As the historic West African nation of Sierra Leone prepares for one of its most controversial electoral contests ever events preceding the scheduled run-off of its latest Presidential election suggest that the exercise might be bedeviled by unprecedented crises and controversies. 

For example on Wednesday, barely six days to the second round of the contest, the National Elections Commission (NEC} released a public statement in which it raised alarm over acts of intimidation that it alleged were being perpetrated against it by the security agencies, especially some units of the Sierra Leone Police (SLP). Knowledgeable observers say that a protest of this scale against the government’s own agencies by the NEC has never been recorded in Sierra Leone before. 

They attribute this situation to reaction by the ruling party to the outcome of the first leg of the election which saw the main opposition candidate the Sierra Leone Peoples Party’s (SLPP)  retired Brigadier General Julius Maada Bio emerge as front runner over the ruling All Peoples Congress’ (APC) candidate Samura Kamara.  

Typical of the allegations tendered by the NEC is the following paragraph; “In recent days however, the SLP has unwarrantedly entered NEC premises unannounced and at random, interrogated NEC staff, and obstructed them from performing their duties, In addition to delaying the time-sensitive work that is critical to the conduct of the presidential run-off election, the unsystematic and confrontational nature of these visits has served to intimidate some staff.” Coming at a time when the sensitive issues of regional sentiments and party loyalty are being marshaled for what is expected to be a close race between the contestants, the suggestion that the ruling party’s underdog status is probably being covertly supplanted by the use of official power is very provocative. 

In the recent past the consequence of political violence in Sierra Leone generated a total breakdown of law and order and led to the complete collapse of the state. The potential for a return to this distressing state of disorder is one eventuality that must occupy the minds of all observers of the present state of affairs in the country.  It was therefore not surprising that the new President of the ECOWAS Commission Jean Claude Kassi BROU led a delegation of officials to Freetown immediately after the statement was issued to discuss modalities for ensuring that the exercise would be carried out without disruption and on schedule.

Apart from the anxieties expressed by the managers of the NEC other events and signals arising in the run-up to the run-off should serve as a warning for all those who wish to ensure that the election does not descend into a destructive and inconclusive confrontation among unprincipled adversaries and supporters of dysfunctional conduct. An injunction that has been raised by a supporter of the ruling APC is actually seeking to have the courts halt the second round on the grounds that the NEC cannot be trusted to conduct a free and fair election. 

It is hardly to be doubted that if the ruling party’s candidate had been the front-runner this order would not have been sought by the plaintiff. Some analysts have suggested that this strategy is part of a concerted effort being mounted by supporters of the ruling party to provoke retaliation and protests on the part of the supporters of the SLPP. 

They say that given the widespread allegations of partisanship on the part of the security agencies they can then be used to intimidate and even disenfranchise those who protest any interference with their right of free association and assembly. Any such tactic will be bound to undermine the peaceful conduct of the run-off and so should be guarded against by the regional monitors, while the judiciary must be wary of being used to create instability. 

The danger signals that have emerged since the announcement of Julius Maada Bio as the front-runner in the first round of the elections include a sudden upsurge in vocal expressions of regional bias being uttered by some supporters of the ruling party’s candidate from the Northern Provinces. 

For example, they have suddenly revived some old and unproven allegations against Maada Bio of anti-Northern bias when he served as former military Head of State. Maada Bio has made noticeable inroads in some sections of the country that had been considered impregnable APC strongholds and this has apparently unsettled the party hierarchy and emboldened some of the political stalwarts who had expected incumbency to serve as a key asset to enable their victory in the first round. 

The outcome has clearly rattled their presumptions and led to them becoming almost desperate in their reaction to the results that have been announced.  The NEC has placed the nation on notice that it is hopeful of being allowed to conduct a contest that will be impeccable for its fairness and this open declaration of neutrality has apparently provoked anger rather than support from those who claim that they were instrumental in appointing the members of the Commission. As a result, the mood in Sierra Leone as the historic second round contest approaches is one of anxiety and apprehension and all of West Africa is watching that nation with bated breath. 

