ABAKALIKI – Following the recent announcement of the Governor of Ebonyi State, David Umahi, that all trade unions in the state-owned University have been proscribed, the chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Ebonyi State Chapter, Dr Ikechukwu Igwenyi, has called on the state government to prioritise university education in the state.
The only body currently allowed to exist in the university is the students’ Union government.
Umahi, who met with the leadership of the unions, said: “The decision was taken in order to ensure that academic and non-academic unions’ activities do not negatively affect the resumption of academic and non-academic activities in the state-owned university.”
Meanwhile, the state commissioner for education, Dr. Onyebuchi Chima, said approval had been made for the release of N500m for the payment of staff salaries.
Dr. Igwenyi made this known in a statement issued in reaction to the recent proscription of ASUU in Ebonyi State University by the Governor of the State, David Umahi.
He said Labour matters are in exclusive list of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and it is impossible for any governor to proscribe a national union duly registered and given a charter to operate.
“We are just a branch of ASUU and the national body of the union is very much aware of the situation in Ebonyi,” he explained.
The chairman, who is an associate professor and also the Head of Department of Biochemistry, Ebonyi State University, said the staff of the institution were being owed four months salary as at the time of this report.
He urged the people in government not to collapse public educational institutions simply because their children are not there.
“Most public office holders are not interested in our public schools and they don’t invest in the institution because all their children are studying overseas,” he explained.
He called on the staff of the university to remain resolute until government meets up their demands.
He, therefore, urged the students who are losing their patience to remain calm until victory is achieved.
Also, the ASUU chairman of Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu Alike Ikwo (AE-FUNAI), Dr Oguguo Egwu, said the governor did not make consultation before taking such action. Dr Egwu stressed that the Governor acted in ignorance.
“The Governor of Ebonyi State must be joking; he doesn’t have such right to proscribe a National Union. He should consult people who know better than him when it comes to ASUU and Government,” the ASUU leader fumed.
“I know very well that if his children are there in EBSU, he wouldn’t have been handling such a renowned University with levity,” he further hinted. (News Express)
How can a peaceful protest end up with killing and maiming, burning and looting in a matter of days? For those of us who have seen plenty “peaceful” protests in our lives, it is not too hard to explain. The moment you hit the streets and fail to read the road signs — so that you will know where and when to turn, reverse or park — you are at the risk of losing control of the steering wheel. You will end up carrying all kinds of passengers — thugs, hoodlums, gangsters, cultists, politicians and all manner of opportunists. In fact, you may unwittingly provide cover for state agents to target the assets and possibly the lives of perceived opponents and rivals. So it goes.
In the best of times, peaceful protests can go awry — much less in these hard times, with oil prices down, government revenue falling, the currency losing value, prices of goods and services rising, and, to add fuel to the fire, COVID-19 taking our breath away. A majority of the people are already bleeding and groaning with the removal of subsidies on petrol and electricity. And with the huge population of unemployed, underemployed and unemployable youth, we knew all along that an uprising was a strong possibility at some point. That a peaceful protest against police brutality, tagged #EndSARS, would spark off this massive carnage was what we probably did not budget for.
With the protests infiltrated by rogues, the anarchy was inevitable. My biggest fear was military involvement. Those who witnessed the massacres by soldiers during the pro-June 12 protests in 1993 and other riots under military regimes would agree with me that it was not a pretty sight. I was praying that troops would not be called in to quell the #EndSARS protests. But I was wrong. On Tuesday evening, soldiers invaded the Lekki ground and started shooting. Initial reports said there was a massacre, although there is yet no identified victim: no names, no addresses, no relatives; just grainy videos with tailored commentaries. Hopefully, we will have a much clearer picture soon.
This is my “executive summary” of the #EndSARS campaign. It started as a genuine protest on social media. It went to the streets. Government saw the danger and accepted the five demands of the protesters. Police disbanded SARS. States set up judicial panels to probe police brutality. Despite getting these concessions, protesters remained adamant. Then came the partisan and sectional dimensions — with #BuhariMustGo and #EndNigeria added to the hashtags. Mayhem started. Looting.
Shooting. Lynching. Curfew. Then Lekki happened. And President Muhammadu Buhari, silent for so long, finally addressed the nation, basically declaring: “The fire next time!” After Buhari’s broadcast, I could see defeat on the faces of the youth. Many started tweeting about relocating to Canada, declaring a total loss of faith in Nigeria. #ItIsFinished began trending. This is sad but I would like to appeal to the Nigerian youth not to give in or give up. The #EndSARS protest did not fail. For one, the protesters got the government to act on their demands — which is a major victory by any definition. SARS has been disbanded. I can bet that whatever police unit replaces SARS will come under stricter scrutiny. Judicial panels have been set up. We expect to see the murderous police officers face justice. Police reform is now an imperative. These are big wins.
Moreover, the youth have shown that they have the ability to organise. These are the same youth we condemn for voting more in Big Brother Naija than in general election. We have often described them as lazy, entitled and obsessed with Instagram, fast cars and bling. By starting a campaign against SARS and taking to the streets to protest police brutality, they brought the country to a halt and attracted international interest. Everybody started paying attention to them. We started celebrating the coming of age of our youth. Older people started scrambling to associate with the cause. Ladies and gentlemen, this is surely a positive development. Let’s now discard it.
