14 and half years ago seriously, some others confessed they had forgotten them. I will reproduce some of the questions and answer them.
QUESTION: “If Atiku had not teamed up with Ekwueme, why would Obasanjo have gone into re-election bid without his VP?
Answer: The Obasanjo/Atiku relationship had soured beyond repair as early as 2001. That was when the earliest scheming for the much-talked about Third Term bid, which Obasanjo has always denied began. By this time, some divisions inside Aso Rock Presidential Villa had started assuming concrete shapes, and the launch of the book the late Dr. Stanley Macebuh had sponsored and edited to help project the achievements of the Obasanjo administration was stopped when people were gathering for the launch. Title: “Taming the Wilderness,” on the launch day. Dr. Macebuh, who took a bank loan to print the book, could not believe his ears when he heard the news.
The Obasanjo/Atiku problem started when the drivers of that Third Term vision visited Atiku and attempted to sell the idea to him. An aghast Atiku, told them to ask Obasanjo to perish the thought. That was it for Atiku.
Then Obasanjo had begun to acquire the ire of the National Assembly when the late Dr. Chuba Okadigbo was Senate President and Alhaji Umar Ghali Na’Abba headed the House of Representatives. The Representatives had a group of nationalistic young men, such as Chief Nduka Irabor, Nze Chidi Duru, Suru Ghandi, Sadiq Yar’Adua, who were in a hurry to grow Nigerian democracy and development and had little patience with a dawdling Obasanjo. They gave Obasanjo some heat and talked often about impeaching him. Obasanjo took the often-talked about impeachment issue seriously even though the Representatives did not mean it. The route they took was to make it plain to Nigerians and Obasanjo himself that he should not even think about contesting for re-election. Even though Atiku would often go to douse the impeachment tension at the National Assembly, just as Gen. T.Y. Danjuma also did, Obasanjo was convinced that Atiku was behind the impeachment moves.
Here and there within the PDP, the agreement was that the Obasanjo administration was not what the party’s founders had in mind. They had seen Nigeria being divided more and more instead of being united as Obasanjo would often go his whimsically autocratically wayward, way. Corruption was not being tamed either, instead hypocrisy was the order of the day. So the idea took root that Obasanjo was not only bad news but should not return. In fact the idea spread from the House of Representatives that Obasanjo was a bull in a China shop and so should be guided out gently.
It was in October 2002 that I reported exclusively that Ekwueme would challenge Obasanjo for the presidency. I will forever remain grateful to Chukwudi Nwabiukwu, for he helped confirm the story for me. Chuks was by then THISDAY newspaper’s Abuja Bureau Chief. That was how I came to know Mr. Handel Okoli, who was the person Ekwueme recommended when Obasanjo in 1999 asked him for a person to be appointed Special Assistant to the President.
It was only when it became obvious to Obasanjo that he could never defeat Ekwueme without the help of Atiku and certain PDP Governors that he returned to Atiku and began to plead for his cooperation.
Question: Did Obasanjo really go after Chief James Onanefe Ibori because of the politics of that PDP convention?
My answer: Yes! As the state Governors were coming into Abuja there was tension in the air over the would-be outcome of the PDP convention. Earlier, 15 PDP Governors who were opposed to Obasanjo’s running as PDP flag bearer had been led by the then PDP Chairman, Dr. Audu Ogbeh, to see Obasanjo right inside the Villa. Ibori spoke for the group. He told Obasanjo that owing to his non-democratic tendencies “you have proved to be unmarketable, unsaleable and un-electable”, and it was in the PDP’s interest to pick another presidential candidate. Obasanjo pleaded with the group to give him another chance and promised to become more democratic and less authoritative.
So, that afternoon on the grounds of the 2003 PDP Convention on the 6th of January 2003, Chief James Ibori further won Obasanjo’s enmity when he sent a phone text message to the five South-East Governors that as it had been agreed that Obasanjo would win the primaries, they should please not allow Ekwueme to be disgraced. So, the five South- East states’ delegates should cast their votes for Ekwueme and Delta will throw its weight behind Ekwueme too, not to make the man win, but so that he should not be disgraced. As the South-West delegates had turned the venue into a carnival, celebrating lustily because the governors had agreed to support Obasanjo, Ibori’s text message was a well-considered one. He sent it out at 1.30 pm. At 3.30 pm he called me and told me of the text message and that so far, none of his brother Governors had returned the message. Then he added: “Tony, I know that by now they would have forwarded that text message to Obasanjo…but in my heart of hearts, I feel it would be wise to ensure that Ekwueme is not disgraced.”
As the voting ended, Ekwueme spoke. The gentlemanly Ekwueme, rose to his full length and denounced the election. He said that he was certain that those who supported him would be traced and punished. The delegates began leaving Abuja on Monday, so I was surprised that when I phoned Ibori on Thursday and said I had a very urgent life and death message for him, he asked if I could meet him at the Abuja Airport because he was about to take off to Benin. I drove like a mad man and my car nearly bounced off the road when I ran into the speed break near the Airport gates, at full speed. That day, Volvo cars gained my respect as it did not crash.
I: Sir, I am surprised that you are still in Abuja.
Ibori: yes, I have to delay my leaving. Some of us are concerned about the state manly Ekwueme. I had to stay behind as some of us want to ensure that he is not disgraced. Some of us have agreed to protect him. (Ibori’s word were not empty ones; immediately after that Convention Obasanjo began to plan how to remove Ekwueme from the PDP Board of Trustees Chairman. That battle raged on for years and Ekwueme could not be removed even as he stopped attending party meetings. (How Obasanjo dethroned Ekwueme as BoT Chairman remains one of the black eyes Obasanjo gave to Nigerian democracy)
Ibori: Yes, Tony what information have you?
I told him that I had it under unimpeachable authority that a plan has been hatched to fight him with every ounce of power available to the Federal Government. He turned the information over in his mind, and thanked me. He said he would be on the watch out, but that the thing on his mind at that moment was that Ewueme, “the man who fought the most for the restoration of the democracy Nigeria enjoyed, should not be disgraced. His interest comes before mine.” I was shocked by his reply. He was still thinking about Ekwueme and not himself.
I escorted him to his car, apologising for delaying his flight. As I drove back, I wondered at such selflessness. Or did he not believe me?
The PDP Convention took place on the 6th of January 2003, a Sunday. Ibori flew out of Abuja on Thursday, the 10th. Two weeks later, a story broke; Ibori had been accused of being an ex-convict, having been tried for “criminal negligence” for allowing workers under him to steal building materials. Yet, otherwise respectable journalists still write that Ibori was tried for stealing. The building allegedly being constructed has not been named. If it was the Abuja Lower Usuma Dam, then that would be outrageous for that dam was competed in 1986, yet, in the allegation pilled on Ibori’s head, it was claimed the dam was still being constructed in 1985. I challenge anyone to prove me wrong on this. Then when after Obasanjo’s re-election Ibori went to congratulate Obasanjo, the former President replied: “You said I was unmarketable, unsalable and unelectable. All your life I will make you unmarketable, unsalable and unelectable. Since then Ibori has not been allowed to have some peace.
Question: Did Daily Independent give me an award because my Presidency Series titled “All the President’s Men?