Former militant warlord, Alhaji Mujahid Asari-Dokubo, has denounced the call for a restructured Nigeria, saying the country was better destroyed as an entity.

Speaking at the South-South mega rally of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital on Saturday, the fiery ex-militant said God did not make a mistake by creating him an Ijaw man and not a Nigerian.

According to him, there’s nothing to restructure in Nigeria as it’s being propounded by the South West, the South East and the Middle Belt leaders, but a total disintegration of the forced conglomerate.

He said there was nothing to discuss about Nigeria, noting that of Chief Edwin Clark could be ignored in spite of his track records as an elder statesman by the northern oligarchs, who was he, Asari-Dokubo, to stand before them.

He opined that the only way is what the Holy Book says: “the kingdom of God suffers violence and the violent take it by force,” and so the people from other regions should stand up against the tyranny and subjugation of the northern oligarchy to obtain their freedom.

The founder of the Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force bemoaned a situation where “slaves are riding on horsebacks and princes are walking on foot,” as the irony that has befallen the southerners of the country.

“That is what describes us. My belief is this: when the enemies shall come in like a flood against us, we shall stand up together shoulder to shoulder, arms to arms and say finally “you cannot cross this line.”

Asari-Dokubo, however, stated that since the north would not subscribe to restructuring, in spite of its advantages, it cannot be railroaded into buying into the idea.

“Restructuring is good, but they say they don’t want restructuring. Are we going to beg them? No! So, for me, let us look for other options and the only option is (he switches over to Ijaw language).

“That’s the only way the Urhobos, the Itsekiris, the Ijaws, the Ibibios, the Biroms, the Tivs will become themselves again,” the former president of Ijaw Youths Council (IYC) enthused.

Anthony Joshua has revealed that the thought of losing makes him nervous, but also concedes that "a defeat should not define a fighter" as he prepares to fight Joseph Parker.

Joshua can unify his WBA 'super' and IBF belts with Parker's WBO equivalent on March 31, live on Sky Sports Box Office, as he looks to improve his perfect unbeaten record of 20-0.

'AJ' admits that he is "fully focused" on the challenge of Parker and is open to what a potential loss could mean for his career.

"In boxing, losing is the one thing you are nervous about," Joshua revealed exclusively to Sky Sports. "Nobody wants their '0' to go. You don't plan on getting beat, in every other sport you can lose and bounce back."

When asked 'Is that [losing] what scares you?' the heavyweight champion answered: "Yeah, because it is the sport we are in.

"[Roger] Federer is still known as a great but we don't know the 10 people who have beat him before. For boxing, that loss stays on your record for eternity.

"Losing doesn't define you though, it's how you move forward that defines you. You have to know where you are going.

"When I look at heavyweight boxing, you look at [Wladimir] Klitschko and he wanted to be a three-time heavyweight champion of the world, he lost and came back - If I lost, I'd dust myself off and go again.

"It would show people's mind-set if they discredited everything I had done up until that point because of one defeat."

Joshua is confident that this is still just the beginning of a long tenure as world champion and the 28-year-old wants to fight on for at least another decade.

"I'm fully focussed on Parker," Joshua continued, "Who's to say, afterwards, I couldn't fight on for another ten years.

"I'm 28, Klitschko retired at 40-years-old and Mayweather is 41 and people say he could still fight on. Who is to say I couldn't fight on until 38, history shows athletes go on a lot longer provided they take care of their body.

"I don't want to have to leave boxing, I want to do it because I love it. I don't want to do it for the fame, I want to do it because I enjoy it and still want to be at a high level."

Skysports

It was most thoughtful of the United Nations (UN) to declare gender equality as the unfinished business of our time and to take the world through the history of the struggle.  The UN is calling the world’s attention to a fresh wave of women’s protests and direct action on social media, film sets, on the factory floor and in the streets asking for lasting change and the zero tolerance for sexual assault, harassment and discrimination.

The activism and advocacy of generations of women have been a tremendous success in diverse areas including the fact that there are more girls in school than ever before, and that women are doing paid work and in senior roles in the corporate world, in academia, in politics and in international organisations, including the UN.  Gender equality is enshrined in countless constitutions all over the world, harmful practices like the female genital mutilation, child marriages have been outlawed in many countries.  Yet the UN points out the many rivers to cross before the world arrives at the El Dorado of gender equality, given the historic power imbalances that have been at the root of the malignant cases of discrimination and exploitation of women.