What next? According to data from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) released before the 2019 general election, the youth — described as those between ages 18 and 35 — made up about 51 percent of the 84 million registered voters. If you expand the age bracket to 50 years (to accommodate other young Nigerians like me), the figure jumps up to 81 percent. That is mind-boggling. What the youth should be thinking now is how to use these humongous figures to bring about new things in Nigeria in 2023 — rather than flee to Canada. They should realise Canada was not built in a day. Its people fought hard to build the country with their sweat and blood.
Just a brief journey into Canada’s history: there were two rebellions against “bad governance” between 1837 and 1838. The rebels were arrested after the uprisings and put on trial. Samuel Lount, one of the organisers of the Upper Canada Rebellion, was publicly hanged. He is regarded as a martyr till today. Over 100 rebels were sentenced to life imprisonment. What the rebel leaders wanted was political reform. They had a common agenda for Canada. Even though they paid the ultimate price, Canada was never the same again. Reform came. Today, Canada is one of the most developed countries in the world. But Canada was not always like this. People paid the price.
What’s my point? The youth must begin to conceive of a new political order and the role they can play in birthing it. The #OccupyOjota protests of 2012 helped in building the momentum that uprooted the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from power in 2015 and installed the All Progressives Congress (APC). In 2023, the #EndSARS momentum can become a movement that will help uproot both APC and PDP from power and birth a new political culture where government officials will begin to pay less attention to the perks of office and more to their responsibilities to Nigerians. And I mean at all levels — local, state and federal. That would be the best legacy of #EndSARS.
Behold, how good and how pleasant it would be for Nigerian youth to unite in the quest for good governance! They can be more politically active. They can be more involved in choosing councillors, council chairpersons, state lawmakers, governors, federal lawmakers and the president. It does not mean only the youth will occupy these positions. In addition to contesting, the youth can engage with the aspirants and candidates, scrutinise them, advance the agenda of good governance, monitor the performances of those elected or appointed, and mobilise for recall or removal if they fail to deliver. Canada was not built in a day. Nation-building is not a sprint. It is a marathon.
I hope the youth have also learnt their lessons from the #EndSARS fiasco. One, you don’t go to war without visible leadership. You will end up creating anarchy and mob action. We can now see the consequences. Things completely went out of control and there was nobody to call the mobsters to order. Leadership is key in every life endeavour. Two, you don’t go to war without a plan. There should be Plan A, Plan B and even Plan C. I did not see any plan apart from “we no go gree o”. Three, because of lack of leadership and strategy, the protests continued when they should have been called off. Now over 70 people are dead. This is extremely disturbing and disheartening.
Four, you must take your wins and know when to retreat without surrendering. When SARS was disbanded and judicial panels set up, that was the time to retreat. That was the time to say: “We are suspending the protests. If nothing changes, we will return to the streets.” Some people were even demanding that Buhari should sign an “executive order” to show that SARS had been disbanded. It got that ridiculous. Some rejected the panels because there was no “youth” and declared a boycott. I have come to learn that boycott is not an effective strategy. Campaign for youth inclusion in the panels but mobilise to engage with the process and follow through to get justice.
Five, you must stay the message. Nigerians were united in the call to stop police brutality. It was nationwide. Contrary to the propaganda, there were #EndSARS protests in Kaduna, Kano, Kwara, Nasarawa, Adamawa and some other northern states. It was not a purely southern thing. Unfortunately, some people sneaked in their #BuhariMustGo and #EndNigeria agenda and things began to fall apart. More so, protesters started losing focus when they moved from the unifying agenda against police brutality and expanded it to an omnibus campaign for restructuring and ending corruption and bad governance. It is impossible to achieve everything at a go.
Finally, the youth must learn from their elders. As the Yoruba would say, no matter how many Gucci shirts a child has, he can never have as many rags as an elder. Some youth actually think the story of Nigeria started in 1999 or 2015. Actually, people have been fighting for a better Nigeria for 100 years. Our forefathers played their roles and left. We are still fighting for a better Nigeria. We cannot all adopt the same style and strategy. Ultimately, we need to engage constructively to change the rigged and warped system. From my little experience, starting a mass action without a strategy, without a fall-back plan, and without giving an inch can only lead to anarchy. Lessons learnt?
AND FOUR OTHER THINGS…
LEKKI SHOOTING While the argument is still ongoing over whether or not there was a Lekki massacre, I will keep asking just one question: why on earth would soldiers shoot when the protesters were clearly peaceful and orderly? Lekki was the best organised of all the protest points. Shooting into the air alone at such a large gathering can create a pandemonium and lead to a stampede. Hundreds could have been crushed! It is not enough for the government to say nobody was killed. In the 21st century, we must be discussing how our security agencies can manage an orderly gathering without firing a bullet: whether live, rubber or blank. We need an investigation to establish the facts. Urgent.
BURNIN’ AND LOOTIN’ I will never, ever support anarchy and mob action, but I can never, for the life of me, understand the wickedness that dwells in some of our leaders in this country with the alleged hoarding of COVID-19 relief materials. The warehouses are now being attacked and looted. While we can legally argue that this is wrong, we were all in this country when poor Nigerians were being given miserable packages as “COVID palliatives” during the lockdown. In some cases, a whole household got a little bag of foodstuff that would not feed a five-year-old. The #EndSARS campaign has opened a can of worms. What about the insanely inflated costs around sanitizers, face masks, PPEs and COVID tests? Evil!