Gosh! That brought back bad memories. I still remember the night I went to correct the manuscript from someone who read through it. I did not drive but walked over five kilometres from Utako to Ona Cresent, Wuse Two, Abuja, because I had no money with which to buy petrol into my car. To stop the rain from destroying the manuscript, I stood pressing my back to a primary school wall from 11 to 1.30 am. Under the then MD, Mr. Ted Iwere, my salary was being deducted as punishment because some National Assembly hands had removed N300,000 as facilitation fees from the N4m advert money paid to Daily Independent. Mr. Ajayi, the then Accounts head, had called to say every other person at the meeting opposed imposing any punishment on me because I did nothing bad, that Iwere insisted that I must be punished. I got the advert, I wrote the letter that brought the advert money from the NASS. Yes, I was punished for no known offence. I asked Iwere to ask NASS aides (former journalists) such as Loen Usugbe, Austin Iyashere (now with MTN) if what was paid to me was not what I paid to Independent. I just collected the money and headed for the bank. Not even my commission was removed and I was paid pure cash. I even told Ted that I was informed those who facilitated the payment demanded to be paid N300, 000. He said I should go get the money first.
Mr. Iwere was not moved. In the end the remaining N4million of that advert sum, remains lost till tomorrow as nobody could bring it out. When Ted reminded me of it, I challenged him to first prove me a thief, after all I was punished for no reason. And did I receive an award for the story. I swear that I heard the Publisher telling Ted that I should be given an award. It was during Ted’s mother’s burial and I was about to step into Ted’s living room when I heard my name mentioned. I froze then listened attentively and I did not step into that parlour until the discussion had changed. I am still waiting for that award – for the series I wrote in 2004.
The General Overseer of the Citadel Global Church, Pastor Tunde Bakare on Sunday warned South West governors against regulation of social media. Governors of southwest region demanded that the government employs laws and regulations bench-marked from other countries to provide safeguards against the spread of fake news, 2015 Cyber Act will also be fully used.
”The Federal Government should ensure that technology is used effectively for the advancement of the Nigerian Security and not its destruction by working with the social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, the governors decided at a meeting on Nov. 9th.”
However, Bakare on his Twitter page on Sunday warned that anyone that takes Nigerian youth for granted does so at its own peril. He strongly advised the southwest governors to desist from strict regulation of social media.
On his Twitter page, Bakare wrote: “ I would like to state at this juncture that there is a ninth power bloc that must not be taken for granted: it is the Nigerian Youth with the power of social media. “Any political group that takes the social media savvy Nigerian youth for granted does so at its own risk or peril.
“This is why I strongly advice the power blocs, including the South West Governors who are calling for stricter regulation of social media, to desist from doing so.” Bakare added that Nigerian youths raising their voices on social media against bad governance and End SARS promoters are not enemies of Nigeria but the hope of the nation.
“I, therefore, state without equivocation that these young Nigerians who have found their voices on social media are not the enemies of Nigeria. They are the hope of our nation,” his tweet added.
It is logical to suspend the discussions on ‘#EndSARS and the power of truth’ as promised last week because there is a weightier matter of lessons from the power of strong institutions over strong men in a democracy – in the United States of America. There have been unexpected developments in ‘America, their America’ as the iconic J.P Clark once described the country.
I have been following and studying the current elections in America not as an event in November but as a process that we can learn from instead of lamenting about how the curious attitude of a strong man, Donald Trump has changed even the political map of a fiercely divided country. The lessons are not about the old man, Joe Biden and his precious medal. Just as Ferdinand Oyono’s character, in his satire, ‘The old man and the medal’, the old man from a small Mid-Atlantic state, Delaware has been standing in a blazing sun, for hours and days – just to receive his prize. It has been worth the while in the United States.
At press time, the old man of Delaware was declared the 46th president of the United States after defeating Trump in the keenly contested Pennsylvania. The deciding factor seems to be centred on a handful of battleground states where Donald Trump had an initial advantage. The chips had been tilting more towards Joe Biden. The issue for us is no longer about who won but what messages have the 2020 US elections given to the world and indeed the most populous black nation on earth?
Despite the curiosities that have marked the election so far, we should still be impressed by the successful electoral process that has allowed an unprecedented turnout of voters to make their voices known through the ballot. It is more impressive considering that this has happened in the middle of a raging Covid-19 pandemic that has taken over 240,000 lives in the US. The process has revealed that the election is more crucial for the American people on both sides of the fence than ever before.
Apart from the inspiring dedication of the men and women painstakingly tabulating each ballot making sure it had been cast correctly, for the world watching, this most contentious election in US history has exposed some unsavoury truths about America. The biggest shock for the world is the immense support for President Trump, who has gone out of his way to promote divisiveness, racial tension, white supremacy, discrimination, violence, denigration of the media, women and minorities, and denial of climate change, which is now being followed by an attempt to cast aspersions on the integrity of the electoral process wherever it went against his interests. The fact that around 69 million people have voted for him shows that a huge number of Americans either endorse or overlook the abhorrent sentiments that President Trump has been fomenting.
The outcome has shown that most Americans have found it acceptable that 240,000 of their fellow citizens have died under his watch because of his failure to listen to the scientists, doctors and even his own coronavirus taskforce regarding health guidelines that if implemented, could have saved thousands of lives.
The 2020 US elections have highlighted how divided American society is, how fragile it is against leadership that is based on creating chaos rather than harmony, increasing inequality and using misinformation and propaganda to control people. But even before the elections, the world had been awakened to the reality of racial inequality as well as its challenges to the basic democratic values that the US has always projected to the rest of the world. It has also shown how it is possible to challenge scientific evidence and delegitimise it through strange propaganda that even Joseph Goebbels, the World War German propaganda expert, would be wondering about. It has shown that even something as straightforward as following basic health guidelines like wearing a mask can be made political, after all.
The most frightening revelation of the US election and the months preceding it is how easy it is to dismantle all the progress a nation has made over decades. The President-elect, Joe Biden, will have the Herculean task of uniting a bitterly divided country while combatting an ongoing pandemic and dealing with the devastating economic fallout.
What is more, governments around the world have been closely monitoring the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, but the real question at the moment relates to the U.S. presidential elections and the curiosities. Specifically, America’s future global role is important for all parties. Former Vice President Joe Biden, who won the presidential race has a significant impact on the answer to that question – on future global role. Is there a sense in which it can be said that a Biden victory is likely to repair Washington’s strained relationship with the trans-Atlantic alliance and international organisations? After all, the Trump effect, which was a direct response to former President Barack Obama’s legacy, has already transformed U.S. foreign policy.
Moreover, great power competition is already underway in the geopolitical vacuum left behind by the United States. Now, Biden must face that reality – which goes beyond the specific policy decisions of the out-going administration.
Geo-political assessments aside, that the Democrats shaped their 2020 presidential campaign around the claim that American democracy had been at risk is quite informative. The lack of “quality” in the presidential debate was more than just a source of embarrassment. I believe that the extreme polarisation over the Trump presidency reflects a deeper crisis of American democracy, which can be healed by the old man with his medal.