Given the deeply entrenched interests of tradition, culture and religion against gender equality, it is indeed almost a miracle that women have progressed as far as they have.  The world must appreciate the contributions of the UN for its landmark conferences on action for equality, development and peace of which the 1995 Beijing Women’s Conference left indelible marks.  The Seoul Conference of 2005 was equally remarkable.  Indeed the world is anxiously waiting for the next world conference on women.  The last 25 years could, in a sense, be considered a quarter of century for women.

It is not just that there are many more girls in school in some societies; the girls outnumber the boys in schools in some parts of Nigeria.  In the United States, the women outnumber the men in post-graduate and doctoral programmes. 

In the area of politics, the success has been scanty but nonetheless remarkable.  Africa elected its first president in the person of Mrs. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf who served meritoriously as the President of Liberia and ended up joining a small circle of five former heads of state who won the prestigious Mo Ibrahim Prize for African Leadership.  Of course, Angela Merkel, the most powerful woman in the world, was re-elected a fourth time, the second post-war German Chancellor to be so honoured.  Mrs. Theresa May became the Prime Minister of Great Britain, the second woman so honoured.  Yet the first woman ever nominated by a major party in the United States, former Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, won the plurality of the votes but lost the electoral votes and missed being US president by a hairline.  Her loss indicated that gender prejudices against female candidates still subsist even among women voters.

Nigeria has since 1999 elected scores of women as senators, deputy governors, members of the House of Representatives, and is positioning younger women who are daily proving that what men can do, women can do better.  We believe that Nigerian women would have done better in politics but for the financial wherewithal that seems to be lacking for now.  In addition to the economic handicaps, many Nigerian women are still sequestered in places, where they cannot even be seen let alone be heard.

In the work place, men work tirelessly and women work indefatigably, yet it is still sad to notice that even in most of the advanced economies, there is still no equal pay for equal work.  All the laws loudly proclaim there shall be no discrimination by reason of sex or gender.  Yet, in spite of decades of campaigns and education, we still have female genital mutilation, especially in the Nigerian hinterland where nondescript reasons are still adduced for that savagery.  On sexual assault and molestation, the UN is right that even when these acts of violence are reported, victims are made to feel as if they are responsible for their predicament.  However, there is hope in the new law recently enacted by the Lagos State Government, which has raised the punishment to 25 years imprisonment for rape convicts.  The rate at which victims are coming out to report the crime is also encouraging.

In spite of all the advances women have made in socio-economic sectors, their representation in politics still stands at below five per cent whereas they constitute almost 50 per cent of the Nigerian population.  This anomaly must be redressed by pushing for affirmative action aimed at the universal 35 per cent ratio as suggested by the United Nations, which has been adopted and, sometimes, exceeded in some African countries which, Rwanda is an example.  Nigeria should strive for gender equality not as a talking point but as a fundamental policy for development if the country must realise its full potentials.

Sun

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, saturday in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital, played host to some parents of the Chibok girls, who are still kept in an undisclosed location by suspected members of the dreaded Boko Haram terrorist sect since their abduction from the Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, in July 2014.

The Chibok parents made up of 17 women and 13 men stormed the Abeokuta country home of the former Nigerian President to intercede on their behalf and plead with both the Federal government and the international community to expedite action for the release of the 112 children that are still being held captive by the terrorist sect.

Citing Biblical passages from John:16:33 and James1:2, he admonished the parents not to despair any longer, preaching that God who does no evil understands their plight and is capable of bringing succour to them in no time.

Obasanjo also reminded them that as Christians, it should not be forgotten that they would experience tribulations and fiery trials in the world such as the one burdening them in the last four years now, and added that God who allowed it, also has a good purpose for it.

“I want to share with you some of my own thought about the sovereignty of God and what He can do. He is all-knowing, powerful and can do anything.