FAKE NEWS FIESTA Those who manufacture and distribute fake news may think they are having fun but they will have to start having conversations with their consciences at some point. If their goal is to set the country on fire, perhaps they should retreat for a minute and ask themselves if even they, and their families, will survive the inferno. Two have stood out in recent weeks. One, using an old video of Niger Delta militants surrendering their arms under the amnesty programme to broadcast a message that Fulani militias were being given arms to attack Yoruba people. Two, using the drama sketch of a body wrapped in national flag to claim that it was a victim of the Lekki shooting. Wicked.
ON MENTAL HEALTH I was a speaker at the #UNASHAMED2020 Conference on mental health organised by the Asido Foundation. Kudos Dr Jibril Abdulmalik, the CEO/founder and consultant psychiatrist, who is doing a great job drawing attention to mental health issues in the country. Having suffered depression myself nearly nine years ago, I shared my own experience with participants and promised to contribute to the demystification of mental health issues in Nigeria using the media. Korede Bello, the artiste, has apparently been doing a wonderful job in this area. I got to understand that every human being suffers mental illness in different degrees. No-one should be ashamed. Therapeutic.
Samsung Electronics chairman Lee Kun-hee, who transformed the South Korean firm into a global tech titan, died at the age of 78 on Sunday, the company said.
Under Lee’s leadership, Samsung rose to become the world’s largest producer of smartphones and memory chips, and the firm’s overall turnover today is equivalent to a fifth of South Korea’s GDP.
Samsung’s meteoric rise helped make Lee South Korea’s richest and most powerful industrialist.
“It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Kun-hee Lee, Chairman of Samsung Electronics,” the company said in a statement.
“Chairman Lee passed away on October 25 with his family, including Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee, by his side.
“Chairman Lee was a true visionary who transformed Samsung into the world-leading innovator and industrial powerhouse from a local business,” the firm said, adding: “His legacy will be everlasting.”
They drove the nation’s transformation from a war-ravaged ruin to the world’s 12th-largest economy, but nowadays are accused of murky political ties and stifling competition — with Lee himself twice convicted of criminal offences, in one case bribing a president.
– Global power –
When Lee inherited the chairmanship of the Samsung group in 1987 — founded by his father as a fish and fruit exporter — it was already the country’s largest conglomerate, with operations ranging from consumer electronics to construction.
But it was seen as a shoddy producer of cheap, low-quality products.
“Let’s change everything except our wives and kids,” Lee said in 1993.
The company gathered up and burnt all 150,000 mobile phones it had in stock, paving the way for the rebirth of the highly successful “Anycall” handset.
With Lee at the helm, Samsung became a global behemoth: by the time he suffered a heart attack in 2014, it was the world’s biggest maker of smartphones and memory chips, and a major player in semiconductors and LCDs.
Lee rarely spoke to the media, but was closely watched whenever he broke his long silences, often with doom-laden New Year corporate addresses.
His son, Samsung Electronics vice chairman Lee Jae-yong, has been at the helm of the company since the 2014 heart attack.
– ‘Hermit king’ –
Despite his immense wealth and power, Lee seldom ventured out from the high walls of his private compound in central Seoul to visit the company headquarters, earning him the nickname “hermit king”.
Lee, the third son of Samsung group founder Lee Byung-chull, had a soft spot for dogs — developed as a child in Japan where he went to school from age 11. He was also known for his love of movies, horseriding and exotic supercars.
He studied at Japan’s prestigious Waseda University and earned an MBA at George Washington University in the United States.
He became vice chairman of the group’s construction and trading arm at the age of 36, and became group chairman nine years later, shortly after his father’s death.
Lee married Hong Ra-hee — whose father was a justice minister — with whom he had a son and three daughters.
– Bribes, embezzlement, tax evasion –
The worlds of politics and business have been intertwined in South Korea, and the connection was reflected in Lee’s career.
In 1996, he was convicted of bribing former president Roh Tae-woo to get favours for Samsung in business policy decisions.
Lee was also found guilty of embezzlement and tax evasion in a slush fund scandal in 2008, which saw him briefly step down from the company leadership.
But suspended sentences meant he never served time in jail and he received two presidential pardons, going on to spearhead his country’s successful efforts to secure the 2018 Winter Olympics.
A few years later, he fought off a lawsuit from his older brother and sister claiming they were entitled to Samsung shares worth billions of dollars.
He had been in medical care after his heart attack, but few details were ever revealed about his condition, leaving him shrouded in mystery even in his final days.
‘We have scorched the snake, not killed it…’ (Act 3, scene 2) Shakespeare’s Macbeth
This conversation takes place between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth after Macbeth has killed Duncan, the king of Scotland. He was convinced to do so by Lady Macbeth. Once king, Macbeth is not satisfied. He decides that Banquo, a general in the Scottish army, is a threat, because he knows about the witches’ prophesies that his sons will be king after Macbeth.
In this scene, Macbeth is worried that Banquo will betray him, or even that he might be suspicious that Macbeth killed king Duncan. Lady Macbeth tells her husband “What’s done is done”. She is convinced that all they need to do is killing Duncan and then everything would be fine. But Macbeth is still worried. When he tells her they have “scotched” the snake and not “killed” it, he is using the snake as a metaphor for the threat to his being king. They might have killed Duncan, but they are still not safe. The “former tooth” can come back to get them. There are people who are a threat to them, and they have to be dealt with. Simplified: Macbeth tells Lady Macbeth that, by killing Duncan, they have not put the matter of the throne to rest. By scorching the snake but not killing it, Macbeth means that they still have threats to face, even with Duncan out of the picture. He also references that they have put Duncan to rest in peace, while they must still suffer through challenges so long as they are alive. Macbeth’s mounting guilt has made him increasingly paranoid, and he worries that his place on the throne, as well as his life, is not secure.