It is quite ironic that U.S. state officials, who used to tell Turkey that the ballot box was not enough and lectured the Turkish people about the virtues of “consolidated democracy,” now have to watch their president allege election fraud and large-scale irregularities. The American people are thinking long and hard to find a way to ensure that election results are recognised and respected by everyone – the precondition of democracy. That the vote count will be settled at the apex court dominated by conservative judges is the overwhelming expectation but most observers believe that American interest would prevail, after all.
There is even some talk about the U.S. military possibly removing Trump from the White House if he does not believe in a peaceful transfer of power. America’s top military officials have stressed that the court system, along with Congress, should assume responsibility in that case. This is certainly a shocking new experience for the U.S., which prides itself on being the leader of the “free world.”
Everything that has been debated in recent months, from fraudulent absentee ballots to potential Russian interference, demonstrates how fragile American democracy really is. The world needs to learn a valuable lesson from the U.S. – it ended up where it is without facing a serious national security threat, but merely due to the surge of white nationalism, racism, economic hardship, China’s challenge and the fatigue of military interventions around the world. It must be acknowledged that powerful nations and weaker states too, suffer from similar crises.
Some Americans are so unsettled by this “fight between two old men” that they may have given up on their country and apparently decided to relocate to Canada, New Zealand and even Argentina. Still, let’s not blow their state of mind out of proportion. Indeed, there were reports of some American citizens who said they’d leave the U.S. if Trump were to win the 2016 election. Needless to say, they ate their words and stayed where they were. Shortly after that election, they launched an effort to tell the American people how terrible Trump really was. Nowadays, most of those pessimists are expected to become a party to the epic court battle.
All told, despite all the imperfections and absurdities, there are several great lessons of urgent national importance the elections in America can teach us in Nigeria, our Nigeria. The elections should be still be seen as a process we can learn a lot from. It is still not a time to recall the legendary Fela’s ‘Teacher, don’t teach me nonsense’. We need to be sober to learn from the little things that matter in a democracy. We should not throw away the baby with the bathwater because Donald Trump is involved in fetching the water. As I was saying, there are indeed great lessons for us in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation. We need to learn how to use one election to achieve so many democratic goals including recruitment of leaders at all levels, referendum on issues, referendum on characters of leaders, etc in one day without declaring a public holiday.
In the main, we can all see how federalism works even in elections coverage and processes. There is no unitary system of governance that can protect one powerful man and leader who can halt a national process called election – at a time like this. There is no system in America that can give power to a chief executive of a federation who can remove a chief justice of that federation through an administrative tribunal two weeks to national elections. This was what happened in 1993, a group of powerful men conspired against the state they were running. They used institutions of governance, the office of the president and the judiciary to truncate outcome of the best elections ever that threatened to unify a broken country.
In the United States at the moment, the secretaries of state of the fifty states, the attorneys-general and the governors are in charge, not the Chairman of the U.S Election Commission whose name has never been prominent, in this regard. Let’s not get this twisted, the Buhari administration should swallow all pride and vanity: there should be attention to serious calls for a proper federation. Unitary system of government is evil. We can’t continue to run Nigeria from Abuja where they call all the tunes because they pay all the 36 and 774 pipers.
Let’s leave lamentation over Trumpism and study the democratic system of a proper federation that has produced strong institutions of governance that can always protect the system against strong and perverted men in power. Let’s develop a federation where the law is above all including the chief executive of that federation. I doff my hat for America, their America where the institutions are stronger than the men and women in power!
Since the first part of this article, on November 1, 2020 a lot of water has gone under our already rickety bridge of #EndSARS protest and the curious election stalemate in the United States. Doubtless, there have been some manifestations of other curiosities on the consequences of #EndSARS significant campaign for a better Nigeria and the 2020 election that is still stressing the power of institutions in the United States, which has always been wieldying her power as the bastion and guardian angel of democracy. Although the so-called ‘leader of the free world’ is still in the eye of the storm as the 2020 election remains inconclusive more than two weeks after, the consequences of our #End SARS protest on the country and the protesters cannot be ignored at this time.
It is getting ‘curiouser and curiouser’ what the President Muhammadu Buhari meant on October 22, 2020 when he told the nation in a broadcast that he had heard the #EndSARS protesters’ message ‘loud and clear’. Now, there are court orders to freeze the bank accounts of some of the suspected leaders and organisers of the epic protest. Most of the protesters are being detained by the same police force whose alleged brutality triggered the protest. Most of the protesters have been listed on the watch-list of national security agencies’ dossier: they can’t travel.
It is also understood that police protection has been withdrawn from agencies, institutions, business enterprises and notable individuals who supported the historic protest too. What is worse, the protesters are being treated as terrorists before our very eyes despite the fact that the same president said he heard the youth and leaders of tomorrow ‘loud and clear’.
President Buhari had told Nigerian youths on October 22 that their voices had been heard loud and clear as the #End SARS protest continued to spread across the country then. Buhari who also urged the youth to discontinue the street protests and engage the government in finding a solution to the challenges arising from state of the nation specifically said: “I called on our youths to discontinue the street protests and to engage the government to find a solution. Your voices have been heard loud and clear…”
So, as so many surprised Nigerians have been asking, what is the basis for the crackdown on the young Nigerians, our children whose teeth have been set on edge and have been feeling the deadly effects of the sour grapes that we, their fathers have eaten? Why the demonisation, persecution and even prosecution of our children because they spoke truth to our power? Why are some private lawyers assisting state actors, notably the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice to drag our Central Bank into this peculiar mess? Is that the legacy project of our leader, Muhammadu Buhari?
Lest we forget, what is the significance of all the Panels of Enquiries the President directed the Governors to set up to get to the roots of the case against the police? What is the message even the Inspector General of Police has been passing to the nation with his incendiary statements all over the place saying the already battered police can shoot anyhow? Why the crackdown on the media and the civil society? Are all these brutalities to the media, and indeed the civil society the response to the voices our president claimed he heard loud and clear? Let’s not get this twisted again, this crackdown on the #EndSARS protesters while the presidential panels are still sitting all over the country is a blight upon our hope of a better tomorrow. It is a signal that this administration will do nothing about the demands of the people through the (#EndSARS) protesters.
So, I would like to continue here on my sermon on the power of truth, yes the only weapon that can set us free from this present darkness.
In the first part of this article, I drew a lot of inspiration from the wisdom of a worthy elder, William George Jordan, an American editor, lecturer and essayist who has researched extensively on the “The Power of Truth”.
Let’s continue to learn, unlearn and relearn at this time that most people perish in the palace and government house – for lack of knowledge. As I had noted then, ‘Truth is the rock foundation of every great character. It is loyalty to the right as we see it. It is courageous living of our lives in harmony with our ideals. It is always—power. Truth ever defies full definition. Like electricity it can only be explained by noting its manifestation. It is the compass of the soul, the guardian of conscience, the final touchstone of right.
Truth is the revelation of the ideal; but it is also an inspiration to realise that ideal, a constant impulse to live it. Lying is one of the oldest vices in the world—it made its debut in the first recorded conversation in history, in a famous interview in the garden of Eden. Lying is the sacrifice of honor to create a wrong impression. It is masquerading in misfit virtues. Truth can stand alone, for it needs no chaperone or escort…’
Let’s continue learning from the power that Truth can give us. That politician who is vacillating, temporising, shifting, constantly trimming his sails to catch every puff of wind of popularity, is a trickster who succeeds only until he is found out. A lie may live for a time, truth for all time. A lie never lives by its own vitality, it merely continues to exist because it simulates truth. When it is unmasked, it dies. Where there is untruth there is always conflict, discrepancy and impossibility. If all the truths of life and experience from the first second of time, or for any section of eternity, were brought together, there would be perfect harmony, perfect accord, union and unity, but if two lies come together, they quarrel and seek to destroy each other.