“I want to share some passages in the Bible. Some of the passages in the Bible have similar passages in the Holy Qur’an (John 16 vs 33). I have told you this that you may have peace and confidence in me, but in the world, you will have tribulations, trials and distress, and be undaunted for I have overcome the world.

“That is our Lord Jesus talking to his disciples and all of us who are Christians are Jesus disciples. Jesus did not say we will not have tribulations in the world, He said we will have tribulations, trials and distress. Our faith will be tested.

“Whatever God allows to happen, He allows it for a good purpose, to test our faith and it is in testing of our faith that our character is shaped and strengthened. I understand how you feel now, I understand your pain and your anguish, God never does evil; whatever happens is to strengthen and make us perfect,” he said.

Reading a prepared speech, one of the parents, Mr. Yakubu Nkeki, appealed to Obasanjo to “ginger” the Federal Government and world leaders to bring their “daughters back from captivity.”

Nkeki lamented that in about a month time, it would be four years a total of 276 Chibok school girls have been abducted, saying while 162 of them had been set free, while 112 others – who are their children, still remain with the terrorist sect.

ThisDay

In the last couple of weeks, particularly in the last couple of days, I found myself asking the question: What is the value of human life in our dear country Nigeria? Anytime this question popped up in my mind, a part of me yelled out “nothing!” in righteous anger and frustration. But not surprisingly, this is the nagging question on the lips of many Nigerians. We are living in a frightening new reality where people’s lives mean nothing and can be taken at any time by another or others.

Nigeria has literarily become a huge killing field for the marauding AK-47-wielding herdsmen whose modus operandi is the butchery of people who refuse to allow them (herdsmen) to graze their cattle on their farmlands. Men, women and children are killed and whole communities virtually razed to the ground. It has happened again and again with little or no response from those in authority. And arrests (if any) have not resulted in successful prosecution for such heinous crimes. It is simply unbelievable that this is happening and nothing serious is being done to put an end to it. Of course the herdsmen’s atrocities are complemented by several cartels of kidnappers and cultists whose ringleaders are well known. They no longer make even the faintest attempt at disguising their identities or trades or cover their tracks.

We are in the season of anomie as criminal groups carve out territories and zones for themselves where they ply their nefarious trade with reckless abandon. In many cases, they operate with the full knowledge of the law enforcement operatives and sometimes, a few yards away from the perimeter of police stations or even military barracks. Hapless Nigerians have become victims of both official inaction and collusion with criminal elements with a licence to kidnap and kill them at will.

The level of insecurity in the country has reached a precipitous point such that the ability and capacity of those in authority to deter and rein in the looming threat is now seriously called to question. It is either they do not understand that Nigeria is on a dangerous slide into anarchy under their watch, or they do but don’t care. Where is our DSS which should ordinarily monitor threats like this? Where is our military intelligence?

On New Year Day, some cultists killed 17 people in Omoku in Rivers state; a monarch and his wife were murdered in Kaduna; and in Benue, over 20 were killed by herdsmen protesting the state’s anti-grazing law.

And a further 73 were killed a few days later. As of June 2017, over 200 people were reportedly killed in Taraba in several attacks spanning weeks. The statistics of people killed by herdsmen on a state-by-state basis across the country since this government came to power are mind-boggling and unbelievable. And yet, the president has not deemed it necessary to say anything directly to Nigerians. All he does is to speak through his aides, directing “security agencies to apprehend the suspects”. Of course that is usually the end of it.

In 2015 when the herdsmen started to transform into blood-thirsty killers, no decisive action was taken against them. President Muhammadu Buhari even denied that it was Fulani herdsmen that were responsible for the attacks. He posited then that they were foreign herdsmen from other African countries coming into Nigeria because of our porous borders. Some people in the media picked up from there and ran with the narrative. Today, like all false narratives, that storyline has died a natural death. The truth of the story is no longer in dispute. Those who helped to sell that narrative now acknowledge that indeed, the killer herdsmen are largely from within.

Benue State has become Nigeria’s own Auschwitz, the amphitheatre of human carnage by killer herdsmen who by their utterances, regrettably value the life of a cow more than the life of a fellow human being. Now, how does one reason with people like these? How do you dialogue with people of this mindset? For the loss of a cow or cows, the killer herdsmen must kill as many people as they can? What a country!