So, Macbeth is still quite worried. But Lady Macbeth still does not know how much. She finds out during a dinner, when Macbeth acts strangely seeing Banquo’s ghost. She begins to doubt their actions, leading to her eventual downfall into madness. Macbeth’s reaction to becoming king is indicative of his personality. He has what he wanted, but he is afraid to lose it. Lady Macbeth assumes that they are fine. They have what they want. She has underestimated her husband’s arrogance, greed, and paranoia. He is about to go on a killing spree to eliminate these so-called threats, and in the end, it destroys both of them. She succumbs to guilt and loses her mind, eventually killing herself. Macbeth’s murder of Macduff’s family causes the man to get his revenge at all costs, and Macbeth loses his head—literally.
Let’s learn here: Scorched snake means wounded snake. And so it can be more dangerous. When the image of the snake is used again, it is used to represent Banquo. Lady Macbeth and Macbeth see Banquo as the deceitful one; the person who could ruin their well-established place; the enemy who could wreck their lives as king and queen in their Garden of Eden. It is easier for Macbeth to kill Banquo because Banquo is the snake. Their Royal Majesty thinks it is not sinful to kill what the snake is representing.
Here is the real lesson for all of us at this perilous time. We should not sleep soundly yet that the #EndSARS momentum has been defeated with the seemingly orchestrated pollution of the campaign by some loud ‘militants’ we call ‘hoodlums’. Some of the so-called ‘hoodlums’ were also seeing re-looting some Covid-19 loot in some warehouses in some capital cities across the country. Who own those warehouses where Covid-19 labelled palliatives have been kept by state thieves amid hunger in the land? Have the custodians of the warehouses been waiting for the second wave of Covid-19 in the country before distributing the packages? The answers to these questions should not be allowed to blow in the wind even as we condemn massive looting of genuine shops in many cities.
Now back to the brass tacks: as the dust on the #EndSARS “loud and clear message” is settling, our leaders and elders at all levels should not return comfortably to their usual ‘hibernation mode’ yet. This is clearly a time of reflection on how all of us have contributed to the socio-economic condition that triggered the #EndSARS campaign by our resourceful youth, we glibly call our ‘leaders of tomorrow’ we work hard to paralyse today. Where is that elder, who is that leader who does not understand the “loud and clear message” of the #EndSARS Messengers of Hope? Here again is the thing, as we are looking for pieces of evidence on whether there were gunshots, blood- thirstiness, blood stain or camera switch-off and allied pieces on that landmark ‘Bloody Tuesday’ (#20-10-2020) the deep among our elders should reflect deeply on the sound of lyrics of the National Anthem our young ones were said to be rendering and the significance of National Flags they reportedly raised before the sound of gunshots still being disputed. Where did the blood-stained Nigerian flag emerge from that day? Whose blood stained that flag? Was it a photo-shop too? These pieces of truth we can’t hide in a grave for too long: They won’t stay there. As I have repeated noted here: once upon a time, some ancient political leaders hid one truth in a grave, the truth, yes that truth stayed there for only three days – before resurrection! And so certainly, the truth out of the claims of #20-10-2020 ‘Bloody Tuesday’ at Lekki Toll Gate will come out of the grave and the consequences and significance of that monument will set us free! Yes, our political leaders can set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission on #20-10-2020 ‘Bloody Tuesday’, but that should not take any steam out of the significance of the message of #EndSARS campaigners that so many right-thinking members of the public have been analysing, contextualising and deconstructing. The loud and clear message connotes just one thing: that our leaders have been eating sour grapes and their children’s teeth are set on edge!
The children are saying clearly that enough-is-enough of eating of sour grapes by our fathers. The young ones who can’t see any ‘hope of a better tomorrow’, which Ngugi wa’Thiong’o, a Kenyan iconic writer says, ‘is the only comfort you can give to a weeping child’, are weeping that the deadly operatives inside SARS are not the trouble with Nigeria. They are saying rather the operatives too are victims of a broken system that has produced a corrupt police service. The young ones are therefore saying the federal police system, a by-product of a unitary system the military establishment imposed since 1966, should be reformed to reflect what obtains in all political systems operating federalism in global context. Nigeria is a member of ‘Forum of Federations’ based in Canada. Yet Nigeria is the only member of the (FOF) that operates a central police system that covers 36 federating units and 774 local government councils. The young ones’ message is: let us legally decentralise the operations of the Nigerian police system. The central authorities in Abuja cannot continue to operate a federal police system. The young ones are saying, we are not mentally lazy: we know enough to know that the present policing system is the reason all the reforms proposed so far for SARS since 2018 have not worked.