It is in the trifles of daily life that truth should be our constant guide and inspiration. Truth is not a dress-suit, consecrated to special occasions, it is the strong, well-woven, durable homespun for daily living.
Elder Jordan says the man who forgets his promises is untrue. We rarely lose sight of those promises made to us for our individual benefit; these we regard as checks we always seek to cash at the earliest moment. The miser never forgets where he hides his treasure,’ says one of the old philosophers. Let us cultivate that sterling honour that holds our word so supreme, so sacred, that to forget it would seem a crime, to deny it would be impossible. The man who says pleasant things and makes promises, which to him are light as air, but to someone else seems the rock upon which a life’s hope is built is cruelly untrue. He who does not regard his appointments, carelessly breaking them or ignoring them, is the thoughtless thief of another’s time. It reveals selfishness, carelessness, and lax business morals. It is untrue to the simplest justice of life.
Similarly, men who split hairs with their conscience, who mislead others by deft, shrewd phrasing which may be true in letter yet lying in spirit and designedly uttered to produce a false impression, are untruthful in the most cowardly way. Such men would cheat even in solitaire. Like murderers they forgive themselves their crime in congratulating themselves on the cleverness of their alibi. The parent who preaches honour to his child and gives false statistics about the child’s age to the conductor, to save some money, is not true. In the same vein, that man who keeps his religion in camphor all week and who takes it out only on Sunday, is not true. He who seeks to get the highest wages for the least possible amount of service, is not true.
Jordan also adds that the power of Truth, in its highest, purest, and most exalted phases, stands squarely on four basic lines of relation,— the love of truth, the search for truth, faith in truth, and work for truth.
Our leaders and managers should note this. The love of Truth is the cultivated hunger for it in itself and for itself, without any thought of what it may cost, what sacrifices it may entail, what theories or beliefs of a lifetime may be laid desolate. In its supreme phase, this attitude of life is rare, but unless one can begin to put oneself into harmony with this view, the individual will only creep in truth, when he might walk bravely.
Let’s also consider this: The man who votes the same ticket in politics, year after year, without caring for issues, men, or problems, merely voting in a certain way because he always has voted so, is sacrificing loyalty to truth to a weak, mistaken, stubborn attachment to a worn-out precedent. Such a man should stay in his cradle all his life—because he spent his early years there.
Faith in Truth is essential to perfect companionship with truth. The individual must have perfect confidence and assurance of the final triumph of right, and order, and justice, and believe that all things are evolving toward that divine consummation, no matter how dark and dreary life may seem from day to day. No real success, no lasting happiness can exist except it be founded on the rock of truth. The prosperity that is based on lying, deception, and intrigue, is only temporary—it cannot last any more than a mushroom can outlive an oak. Like the blind Samson, struggling in the temple, the individual whose life is based on trickery always pulls down the supporting columns of his own edifice, and perishes in the ruins. No matter what price a man may pay for truth, he is getting it at a bargain. The lying of others can never hurt us long, it always carries with it our exoneration in the end. And so the lesson is this: those who lie their way to power, fame and wealth can be rest assured that they are standing on a quick sand. They will soon fizzle out as truth hidden in a grave will not stay there as I have repeatedly written here. Let the powers that be in Abuja acknowledge the truth the #End SARS promoters have spoken to power and it shall be well with them and their governance process. Let them not get inspiration from the scoundrels and ever-lying liars in the capitals who continue to lie that we should be afraid of the truths our children are telling us. Any local or national or international security advisers who continue to tell the powers in Abuja that the #EndSARS campaigners are terrorists who seek a regime change are not telling the truth: they are liars and they are the real enemies of the people.
Any hopes that we are going to quickly move on from the tragic #EndSARS protests and enter into the phase of reconstruction and rehabilitation are disappearing by the day as the federal government closes in on the promoters and supporters of the mass action. A lawyer who actively supported the protests was barred from travelling abroad; bank accounts of many protest promoters have been frozen; a company the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) mistakenly thought was involved in the protest has been deregistered for “deviation” from its objectives, and a lawyer has filed a lawsuit against everybody and anybody who tweeted in support of the protests.
Some campaigners have also been picked up and their lawyers are working overtime to secure their release. Mr Femi Falana, the senior lawyer who has been at the centre of the fight for human rights, rule of law and democracy in Nigeria for decades — including under military dictatorships — has been “reported” to the International Criminal Court (ICC), which prosecutes mainly war crimes. He is accused of inciting the rioters and looters. The petitioner wants Falana to pay $2 billion (only) in damages. By and large, there is a flurry of co-ordinated actions targeted at those who endorsed, supported or promoted the mass protests that rocked Nigeria to its very foundations.
In a sense, one can argue that the ruin we saw in October 2020 was unprecedented. The Civil War of 1967-70 was, after all, a war — so it belongs in a different category. The scale of the destruction in the wake of the #EndSARS protests in Lagos state alone is heartbreaking. Ambulances and health centres were set on fire — and you just have to question the motive. The DNA and Forensic Laboratory, said to be the only one in Nigeria, was burnt down. Buses that ferry millions of passengers monthly were set ablaze. Private businesses, shops and banks were not spared. The anarchy within such a short time was unrivalled. You don’t want to see anything like that again.
The protests started on a benign note: to curtail the excesses of the special anti-armed robbery squad (SARS), a police unit that was created in 1984 when — now this is an irony — President Muhammadu Buhari was the military head of state. Over time, SARS had lacked any respect for human life or dignity. Mr Fulani Kwajafa, a retired police commissioner, recently told the BBC: “SARS of today is not the same SARS I established in 1984… I always tell my wife that I was sad [that] what I created with good purpose and direction has been turned into banditry.” That Buhari would be confronted with casting out the demon 36 years later is something you cannot easily make up.
The #EndSARS campaign did not start this year, but the government never took it seriously. Each time there was public outcry, the police would announce a “reform”. The harassments, tortures and extrajudicial killings continued unreformed. All you needed to become a suspect was to wear a tattoo, grow dreadlocks or keep an ATM card in your wallet. You could be dead before you knew it. How an anti-robbery unit went full-time into physically fighting cyber crimes is a good topic for researchers. The long and short of it all is that the failure to rein in SARS eventually landed the country in a horrible place. The cost of recovery is not just heavy, some losses are irreversible.
After the protest was hijacked, I was not expecting the government to give the organisers a pat on the back. I doubt any government would do that. But I was not expecting a crackdown either. It would only escalate the situation. However, when the northern governors alleged that this was an attempt at regime change — in simpler words, a plot to remove Buhari as president — I knew this would not go away quickly. But my questions are: do the security agencies have concrete proof that some politicians planned and funded the mayhem in order to forcefully change government outside of constitutional means? Or this is just a knee-jerk reaction? That, to me, is the crux of the matter.