Mr. President wants Benue people to accommodate their fellow Nigerians. I support that of course. But how do accommodate a person or people who willfully grazes his/their cattle on your farmland, destroys your crops and when you protest, he kills you and your family and burns down the community? How do you accommodate people who don’t want to be accommodated but instead, want your ancestral land and want to lord it over you and your community?

The Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II’s allegation that 800 Fulani were killed in Taraba last year is revealing. It appears to justify some of the killings going on. But that figure has been disputed by the Taraba State government as baseless and a figment of Sanusi’s imagination, stating further that 18 people died on both sides during the clashes. I am inclined to believe that 800 Fulani killed in one fell swoop would be stretching the facts to the breaking point. Such a huge number of deaths would not be easy to cover up. Besides, with the calibre of patrons of Miyetti Allah, the association of Fulani cattle breeders, as revealed by Emir Sanusi, all hell would have been broken loose had the deaths in such humongous numbers occurred.

Nigeria has become one giant example of a state that is failing on all fronts. It cannot guarantee any longer its own territorial integrity, security of lives and properties either from herdsmen, Boko Haram, or such other criminal elements like kidnappers, cultists and armed robbers. Boko Haram that was said to have been defeated, is daily besting our poorly remunerated soldiers in battle. Suicide attacks have become a near daily occurrence. There is turmoil everywhere as Nigeria is unraveling before our very eyes. We have never had it so bad. And those charged with the responsibility of protecting the homeland are fiddling. They are giving excuses and passing the buck on why they can’t act. They are rationalising and justifying the mass murder of innocent people. The  once  vociferousness human rights community against the misdeeds of other governments is surprisingly muted now. What was intolerable then to them has suddenly become tolerable now.

We have even witnessed the return of slavery and human trafficking on a grand scale. Nigerians are being sold in Libya like animals. Why is our leadership allowing its citizens to migrate into slavery? Why have they created the economic conditions that make migration to any country attractive to our young able-bodied workforce such that they don’t even mind going to a country like Libya that is without a government? Many of us have watched horrible videos of torture, abuse, sexual molestation, rape and violent killing of Nigerians by Libyans.

In South Africa, Nigerians are the first victims of social and economic discontent; and are being felled like chickens by gangs of South African youths and police. Yet there has not been a strong and determined response from Nigerian leaders who have shown their lack of desire or willingness to protect the people both within and outside our borders.

Many of our people in early middle age or younger are resigning from their jobs to relocate to the US and Canada in record numbers.

Yet in the face of this troubling decline of our country on all fronts, all our leaders are concerned with is politics of 2019.

Some governors who wouldn’t pay workers’ salaries like the Kogi State governor, Yahaya Bello are in the forefront of those begging Buhari to run for a second term whether he  deserves it or not. As the nation was mourning 73 innocent men, women and children hacked to death by herdsmen, some irresponsible governors went to the Villa purportedly to endorse Buhari for a second term.

Those involved in the endorsement were governors Abubakar Bello (Niger); Ibrahim Gaidam (Yobe); Yahaya Bello (Kogi); Abdullahi Ganduje (Kano); Nasir El-Rufai (Kaduna); Jibrilla Bindow (Adamawa) and Simon Lalong (Plateau).

Governor El-Rufai, who spoke to journalists as they emerged from the session with Buhari, said they remained committed to the president’s re-election bid and have no apologies to anyone. Recall that this same El-Rufai wrote a memo to Buhari in September 2016 lamenting the poor performance of his government. Here is an excerpt: “In very blunt terms, Mr. President, our APC administration has not only failed to manage expectations of a populace that expected overnight ‘change’ but has failed to deliver even mundane matters of governance outside of our successes in fighting Boko Haram insurgency and corruption.” It bears stating here that since he wrote that memo to Buhari, things have progressively gone from bad to worse. Despite the clear evidence of Buhari being a failed, out-of-touch leader, El-Rufai and Bello have gone ahead to pledge N50 million each towards the president’s yet-to-be-declared ambition. Even the successes El-Rufai alluded to in his 2016 memo have been significantly undermined by succeeding events since then. The terrorist sect that the president claimed to have defeated has proved to be a more potent force by its near daily attacks on innocent people. Right under this government’s nose, terrorists abducted 110 innocent schoolgirls from their school in Dapchi. While terrorists Fulani herdsmen are on a killing spree daily across the country.