In the same vein, the governors including those that have established judicial commissions of enquiries to probe the extent of SARS alleged atrocities in their states as directed by Abuja should note that they can only submit their reports to Abuja and they may not get any response and review until June 1, 2023 when the current commander-in-chief must have returned to Daura. The 36 governors should therefore reflect on what they can do henceforth to engage the angry young ones (both the organic protesters and the so-called hoodlums) beyond the meretricious three-months job opportunities their elder brother and Minister, Festus Keyamo has been directed to give them from Abuja. The governors should not allow the young ones to be looking up to the hills in Abuja all the time ‘whence cometh their help’. Their help should come from their governors and local government councillors! Our leaders at all levels should deepen their understanding that these agitating young ones are not looking for money that can’t satisfy and prepare them to benefit from what 21st century offers. They are not looking for settlements that can’t prepare them to take over as ‘leaders of tomorrow’. They want the presiding officers and members of the national and state legislatures, for instance, to note that Nigeria cannot afford to pay them what even the economy cannot absorb. They want the legislators to explain what they mean by ‘hardship allowance’ among other frivolous allowances awarded to them. Who actually needs hardship allowance? The #EndSARS brand ambassadors are also asking when the current political class will reform the political system to prepare them to be ‘leaders of tomorrow’.
The deliverable on this #EndSARS challenge is that our leaders should quickly reset and update their governance action plans to include how to engage the creative energies of the young ones. Despite the curious disruptions by the wonders called ‘hoodlums’, the youth of Nigeria under the aegis of the #EndSARS Movement have demonstrated that they can manage the affairs of Nigeria. They know too that they have a country. We now know that the young ones know that they are not too young to rule. They have demonstrated that they know that Nigeria is the only country they can call their own. There is a sense in which we can claim too that the young ones now know the meaning of reform. They have asked for the reform of even their tormentors, the police. They know that Nigeria hasn’t come of age now more than sixty years after independence. So, they want an enabling environment in which they can use their brainpower to proper. They want to thrive in an environment that empowers its universities as centres of research and innovation for the most populous black nation in the world.
And so, our leaders and elders should not allow the gloom created by the past chaotic weeks to complicate our sense of purpose and responsibility. We should note specifically that the retreat that the angry youth have beaten can be likened to a danger that can be posed by the snake the Macbeths are contextualising as only wounded, and not killed. I hope we can absorb a concomitant message from Shakespeare that if our leaders ignore the message from #EndSARS challenge, they will murder sleep and so they will sleep no more – from now! ##
ABUJA (Sundiata Post) – A former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, has criticised Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the self-acclaimed national leader of the ruling All People’s Congress (APC) over his role in the ongoing #EndSARS protest and shooting at Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos.
The open letter made available to Sundiata Post on Sunday morning, reads:
My dear Asiwaju Tinubu,
Even if the whole country is cowed and mesmerised by you and applauds your callousness, vanity, evil, subterfuge, deceit, ruthlessness, obsessive ambitions, lack of fear of God and doubkespeak I FFK, the Voice of the Voiceless, the Servant of Truth, the Lover of God, the Beloved of the Lord, the Otunba of Jogaland, the Sadaukin Shinkafi, the Odum Agu and the Odugwu Eze will not.
Your spell cannot silence, bind or blind me like it has done to others. I see you for what you are and your vain and boastful words here have confirmed it. To think I once loved and admired you gives me sleepless nights and goose pimples. How could I have been so blind?
When Baba Fasoranti’s daughter was murdered by Fulani herdsmen you made mockery of it, went to his house and asked “where are the cows?”
This was insensitive, callous and painful and all the more so because when the murderers of this much-loved and referred lady were eventually apprehended and arrested they were indeed Fulani herdsmen even though their cows were not arrested with them.
The latest episode in your catalogue of atrocities is that children that were protesting peacefully and asking for #EndSARS and an end to police brutality have been slaughtered at Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos under your watch as National Leader of the APC.
Sadly instead of exhibiting any remorse or displaying any regret for this abominable atrocity, with a sheepish smile and a sneering and jocular tone, you had the sheer nerve and effontry to say nothing other than that you are “still the Asiwaju of Lagos and the Jagaban?”
Yet what was even worse than this and what shocked and astounded all right-thinking people all the more was that you had the temerity to go on even further to say that the “casualties at the Lekki shooting have some questions to answer!”
You then asked, “how are they there?”, “how long were they there?” and “what kind of characters were they?”
How cruel can you be? Not a word of condolence or expression of commiseration to the families of the dead but instead you offered stupid questions and baseless accusations against their wards and children who were butchered in the most brutal circumstances and heartless manner.
You have no honor. You have no shame. You have no dignity. You have no self-respect. You have no decency. Children were murdered in our streets and this is all you have to say?
You are attempting to blame them for being shot to death and blown to pieces by a bunch of genocidal maniacs in uniform who subjected them to crimes against humanity, genocide and mass murder?
You seek to cover up these horrendous crimes and you are attempting to dishonor and denigrate the dead and desecrate and mock the great sacrifice of these courageous young martyrs for democracy who were murdered in cold blood on the front lines in the field of battle?
Let me tell you this: your dastardly strategy and evil diversionary plan will not work! This matter will not go away!
You will not brush it under the carpet, you will not play it down, you and your puppet Sanwoolu will not escape responsibility for failing to protect our people from the beastly savages that slaughtered them and God will punish you for your scurrilous attempt to muddy the waters, cover up the truth and pervert the course of justice.
The bitter truth is that you have no conscience and no compassion. You lack the milk of human kindness. You bear no love for humanity or for human beings and you place no value or reverence on human life.
You only harbour love, which borders on obsession, for your vain and lofty ambition to rule Nigeria and trust me when I tell you that this will never happen.
You are heartless, you are cold-blooded, you are wicked, you lack empathy for the suffering and you are a sociopath. Your spell may work on others but it does not work on me.