If indeed there was a plot to bring down Buhari by extra-constitutional means, how much of it were the #EndSARS organisers privy to? When you embark on a campaign of this nature and get financial support from the public, all kinds of people will come on board. There will definitely be fifth-columnists and agent provocateurs. It is a fact of life. But the pattern of the crackdown so far shows that among those targeted are many well-meaning Nigerians who only lent their voices to a legitimate campaign against police brutality. The security agencies must separate the wheat from the chaff. This must not become an exercise in trying to stifle voices of dissent in the country.
As I have said probably a million times, when you start mass action, you know the beginning but you may not know the end — or the dimensions it would take. All sorts of people with different motives would jump on board and be saying “End SARS” even when their own agenda is different. In this instance, armed robbers evidently joined in. Yahoo guys were there. Nigerians already burning with anger over economic hardship let rip as well. Some politicians were apparently very involved. #EndSARS started morphing into #BuhariMustGo and #EndNigeria. Some developed END SARS into an acronym for “restructuring”. It was so very easy to read politics into the mayhem.
I previously wrote that I won’t be surprised if state agents also used the opportunity to go after perceived political enemies. We saw videos of men who looked like security operatives arranging thugs to attack protesters in Abuja. A former DSS director said the operatives were the security detail of a senator. Nobody has denied it. The targeting of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s assets does not appear to be random to me, based on the reports in the media. There were so many dimensions to the mayhem that will need a comprehensive investigation to unravel. It was more than an #EndSARS campaign or an explosion of public anger. We deserve to know the whole truth.
Going after the activists can only come across as a witch-hunt which I believe would further escalate socio-political tension. Before I am misunderstood, though, I am not saying if the government has criminal evidence against some people, they should be left alone just because they are waving the activist flag. I am not saying the government should fold its arms and watch Nigeria burn. I am not, by any means, challenging the powers of the state to enforce the law. But I would rather the focus is on the looters, hoodlums and rapists — not the peaceful campaigners and promoters who, for all you care, were only exercising their constitutional rights. A blanket crackdown is a no-no.
For now, I would keep appealing to the activists not to be discouraged. With #EndSARS, they have proved that they can mobilise, organise and solidarise. Part of the benefits, in my view, is that they have learnt the hard way: that protests can be end up being hijacked and polarised. Those with “aluta” experience in Nigeria know this very well. There are always people lurking in the corner waiting to pounce whenever there is public disorder. I would advise those whose accounts have been frozen and those arrested to seek every legal support available to clear their names and get justice. This is another opportunity to test our laws and strengthen this democracy.
For the genuine activists, there is always a price to pay. The trick is not to give in or give up. The great Gani Fawehinmi was regularly arrested and detained, usually driven by road at night from Lagos to Gashua prison — a journey of about 1,300km. Gashua, built by the colonial masters, was Nigeria’s most horrible prison. Gani used to sleep on the hot floor inside a mud cell. Mr Abdul Oroh, then executive director of the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), was arrested in July 1995 and detained for one year. The wife had just given birth! Nigerian activists saw hell. Now that we have the democracy that they fought for, we have to jealously guard our precious freedoms.
Let me repeat myself: if the government has solid evidence that some people planned and funded the mayhem, then it should go after those people. But there should be no blanket arrest of activists, neither should people’s accounts be randomly frozen just because they were involved in organising the protests. The laws of the land give everyone the freedom of expression. Agitating for a better Nigeria should never be treated as a crime. Government should never give the impression it is desperately out to get people because they spoke out. My final word to the government is that we need healing. We need all the peace we can buy to stabilise this country. A crackdown will not cut it.
AND FOUR OTHER THINGS…
AMAC AMOK
I hereby call on the federal government to send a bill to the national assembly designating the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) as a terrorist organisation. The requisite evidence is not going to be difficult to gather — just talk to a few business owners in Abuja and listen to their tales of horror and terror. It appears AMAC officials have been briefed to kill any business that is trying to succeed in FCT. There was the recent case of a woman whose eatery was sealed off by AMAC with customers still inside! Do you have to lock customers inside, no matter the infractions of the eatery? What happened to civilisation? Are we waiting for #EndAMAC riots before we act? Senseless.
‘I’M A LOOTER’
Mr Titus Okunrinboye, a witness in the trial of Alhaji Tanimu Turaki, former minister of special duties and inter-governmental affairs, admitted before a federal high court on Wednesday that he looted contract funds while serving as the head of central pay office in the ministry. In addition to helping divert N200 million to personal accounts, he said he has forfeited N535 million and a house in Abuja to the EFCC. And you know what? He is currently an accountant at the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation. And you know what again? We are still asking why Nigeria is like this. One day, we will all come to agree that our problems are worse than we make them look. Depressing.
ADIEU, BALARABE MUSA
The death of Alhaji Balarabe Musa, former governor of Kaduna state, has depleted the ranks of the very few principled Nigerian politicians who genuinely deserve to be regarded as statesmen. Ironically, it is people like Musa who hardly get celebrated in Nigeria — he had no Phantom, bought no house in UK or Dubai, had no private jet and wore no diamond wristwatch. Rather, he was modest, like the northerners of yore who disdained materialism. Musa was a voice of reason: he spoke forcefully about the state of the nation. He sought nothing but quality lives for the poor and lowly of the Nigerian society. He was 84 when he died on Wednesday. Adieu.
GOODBYE, RAWLINGS
I’m not a fan of military rule — having tasted both military and democratic dispensations in Nigeria — but two African soldiers caught my fancy. One was Capt Thomas Sankara, the former leader of Burkina Faso who was betrayed and overthrown by his best friend, Capt Blaise Compaoré, in 1987. The other was Flt Lt Jerry John Rawlings, who led Ghana from military rule to a stable democracy in 1992. Rawlings was not perfect — I still have my reservations about his execution of three former heads of state — but he gave his country a new direction. Ghana is far from being a finished product, but whatever it is today, Rawlings played the key role. He died at 73 on Thursday. Goodbye.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Nigeria is broke. This use to be said in whispers. But no more. It is now a case of ‘go tell it on the mountains’! Whereas, in the last few months it was opposition politicians telling it, now, no less an institution but the Central Bank of Nigeria is telling it.
On Thursday, November 5, 2020, the CBN, in its half-year 2020 economic report, said “despite the subsisting revenue challenge, which was exacerbated by COVID-19, the larger proportion of FGN revenue was devoted to debt service.”
In fact, the CBN was just conservative as usual. The truth is more alarming than the picture the CBN painted.
According to the CBN, as at the end of June 2020, Nigeria had spent N1.5 trillion on debt servicing. Let that sink in.
That is more than we have spent on capital expenditure and education combined, in the same time frame.
And the worst is yet to come because General Buhari’s government is still borrowing at a record-breaking pace, meaning that debt will keep going up, which will translate in ever-increasing debt servicing (not repayment) figures.
When former President Jonathan handed over power to General Buhari on May 29, 2015, Nigeria’s total debt (both foreign and domestic) was $11 billion. It is now $34 billion and rising fast.
Where has that money gone? What tangible things does Nigeria have to show for that money? Out of school children have increased in Northern Nigeria since Buhari has not built new Almajiri schools after Jonathan left. New roads have not been constructed. New hospitals have not been built. So, where has the money gone?