On corruption, just read the Transparency International report. Before that, there was the NBS/UNODC Corruption Perception Report in 2017 and make your judgement whether the credit El-Rufai gave to Buhari in those two areas has not been severely undermined by events thereafter. Let me refresh your memory: there is the Mainagate which has seriously damaged this government’s credibility and the claim that they are fighting corruption.  What about the grass-cutting Babachir Lawal’s case? On that endless list is the GMD of NNPC, Maikanti Baru, who awarded contracts worth $25 billion without going through board approval or due process. Senator Aliyu Wammako’s committee was supposed to be investigating this matter. What has happened to that investigation?  There are so many more issues of corruption plaguing this government which el Rufai cannot pretend to be unaware of. So on what basis is he  rooting for Buhari who has clearly demonstrated a lack of capacity to govern?

His Plateau State counterpart, Solomon Lalong displayed his sadistic pleasure and dark humanity at the plight of Benue people when he gleefully crowed that he warned the Benue State governor over the Anti-Open Grazing Law enacted by the state legislature. Though he later apologised, but not before he had shown his remarkable lack of appreciation of Pastor Martin Niemoller’s immortal poem – highlighting the cowardice of the German intellectuals following the Nazis’ rise to power and the subsequent purging of their chosen targets, group after group. The poem illustrates that when you tolerate tyranny against your neighbours because you were not affected, and fail to speak up, not too long down the road, it will be your turn. Here is an excerpt from the poem:  “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out – because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak for me.”

 It is instructive that the killer herdsmen have since extended their fiesta of bloodletting to Lalong’s Plateau and Bello’s Kogi states, despite the latter voluntarily providing land for cattle colony for Fulani herdsmen to please the president. You see, this government told us that the Anti-Open Grazing Law was responsible for the attacks in Benue. Now, what is responsible for the attacks on Kogi people who are ready to “accommodate” strangers in their land? Shall we ask the Defence Minister, Mansur Dan-Ali just one question here: Were the routes designated for cattle blocked in Kogi? Kogi was the first state to volunteer land for colony. Why the killings there?  Bello, that disrespectful “juvenile” governor who rose to power with the votes of a dead man has proved to be an embarrassment to the Nigerian youth. He would do anything and say anything to please Buhari.  His expressed love for herdsmen is not enough to immune his state from their onslaught!

Again in mid-February, gunmen killed about 41 people at Birane village in Zurmi Local Government Area of Zamfara State. Just a few days after that massacre, 14 APC governors abandoned their duties, ran to Katsina where the president had gone on a brief visit, to beg him to seek re-election in 2019 because if does not, “Nigeria will disappear from the face of the earth”. They are struggling amongst themselves to demonstrate their love for Buhari, their hero, despite the pervading insecurity in the land. They are telling him that he alone can govern Nigeria despite the clear evidence  of  his ruinous reign. They care less about the future of Nigeria as long as their own is assured under Buhari.

Our governors have shown that they lack empathy for the people who voted for them and who are daily at the receiving end of the shocking  cruelty of our leaders. How can these people be this insensitive? The party in power has shown clearly that it is more interested in power than care about the security, safety and welfare of ordinary Nigerians.

Today, life is harsh and insecure under Buhari; worse than at any time in our history. Poverty, hunger and diseases have become our constant companion. Corruption and impunity remain at record levels. Nepotism, clannishness and bigotry have reached an unprecedented scale never before seen in our country. Despite, the obvious evidence, the APC governments at all levels have made lies and propaganda part of their stock-in-trade.

We have seen the hypocrisy that stalks our land; Nigerians have seen the perfidy and impunity of our preachers of change.  To those who are still willfully blind, I say   there is only one thing that is constant in life: Truth! It endures no matter how hard you try to suppress it. And as the saying goes in the land of my fathers, “You can’t go missing on a straight road.”