I see you for what you are: pure evil. You are the darkness that seeks the darkness. The monster that betrayed his own people and put a tyrant and blood-sucking demon in power just to further his own fading ambition and feed his psychotic obsession for power.
Permit me to end with the following.
I urge you to find out what happened to a character called Icarus in Ancient Greek mythology when he flew too close to the sun because that is precisely what is going to happen to you.
As they say pride comes before a fall and hubris always leads to nemesis. Your hubris is here and your nemesis is coming.
To add to that the Holy Bible says “the Lord resists the proud and exalts the humble”.
It also says “who art thou O man? Thou art as the flower that fadeth! Thou art as the grass that withers! A man that is born of woman, that is today and tomorrow is no more!”
I counsel and urge you to ponder and meditate deeply on these words. I advise you to humble yourself before God, get to know Him, learn to fear Him and seek justice and truth before it is too late!
Remember that you will NOT be Asiwaju and Jagaban for ever and, like all mortals, one day you will answer the great call, go the way of all flesh, come face to face with your maker and account for your horrendous crimes against the Nigerian people!
A daughter of the President, Zahra Buhari-Indimi, says the discovery of food items and other COVID-19 palliatives in several warehouses across the country is evidence that her father, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), is not Nigeria’s problem.
Zahra said this on her Instagram Stories on Sunday.
She wrote, “Now that people confirmed that Buhari distributed enough palliatives nationwide, it is clear Buhari is not our problem.”
Thousands of Nigerians have in the last few days plundered warehouses in several states including Lagos, Plateau, Osun, and Kwara in the wake of the #EndSARS protests.
In some instances, COVID-19 palliatives donated by the private sector-led Coalition Against COVID-19 were found in private homes of politicians.
Some of the items include cartons of noodles, sacks of garri, and bags of rice, some of which had gone bad due to poor and prolonged storage.
In Osun State, the government said it was waiting for officials from Abuja to “commission” the goods hence the delay in distributing them while in Lagos, the Majority Leader of the House of Assembly, SOB Agunbiade, said he kept the palliatives in his Ikorodu home because he wanted to distribute them on his birthday.
Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project has asked the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission to investigate the circumstances surrounding the alleged hoarding of COVID-19 palliatives in warehouses in several states.
SERAP also urged the ICPC “to visit the states where COVID-19 palliatives have been discovered in warehouses, and to track and monitor the distribution of palliatives across the 36 states of the country, and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, to remove the risks of diversion, and ensure that the palliatives get to those most in need, and not used for political or corrupt purposes.”
Several Nigerians had complained about the high rate of poverty in the country compounded by the lockdown ordered in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Several business moguls including industrialist, Aliko Dangote, Mike Adenuga, Femi Otedola, Oba Otudeko, Folorunsho Alakija, Tony Elumelu, and several others had donated over N30 billion in cash and food items to assist federal and state governments in tackling the COVID-19 challenge.
However, there have been complaints by several groups that monies and items had been diverted, an allegation which the ICPC is investigating.
Following the nationwide address from President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday, October 22, we are more resolved to press not just for justice but for a new and better Nigeria where all citizens are safe and can thrive.
Lagos State, where the hotbed of resistance began has been under state-wide curfew imposed by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu. Prior to that, Soldiers attacked peaceful protesters at the Lekki Toll Gate and unleashed carnage. We have watched with horror, the ensuing acts of violence, murder, looting, razing and vandalization of homes, businesses and organizations in Lagos State, and we will like to state emphatically that these are not protesters. We completely condemn any form of violence or looting.
For the sake of the wellbeing of our comrades and ordinary citizens being adversely affected by this, we will deprioritize the physical protests, for now. But, for the sake of those who died, before the protests, during the protests, and at the hands of Soldiers at the Lekki Toll Gate — people who the government has largely refused to acknowledge, THE STRUGGLE MUST CONTINUE.
Here are our objectives in the next few days:
1. Clean Up
During our protests, we made a conscious effort to clean up the venues and keep our environment safe for everyone. Following the condemnable vandalizations that took place since the curfews began, we are volunteering efforts towards the clean-up and rebuilding of the state.
2. Online Protest
We will continue to intensify online publicity and protest of the issues and demands made. We will be hosting conversations, sharing articles and amplifying voices of thought leaders in that direction.
3. Offline Community Engagement
We will continue grassroot mobilization and civic education of the masses, providing tools for education to enable them to understand the scale and scope of what is at stake.
4. Timelines
We are putting a timeline together to track actions taken to meet our demands. This way, we know what has been done, what is being done, and what can be ticked off our list. This way, we know if and when the government defaults, and we can decide if a return to the streets is necessary.
5. Strategy:
We are building short, medium- and long-term strategies to sustain this momentum and keep this fire that has been ignited by the actions of young people across Nigeria burning. The strategies are pillared on and geared towards Education, Voter Registration, Political Consciousness and Representation for Young People in government.
6. Structure:
We will create a structure to strategically consolidate demands, formalize the coalition, galvanize the continued online protest, develop standards for monitoring and evaluation, and continue the mobilization and education of the citizens.
7. Representation:
The leaderless nature of this protest but consistent oneness in demands have been part of our unique strengths. As we move towards consolidation and negotiation, it is now pertinent we put forward a diverse group to represent the different coalitions; from celebrities to activists, legal minds to strategists, journalists to entrepreneurs, etc. We consulted far and wide, to come up with these names, and while this may not be exhaustive, it offers us an interim basis to begin the negotiation and consolidation.