Other than the N120 billion annual budget for the National Assembly under Buhari, and General Buhari’s own annual N3.2 billion yearly food and travel budget, where is this massive debt being spent?
And now, I get to the embarrassing part. The plan to borrow $1.2 billion from Brazil. This administration seems to get its kick from finding new and ingenious ways to make Nigeria look big for nothing in the international community.
Brazil is one of the most indebted nations on Earth ever, with a national debt of $1.45 trillion, representing over 80% of its GDP. How can you get good terms? Brazil has defaulted on their debts three times, and, according to The Economist Intelligence Unit, Brazil is at risk of a fourth default due to economic challenges stemming from COVID19.
And this is the country Nigeria wants to borrow $1.2 billion from? I never thought Nigeria would stoop so low in my lifetime. But then, I never reckoned with General Buhari. It shows desperation when a beggar begs from another beggar!
You see, the reason why they desperately need the money and have to go cap in hand to Brazil of all nations is that Nigeria under General Buhari cannot even pay salaries without borrowing.
The Director-General of Budget Office, Mr. Ben Akabueze, said as much to the Senate Committee on Public Accounts last week.
Yet, as bad as things are, there have been no cost-cutting actions on the part of the Buhari government. Their only solution is to take loans until you are alone!
Sadly, Nigeria gained her independence from Great Britain 60 years ago, and now, 60 years later, Nigeria is losing her independence to China (and very soon to Brazil), because we have an Almajiri President whose only language is beg, borrow, and give me. Beggarliness is in Buhari’s DNA!
I researched Brazil and discovered that the Brazilian Presidency has just two Presidential jets, with one for use mainly for domestic travel and another for international travel. This was done to save costs.
If I were the President of Brazil, I would be wondering why a country whose President has ten Presidential jets would want to borrow money from a country whose President has just two Presidential jets. Why not first consider other options of raising funds, like selling nine of the ten jets?
Or why not reduce the maintenance cost of Aso Rock Presidential villa? At N4.6 billion per annum ($12 million per annum), that is $1 million per month. I researched, and President Bolsonaro of Brazil does not even spend one-third of that on his residence. Yet, Nigeria wants to borrow $1.2 billion from them to waste!
Borrowing continues to be a measure of first resort by the Buhari government, and that is sad because you cannot be governing with luxuries and not expect your cheques to bounce.
Brazilian is the wrong nation to borrow from. This is a bad move. This smacks of desperation, and those in the All Progressive Congress and Northern Nigeria who have the ears of this government should start whispering to them that they are going down a rabbit hole that may well take down this contraption that they inaccurately term a government.
In my Reno’s nuggets, I have often taught that if you are broke, it is more important to expand your income than to do anything else. Perhaps this administration read that nugget and misunderstood it or misapplied it. Borrowing does not raise your revenue. Instead, it expands your liabilities. Hopefully, General Buhari has the intellectual capacity to fathom the difference!
First, we were borrowing from America. Then we were borrowing from England. Then we were borrowing from China. Then we were borrowing from India. Next, we were borrowing from the Islamic Development Bank. And we woke up one day, only to hear that General Buhari wants to borrow from Brazil. It is a good thing MMM collapsed. At least, we can be safely assured that General Buhari cannot borrow from them.
Emergency laws to “stamp out dangerous” anti-vaccine content online should be introduced, Labour has said.
The party is calling for financial and criminal penalties for social media firms that do not remove false scare stories about vaccines.
It follows news of progress on the first effective coronavirus vaccine.
The government said it took the issue “extremely seriously” with “a major commitment” from Facebook, Twitter and Google to tackle anti-vaccine content.
Many social media platforms label false content as misleading or disputed – and all remove posts that contravene terms of service.
But Labour said a commitment by platforms to remove content flagged by the government was not enough.
Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said such content was “exploiting people’s fears, their mistrust of institutions and governments and spreading poison and harm”.
He told BBC Breakfast his party wanted to work with the government on a cross-party basis to build trust and help promote take-up of the vaccine.
He said people would have legitimate questions about what the vaccine means for them, levels of immunity and whether the vaccine was appropriate for those with chronic health conditions.
“There’s nothing wrong with asking those questions and strong public health messaging from the government, reinforced by us, will allay those fears,” he said.
Baseless conspiracy theories about a coronavirus vaccine have been spreading on social media for months – and the latest vaccine news rekindled these pre-existing narratives online.
These includes false claims that the vaccine is a means of inserting microchips into the population, altering our DNA, or are even a weapon of genocide.
Within hours of news breaking about the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, comments and memes suggesting it will deliberately harm us were popping up in local Facebook groups, parent chats and on Instagram.
This kind of disinformation is worlds away from legitimate concerns that a vaccine is safe and properly tested.
Despite commitments to tackle falsehoods from social media sites and the government, a constant bubbling of conspiracies online looks to have already eroded trust for some in an effective vaccine.
The anti-vax movement, which pre-dates the pandemic, is not the only thing responsible for the spread of this disinformation online.
Pseudoscience figures with large online followings – who have spread other false claims such as linking coronavirus to 5G or suggesting the pandemic is a hoax – have also turned their attention to vaccines.
There is no truth to the false and harmful claims they make – but that hasn’t stopped them spilling into the average social media feed for weeks and impacting those who come across them.
Meanwhile, a member of the government’s scientific advisory group, Sage, has criticised ministers’ strategy of “flip-flopping” between encouraging people to socialise and spend money – and tough lockdown restrictions in England.
Professor John Edmunds said: “We need to take a long-term view and be sensible and realise that we’re going to have to have restrictions in place for some time.
“Yes, we can lift them when it’s safe to do so, which will be primarily when large numbers of people have been vaccinated.
“But flip-flopping between encouraging people to mix socially, which is what you’re doing by encouraging people to go to restaurants and bars, versus then immediately closing them again, isn’t a very sensible way to run the epidemic.”
The national lockdown in England is currently due to end on 2 December, with a return to the tiered system of local restrictions.
Prof Edmunds also criticised that system of lower to higher restrictions, saying it was not “very well thought through”.
Scotland has moved to a five-tier system of coronavirus restrictions. Wales has now ended a “circuit breaker” while Northern Ireland has extended its own temporary lockdown.
A further 26,860 UK coronavirus cases were recorded on Saturday and 462 more deaths within 28 days of a positive test were reported.
Spreading false claims
Suspicion of vaccines has been around almost as long as modern vaccines themselves. But in recent years, the anti-vaccination – or “anti-vax”- movement has gained traction online.
Social media has been blamed for allowing unfounded claims about vaccines to spread more easily.
In 2019, the UK lost its measles-free status designated by the World Health Organization – and there has been a marked decline in vaccination rates for all 13 diseases covered in jabs for children.
Since the pandemic, anti-vaccination campaigners have moved their focus to the coronavirus.
https://emp.bbc.com/emp/SMPj/2.36.3/iframe.htmlmedia captionHealth Correspondent Laura Foster explains what the latest Covid-19 vaccine news means
In the letter to Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden, Labour said there were dedicated anti-vaccination groups online with hundreds of thousands of followers who were “churning out disinformation” on the issue.
Last week, the government announced that social media companies had agreed a package of measures – including that no company should be profiting from Covid vaccine fake news.