The security agencies could do more to safeguard the people

Whether voluntary or induced, the return of the Dapchi school girls by their captors is a welcome development. While we rejoice with the families of the freed girls and commiserate with the families of those who lost their loved ones to the madness, we must also point out that the manner in which the whole episode was handled by the federal government raises several questions.

Even then, the authorities must interrogate the circumstances surrounding the death of five of the girls while everything must be done to ensure the return of the one still held back by Boko Haram on account of the refusal to renounce her Christian faith.

In disputing media reports that ransom was paid to secure the release of the girls, Information and Culture Minister, Alhaji Lai Mohammed said: “It is not true that we paid ransom for the release of the Dapchi girls, neither was there a prisoner swap to secure their release.

What happened was that the abduction itself was a breach of the ceasefire talks between the insurgents and the government, hence it became a moral burden on the abductors.”

If there is anything that the current administration is yet to understand, it is that accountability in government is not just about dodgy book keeping or dishing out cheap propaganda. In informing citizens about issues of public good, government must be credible, sensible and minimally logical. In a democracy, the most unpardonable crime a government can commit is to insult the intelligence of the elite as this government has done several times. That explains why many Nigerians are cynical about the official version of what transpired in this sordid Dapchi saga.

While we give the federal government the benefit of the doubt on the claim that no money was paid Boko Haram to secure the release of the girls, we nonetheless state very clearly that appeasement and negotiation with terrorists as an official policy devalues the state. Once terrorists and their sponsors know they can easily arm-twist a government, they have a ready source of money with which to reinvest in new arms supplies for the next escapade.

In societies where governments negotiate and pay ransom for kidnapping, the insurgency label is not only a selling point for organised crime, it can also become self-perpetuating.

More disturbing is that repeated attacks on schools by the insurgents have created fear in many vulnerable students and their parents and is affecting the attitude to education with Boko Haram (whose guiding philosophy is ‘western education is sinful’) winning the psychological war.

So emboldened were the insurgents who returned the abducted Dapchi girls that they took time to lecture their parents never to send the children back to school. Yet, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), when children are denied opportunity for education “not only are their lives shattered, the future of the nation is stolen.”

While we urge a quick resolution of the Leah Sharibu dilemma, what the Dapchi tragedy has shown very clearly is that the insurgents still possess sufficient capacity to capture as many of our school girls as they want, which then means we have left our children at the mercy of violent predators who hide under the guise of Islamic religion to perpetrate evil.

ThisDay

When it rains, it pours. Recently, I wrote an article on the marathon of development-focused governance, which I described as a “relay race”. I used the performance of Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, the governor of Lagos state, as the reference point. I said though there were issues “here and there”, he had done well in several areas in less than three years. At the time I wrote, the waste management issue in the state was just rearing its head. As if that was not enough trouble, Ambode approved an upward review in land use charge. I have also seen documents showing incredible increases in vehicle licensing fees as well as heart-rending taxes for sinking boreholes.

Suddenly, the relatively controversy-free Ambode is engulfed by crises. Not one crisis, but a series. Protests have multiplied online and on the streets. Many are so angry they have gone to the extent of vowing to vote him out in 2019, even when they don’t yet know his opponent. What this tells me is that losing goodwill is sometimes much easier than putting butter on bread. For a governor who worked so hard to gain the respect and admiration of Lagosians to suddenly become a subject of harsh criticism, something has gone really sour. Although he might read political motives to some of the attacks against him, he also handed the bullets to his critics.

The messy waste situation in Lagos was the first to put Ambode on the cross. It is quite understandable. In any mega city, such as Lagos, there are certain failings that will attract immediate attention. One is sanitation. In the short run, you can paper over failings in housing, power, education and transportation, but you cannot cover up poor sanitation. The moment people start seeing refuse piling up like mountains, you don’t need any expert to tell them there is a problem. The eyesore is there for everyone to see and there is no amount of explanation that can suffice, especially when the state has been significantly refuse-free for years.