The nominees will meet with different protest leaders/blocs across the country/states, and consolidate on a vehicle for continuous demands. They will also track actions of the Government, represent our demands and provide feedback to us regularly. They are:
Due to the decentralized nature of this movement across the country, we nominate a team with experience in leadership and diplomacy, to assist in advisory and other support. This team will be consulted from time to time within the process. The criteria are people with integrity, people who have a vast experience in national issues, and who have a track record of being pro-young people.
All nominations are provisional. If there are people you think should be on the list, people who have been critical in the success of these protests and can work towards the actualization of our demands, and the ultimate mission — a better government/future for Nigeria, please nominate.
In conclusion, these protests have never been politically motivated. It is not about ethnicity or tribalism. The young people across the country are demanding justice, good governance, accountability and reforms. These protests have no sponsor nor agenda other than what we have stated repeatedly; better governance, accountability and an end to brutality.
To everyone who has lost someone or something, we stand in solidarity with you.
To all our heroes that died before and during these struggles, we say Rest in Power! Your deaths will not be in vain.
Hoodlums on Sunday looted the house of a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, located near Jos University Teaching Hospital.
It was gathered that the hoodlums defied the ongoing curfew imposed by the state government to also invade other buildings in search of COVID-19 palliatives.
Dogara’s house was attacked about 9 am, an eyewitness told our correspondent.
Policemen and other security operatives enforcing the curfew shot to disperse the rampaging youths without success.
“They broke into the house of the former Speaker and attacked everyone, including Dogara’s brother, and (they) are currently moving anything they see. In the process, the invaders moved several items – tricycles, furniture, electronics, and other valuables – out of the house,” an eyewitness said.
Forensic analysis of videos showing the killing of protesters at the Lekki Toll Gate area of Lagos by soldiers on Tuesday as authentic in spite the Nigerian Army’s classification of the reports as fake and the Defence Headquarters’ claim that the footages were doctored.
According to HumAngle, a report published by the Digital Forensic Research Lab on Thursday noted that open-source evidence contradicted these denials.
“Several videos corroborate the location and presence of Nigerian soldiers at the Lekki Toll Plaza, a major toll highway toll concession in the South of Lagos,” said Jean Le Roux, the lab’s Research Associate for Southern Africa.
“Video footage posted on Twitter place Nigerian soldiers at the plaza where they are seen approaching peaceful demonstrators and opening fire. Subsequent footage shows injured civilians being carried away from the same location.”
Using four videos, the DFRLab geolocated the shooting at the toll-gate “despite denials by the Nigerian military”.
“A different video shows what appears to be soldiers of the Nigerian Army approaching protesters where they were stationed behind plastic barriers. Soldiers approached the group and opened fire. No warning is heard in the video. Muzzle flashes indicate that several of the shots seen and heard here were fired into the air,” it stated.
It confirmed using features close to the toll gate and across the channel that the video was taken “looking into a Northern direction on the Eastern part of the toll gate, suggesting that protesters were approached from both the east and west by law enforcement, as suggested by some witnesses”.
“Video footage also identified injured protestors at the same scene. The author of a video uploaded to Twitter on October 20 shows injured and bloodied protestors with the author claiming they were shot by soldiers. As the video pans, a parking garage to the south of the toll gate can be seen,” DFRLab continued.
“Another video taken in front of the toll gate showed several injured protestors being carried off in the presence of camouflaged soldiers, presumably the same soldiers seen in the second video above. At least two protestors are carried away, while a third is seen on the ground during the video,” it added.
Geolocation of the last video placed soldiers at the Southern section of the toll gate’s Eastern part.
“Despite denials by the Nigerian Army, open-source evidence links the presence of Nigerian soldiers at the Lekki Toll Gate at the same time as the first reports of shooting came in,” the organisation emphasised.
Despite the tweets disclaiming reports of the shooting as fake, @AmnestyNigeria confirmed 10 people died at Lekki.
Lagos governor @jidesanwoolu yesterday instituted a fact finding committee to investigate the Army’s Terms of Engagement following an “unfortunate shooting.” pic.twitter.com/qqzcZVsZyS— Ad Homonym (@jean_leroux) October 22, 2020
“Video footage also showed Lekki Toll Gate protestors, who had been peaceful in the preceding 11 days, bloodied and injured in the presence of these soldiers.”
According to Amnesty International, an on-the-ground investigation revealed that at least 10 people were killed when armed officials of the Nigerian Army opened fire on the protesters.
“These shootings clearly amount to extrajudicial executions. There must be an immediate investigation and suspected perpetrators must be held accountable through fair trials. Authorities must ensure access to justice and effective remedies for the victims and their families,” it said
When a Yale psychologist, Jennifer Richeson heard about the August 2008 report of the US Census Bureau, her immediate response was “This is probably freaking somebody out.” That report had predicted that by year 2050, there will be a seismic shift in American demographics when the population of minorities is expected to rise up to 54% and they would emerge the new majority while whites America becomes the minority. In the years to follow, Richeson and her group carried out series of experimental research in an attempt to elicit some reactions of what that meant to an average white person. What they found was unsettling but crucial to understanding the politics of Trump, Brexit and the resurgence of white nationalism all across the globe.
The research showed that when people hear about the rise of a particular group, they automatically fear it will imperil theirs. According to Richeson, making the U.S. racial shift salient increases racial bias. This leads to negative attitudes towards minorities, opposition to diversity, anxiety and feeling threatened, for the majority groups. The study of demographics on political attitudes also noted that whites who traditionally are independent voters tend to lean more conservative as they become increasingly aware of a dwindling white population. This observation has been noted for its impact on the future of American national politics.