But Labour warned that the measures do not go far enough and has questioned why anti-vax groups are not being closed down.
“The announced collaboration with social media companies last week was welcome but feels grossly inadequate with a promise by them to remove only the content which is flagged by government and which generates profit,” Labour said.
Labour called for emergency legislation that would see financial and criminal penalties for a continued failure to act, and said they would vote for it.
https://emp.bbc.com/emp/SMPj/2.36.3/iframe.htmlmedia captionResearch shows a number of young people may choose not to have a Covid-19 vaccination, as Olivia Le Poidevin reports
On Monday, news of a potential vaccine made headlines after preliminary results from Pfizer and BioNTech showed their vaccine could prevent more than 90% of people from catching Covid.
The vaccine is one of 11 vaccines that are currently in the final stages of testing. Pfizer and BioNTech companies now plan to apply for emergency approval to use the vaccine by the end of November and a limited number of people may be given the vaccine this year.
The UK has bought enough doses for 20 million people.
But it will not be released for use in the UK until it passes final safety tests and gets the go-ahead from the MHRA – the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.
https://emp.bbc.com/emp/SMPj/2.36.3/iframe.htmlmedia captionBoris Johnson: “Anti-vax is total nonsense is total nonsense, you should definitely get a vaccine.”
Earlier this year, Prime Minister Boris Johnson called people who oppose vaccinations “nuts”.
And this week, he said he had “no inhibitions” about getting one, adding: “Anti-vax is total nonsense, you should definitely get a vaccine.”
A government spokesperson said: “Letting vaccine disinformation spread unchecked could cost British lives.
“We take this issue extremely seriously and have secured a major commitment from Facebook, Twitter and Google to tackle it by not profiting from such material, and by responding to flagged content more swiftly.
“We continue to work closely with social media firms to promote authoritative sources of information so people have access to vaccine facts not fiction.”
On the 19th of January 2013, the people of Amansea community in Awka North local government area of Anambra State woke up to an inexplicably horrendous tragedy. Some villagers had gone to fetch water early that faithful morning when they were greeted by the gory sights of bloated bodies floating within the large bowel of Ezu River. Their ancestral land had been invaded and desecrated by unknown persons and the only source of water serving this community and most of the neighboring communities that make up the Awka North local council area was poisoned. Some group counted 35 dead bodies. Another said it was no less than 50. A report later released by the International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law reportedly indicted the SARS unit of the Nigerian Police for the atrocious act.
Nigerians are now familiar with the unsavory details of rogue officers in SARS who murdered innocent citizens with unparalleled savagery. None however, compares to the scale that resulted in mass execution of young men whose bodies were found in Ezu. No matter how hard the spin doctors try to make it all about Officer-in-Charge, James Oshin Nwafor and his dreaded Awkuzu SARS, it is implausible that such a brazen act of barbarism carried on for so long without the tacit support of the powers that be. “I will kill you and nothing will happen”, the officer was quoted to have bragged to many of his hapless victims, countless times.
Peter Obi was the Governor of Anambra State between 14th June 2007 and 17th March 2014, the time within which this cringe-worthy crime took place. And so it’s natural to ask, what did our beloved Okwute know and when did he know it? Most importantly, what did his Excellency do about the horror visited on the subjects he swore to protect?
Recently, Civil Liberties Organisation through her South East Zonal Chairman, Comrade Aloysius Attah, issued a statement absolving the former Governor Obi of blames and grievances surrounding the Ezu River killings. But wait bro, not too fast. I’m not so sure that such a determination could be made of anyone, prior to a thorough and conclusive investigation, let alone the presiding governor at the time. That said, it’s also important to note that few accounts had reported some good effort on the part of the former governor in pushing the case forward. Per the reports however, some of his best efforts were stymied by Abuja since SARS was only answerable to the Inspector-General of Police. That for sure is one of the many travesties of our current administrative arrangement where the governor is the chief security officer of the state, but has to work alongside a police chief whose loyalty is expressed from without.
MASSOB, a group that claimed that nine of her members were part of the bodies discovered also believed the problem was not with Peter Obi. Later on, a panel of inquiry constituted by the Senate Committee on Police Affairs and National Security came out with nothing and has been described as a charade at best. One is curious to know if representatives from the southeast in the National Assembly were part of those committees. If so what did they know and what have they done about the case? If not, why not?
Besides setting up a panel of inquiry which clearly didn’t yield much fruit, was Governor Peter Obi convinced that he did enough? Even with the expected stonewalling of the investigation by the police hierarchy, there is no question that state governors in Nigeria have humongous powers and enormous influence on their own. Or were there concerns about a potential political blow-back for exposing the powerful interests behind this crime syndicate and then the decision to thread slowly? Or maybe Obi truly did his best but just couldn’t get past our notoriously convoluted, cash-and-carry criminal justice system. We have no way of knowing.
And then another question. How did OC Nwafor warm his way into Gov. Willie Obiano’s inner circle to become his Special Assistant in charge of security and stayed on till he was relieved of that position following the EndSARS protest, just few weeks ago? Could it possibly mean that the administration was totally oblivious of the litany of complaints against the officer in question and the huge baggage he carried on as the poster child of the atrocities that Awkuzu SARS had come to represent?
These are serious questions begging for genuine answers. For any individual who was or currently in a position of power or influence in both the past and present administrations in Anambra state, the question is what did you know and what did you do? Try they may but It would be extremely difficult for any of these political actors to walk out of this stench, sparkly white, no matter the effort to clean things up. More than anyone else, methinks it’s in their best interest to resurrect the inquiry and pursue it till justice is served and Alaigbo washed off the stain of this fratricide. Only then can our people proclaim with one voice: OZOEMEZINA.
Sometimes one can’t help but imagine for a moment, what would have been the case if this horrendous crime had played out in Abeokuta, Ogun State instead of Amansea, Anambra State. I imagine there would be a massive protest by the more socially conscious Yorubas. I believe the ubiquitous Lagos press would have descended on the story like a hawk and some journalist would even build a whole career out of it. The case may have garnered enough headline all over the world causing America and Britain to strong-arm the Federal Government of Nigeria into carrying out a thorough investigation. But Amansea is not in the Southwest and my people would have to first calculate the opportunity cost of lost earning before trying to pursue such a case. After all, standing up for social and criminal justice has never been our forte.
The exploits of officer Nwafor in many ways are reminiscent of the ugly days of the late Eddy Nawgu in the late nineties. The self-acclaimed prophet of God was himself a god of sorts and carried on like an outlaw owner of a terror franchise which he unleashed at will on his fellow Anambrarians and beyond. At the peak of his inglorious reign, Eddy was reported to have made even highly placed individuals “disappear”, without a trace, simply for daring to challenge his position. Just like OC Nwafor, he got away with everything and nobody could touch him. He finally met his Waterloo in the hands of the dreaded Bakassi boys but not before his powerful backers in Abuja made the last ditch effort to save him, including an attempt to fly him out to safety with a chopper.
It’s clear to me that all these madmen that often dance naked in the middle of the village square always have some powerful drummers perform for them at some remote locations. The dancer of course takes a cue from the tune minted by these masters. In the case of Awkuzu SARS, the chilly story on the back end was that some of the young victims were murdered so their organs could be harvested and then sold to ritualists. Of course, one has no way to verify such claims but fact remains that all leads need to be pursued and motives considered, to inch a little closer to a hitherto elusive truth.
Today, we are calling on the Anambra State Government under Governor Willie Obiano to set up a new panel of inquiry to take a fresh look into this abominable crime. Such panel need to be as transparent as it gets and possibly should conduct an open hearing so that grieving families will get a chance to hear about the circumstances that led to losing a loved one. The panel needs to be peopled by the clergy and other men and women with impeccable character instead of politicians with vested interests. To accord the seriousness it deserves, it should be an independent investigation and not comingled with the rest of the very many other criminal acts that have now come to light. Other stakeholders such as Ohaneze Ndigbo, the South East caucus in the National Assembly, Anambra thought leaders and Igbo intellectuals should all lend their full weight in support of this effort for a thorough investigation of this human tragedy.
No matter how we twirl the hula hoops or choose to weave tales around this catastrophe, the stench from the decomposing bodies of the young lives snatched from families that were denied the simple dignity of burying their dead, will never go away. The Ezu River dead bodies will remain a festering sour on the conscience of a people and a referendum on what human life is truly worth to Ndigbo.
•Dr. Agbo, a Public Affairs analyst is the coordinator of African Centre for Transparency and Convener of Save Nigeria Project. Email: [email protected]
According to conventional wisdom, US President-elect Biden will find himself immediately paralysed because Republicans will follow the same obstructionist playbook they used to sabotage Barack Obama’s administration. But there are five new features of US political dynamics that this argument has overlooked.
LONDON – The US election has passed without any big surprises, and the enthusiastic reaction in global financial markets has been exactly what any economics textbook would predict if a predictable, conventional centrist replaced an erratic, extremist populist as US president. Beyond investor psychology, there are several fundamental reasons that justify a Biden rally: the near-certainty of further fiscal stimulus in the short term; the high probability of pro-growth Keynesian demand management in the medium term; and the possibility of a global investment boom in new energy and transport technologies in the long term.
Yet most investors, economists and political pundits are sceptical about all these possibilities because of the Democrats’ failure to retake control of the Senate. According to conventional wisdom, Biden will find himself immediately paralysed because Republicans will follow the same playbook they used to sabotage Barack Obama’s administration. After winning a House majority in 2010, Speaker John Boehner blocked almost all legislation, turning Obama into a lame-duck president for six of his eight years in office. Now the Senate, under GOP control since the 2014 midterm election, will again create gridlock and prevent pandemic relief, block fiscal expansion, and thwart new investment in energy or infrastructure.
But this is not the whole story. There are five new features of political dynamics in America that this gloomy conventional wisdom has overlooked.
First, a big COVID-19 relief bill is almost certain to pass Congress even before Biden is sworn in. Now that the election is over, the demands for government support from business lobbies will overwhelm Senate Republicans’ obstructionism, while the Democrats must create conditions for a strong economic recovery in the first few months of Biden’s term. Thus, there is every chance of a “quick and dirty” compromise, whereby Republicans agree to a package of slightly above $1 trillion, Democrats accept previously rejected conditions such as immunity for employers from liability for COVID-19, and Trump takes credit for the whole deal.
Second, when Biden becomes president, he will find it much easier to maintain public support for government spending and resist pressures for budget consolidation than Obama did after losing the House in 2010. The COVID-19 crisis has transformed public attitudes to government spending and borrowing. But even before the pandemic, voter interest in government debts and deficits was rapidly eroding, because the Trump administration’s policies had clearly demonstrated that deficits did not cause the economic damage that conservative propagandists claimed. Republican efforts to resurrect the obsession with deficits, which served the party well in 2010, will go nowhere until well after the COVID-19 recession is over.
Third, a Republican Senate majority will not be the rock-solid monolith that many commentators suggest. While the Republicans will certainly unite to stop Biden from significantly raising taxes, McConnell will find it difficult to maintain 100% unanimity against a Biden fiscal stimulus plan, especially if the stimulus is delivered mainly through tax cuts for the middle class. A one- or two-seat Senate majority will also be insufficient to block expansionary public spending, especially if the Biden administration is clever about directing government investment at local projects in key senators’ states.
In this respect, the Washington tradition of influencing Congressional votes with carefully targeted “pork-barrel spending” will benefit from Biden’s 36-year record in the Senate. Biden starts with Washington experience and personal relationships unmatched by any president since Lyndon Johnson. The horse-trading that lies ahead could prove particularly effective in breaking Republican unity, because six of the 20 current GOP senators who will face voters in the 2022 election happen to represent swing states: Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
It is far from obvious that Senators who are running for re-election in states that have just voted for Biden, or have come close to doing so, will vote blindly against popular policies such as middle-class tax cuts or government spending in their own states, merely for the sake of party unity and sabotaging Biden. To make matters worse for the Republican leadership, at least three Senators who do not face re-election – Mitt Romney, Barbara Murkowski, and Susan Collins – are longstanding moderates with a record of compromise and crossing party lines. Since McConnell is aware of these challenges to party unity, he is likely to behave less obstructively, at least until the 2022 election, than he has in the past.
Fourth, a GOP Senate majority may not even exist. To keep control, Republicans must win at least one of the two Senate seats to be contested in Georgia on January 5. Now that Georgian voters have backed Biden, albeit by a razor-thin margin, it is doubtful they will reverse this decision in two months. Conventional wisdom assumes that Democrats will be less motivated to vote again, because winning the White House will lull them into complacency, while Republicans will be desperate to check the new president. But the opposite is just as likely. Democratic voters may be energised to an even bigger turnout by their unexpected victory, while Republicans may be so disillusioned that they stay at home. A lower Republican turnout is even more likely because Trump will no longer be on the ballot, and many of his fervent supporters may be less interested in voting for more conventional politicians.
Finally, a new kind of Trump disruption may soon hit US politics, starting with the Senate election in Georgia. Trump plans to spend the next two months pursuing lawsuits, which few Republican politicians will, over time, support. Responding to this perceived betrayal, Trump could turn his fury as much against GOP “treason” as against Democrat “cheating.” This means that Trump will be unlikely to campaign for the Republican Senate candidates in Georgia. And without the galvanizing effect of Trump’s rallies, his hard-core base may not vote.
In short, Trump’s refusal to accept defeat will make it harder for Republicans to keep Senate control. In the longer term, Trump’s constitutional defiance could permanently split the American right between Trump’s army of zealots and Republican politicians who still believe in an orderly transfer of power. With Trump railing against the “stab in the back” from GOP politicians who refuse to support his baseless fraud allegations – and possibly raging from the sidelines for years to come – the monolithic conservative unity that has paralyzed US politics throughout this century may start to crumble.
•Anatole Kaletsky is Chief Economist and Co-Chairman of Gavekal Dragonomics. A former columnist at the Times of London, the International New York Times and the Financial Times, he is the author of Capitalism 4.0: The Birth of a New Economy in the Aftermath of Crisis, which anticipated many of the post-crisis transformations of the global economy. His 1985 book, Costs of Default, became an influential primer for Latin American and Asian governments negotiating debt defaults and restructurings with banks and the IMF.
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