Another famous social psychologist, H. Robert Outten, replicated identical findings in a similar study conducted in both the US and Canada. The fear of what a future shift in demographics would mean is making some in white communities lose sleep.
One other theory that had been suggested as fanning the ember of white nationalism is the fear and anger emanating from the concept of zero-sum game. The belief by some that whenever Blacks or any of the other racial minority groups are getting ahead, Whites must have something to give up. You bet that certain politicians seeking votes would ride on the wave of such false narrative by implicitly or explicitly stoking fear. The scumbags would not hesitate to lend their voices and give platform to the Alt-right movements whose agenda is the American version of the warped Aryan racial superiority reminiscent of Hitler’s Nazi Germany.
Despite all the lies and half-truths however, it’s important to note that even the much referenced 2050 majority-minority census data may be missing a key salient aspect of the analysis which is that white people will still overwhelmingly be in the majority. It’s only by lumping every other race together into one category do they become the minority.
It has also been widely reported that even with the growing minority population, the hierarchy of race has been largely unchanged and so the perceived threat of minority domination is by far exaggerated. In other words, Whites in America and the world over would still be the dominant global power. Caucasians and Jews will continue to maintain positions that pull the levers of control over world politics and economics.
What is indeed a fact is that as other races continue to improve on themselves and get ahead both economically and politically, some of those powers will be shared. A multi-cultural society where all races and ethnic nationalities are upwardly mobile and peacefully co-exist as equals, is the imperative of an emerging new world. That I believe is the natural evolution of humankind and any attempt to suppress it in order to stick to the old order is akin to trying to halt a moving train. Without question, such would guarantee chaos and spell doom for humanity as evidenced by the recent surge in racial unrest all across America.
The widespread protest and racial tension arising from the George Floyd murder case and many others recently is a great pointer to the fact that the old system cannot be propped up for much longer. Many white Americans understand this so well and that explains the massive support for racial justice we have seen lately. Unfortunately, there still exist a sub-group, trapped in the old colonial mentality of Jim Crow who though in the minority are very loud to the point of drowning the sane voices of the silent majority.
Just recently, the President of the United States re-tweeted a message from a group that claims that a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles exists that runs a global child sex-trafficking ring and plotting against him. Just to be clear, I am not in the least flabbergasted by any claim made by QAnon or whatever the morally depraved alt-right jokers are out to sell, but if anyone had told me before now that an American President could sit still in the hallowed grounds of the Oval Office and shamelessly peddle conspiracy theories capable of inciting bloody violence, I would ask him to quit watching horror movies.
We are is 2020 after all, a time when mentally unstable and morally depraved men who before now existed only in the fringes are taking the centre stage. But what should we expect when the group now believe they have a Grand Wizard in the White House as an ally! “Stand back and stand by”, he told Proud Boys. The reality of this moment is no doubt stranger than fiction.
In Trump’s America, disciples of white supremacy are so worried about losing their position in an emerging world of multi-ethnic diversity. They decided there is nothing to lose in taking the fight to the gutters as the only way to hang on to the last vestiges of their perceived power. Of course, they seek out allies from an army of dim-wits and deplorable, together with some witless religious bigots from Africa who are cheer-leading from across the Atlantic. This later group are easily sold on any agenda in so far as its clothed in religious garb. Today the American far-right has inundated the world with an avalanche of falsehood and conspiracy theories in pursuit of their ungodly agenda. For them, they play by no rules and truth is not allowed to get in the way. In their arsenal are massive propaganda tools deployed to misinform and obfuscate.
There is a popular saying that history often repeats itself and the world definitely had seen this movie before. The Nazi Party in its early years was quick to recognise the power of an effective propaganda tool and Hitler himself had this to say:
“Propaganda must not investigate the truth objectively and, in so far as it is favorable to the other side, present it according to the theoretical rules of justice; yet it must present only that aspect of the truth which is favorable to its own side. The receptive powers of the masses are very restricted, and their understanding is feeble”. (Mein Kampf, chapter VI)
The Fuhrer hired Joseph Goebbels and established a Party newspaper known as Volkischer Beobachter, a widely circulated publication. Goebbels on his own, added another voice when in 1927, he started Der Angrif. Trump on the other hand has Breitbart, One America News Network, Mike Pence and QAnon.
The common enemy remains the same, namely: The Jews, LGBT and in America, Blacks, non-white immigrants and certain sub-cultures. Lately even fellow Whites viewed as non-conforming, the likes of Gretchen Whitmer, the current Governor of Michigan they planned to kidnap.
They attack ferociously and crush anything that gets in the way. They dismiss science, deny climate change and attempt to brand the Bill Gates of this world as anti-Christ with a global agenda. They throw innuendos and sling all kinds of mud, hoping that some would stick. The mental cripples that support them have no idea what is going on and happily chorus the attacks.
The world suffered incalculable loss under Hitler’s Germany and it required a World War II that lingered between 1939-1945 and resulted in the death of an estimated 70–85 million people to stop him on his track. Thankfully, history had taught us that no matter how long it takes, good will always triumph over evil.
•Dr. Agbo, a Public Affairs analyst is the coordinator of African Center for Transparency and Convener of Save Nigeria Project. Email: [email protected]
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