I have recently taken interest in the waste management logjam. Here is my summary. One, Ambode launched the Cleaner Lagos Initiative last year, unveiling an ambitious, comprehensive reform that extends to recycling, sorting and dumpsite management — beyond mere refuse collection and disposal. This, if I’m not mistaken, is meant to be an extension of the environmental policies of the administrations of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Mr. Babatunde Fashola between 1999 and 2015. I used to hear phrases like “waste to wealth” when Tinubu was in office, and I remember Fashola phased out the cart pushers, making waste collection better organised and more efficient.

Two, until now, private sector operators (called PSPs) managed both residential and commercial wastes. They majored on collecting and disposing refuse. They were reportedly getting paid two ways every month — from the customers and the state government. I won’t dwell on that today. Now, the Lagos state government has divided the franchise, granting the residential licence to Visionscape and the commercial one to the PSPs. Under the new system, as I understand it, only customers would pay the refuse collectors. Any other payment from the state government will be based on performance milestones (the banks call it targets).

Three, and not to be unexpected, the PSPs were un happy with the new arrangement. Although there was bigger value on offer — more transfer loading stations, recycling facilities, new landfill sites and waste-to-energy facilities — the PSPs were about to part with a guaranteed government payout of at least N300 million a month. There were unconfirmed reports that although 350 PSPs were officially registered and receiving payments from the state government, only 100 existed in the real sense. If true, nobody loses N300 million bonanza and keeps quiet just like that. The PSPs should be expected to take the “rational” decision of setting the house on fire.

They downed tools, went to court and the wastes began to pile up. Then the massive media carnage began, particularly on Twitter, and a new narrative took over. It became a dire situation. Visionscape was then directed by the government to clear all the mess. But as the obviously overwhelmed Visionscape was clearing the refuse, fresh piles were surfacing overnight. I can really understand the pushback, or apparent sabotage. Many of the “saboteurs” were arrested, along with their PSP trucks. I saw a few pictures of those arrested in the media, although I’m not sure the suspects are currently facing the music. That’s a different matter.

Let’s now look at Visionscape, the company in the eye of the storm. It was co-founded and promoted by Mr. Adeniyi Makanjuola, a young Nigerian entrepreneur. Makanjuola is one of those guys who run away from the media. I had never seen his face until I started doing some Google research for this article a few days ago. He is a scion of Mr. Remi Makanjuola, chairman of the Caverton Group. According to his brief profile on the website of Visionscape, the younger Makanjuola is a product of Financial Economics from the University of Essex, UK, and also has an M.Sc in Urban Planning and Development from the University College London.

At the age of 23, he launched a successful helicopter charter service under the umbrella of his father’s marine support business, the Caverton Offshore Support Group. He eventually stepped out of his father’s shadows and, in 2014, moved on to UAE to co-found Visionscape — an environmental utility company — alongside Harry Ackerman, a Briton, and Ali Ahli, an emirati, with focus on emerging markets. Ironically, Visionscape was not even the company that won the bid for Lagos waste management. Averda, Suez, Veolia and Visionscape vied for the job. Averda and Veolia, owned and managed by Lebanese entrepreneurs, were shortlisted. Visionscape lost out.

However, when the Lagos state government insisted on a naira-denominated payment agreement, the shortlisted companies backed out, and Visionscape came back into reckoning. It is relatively new but currently operates in parts of UAE and Belgium. It pulled out of Sierra Leone when the Ebola epidemic broke out. Despite the Lagos setback, it is already in talks with authorities in Ghana, Kenya, Mali and FCT, according to reports. It only recently got a foothold in the UK with the acquisition of Gelpack Excelsior. Visionscape is also constructing transfer loading stations across Lagos and building a landfill in Epe — said to be the first of its kind in West Africa.

I will now give my opinion. It appears to me that the government did not do its homework very well before reforming the waste management system. There is nothing wrong with Ambode’s Cleaner Lagos Initiative, in my opinion, but I have this impression that he did not do enough consultation before changing what he met on ground. Things are more nuanced that they appear. Lagos has become a shining example across the nation. However, if the government and the powerful politicians do not manage their affairs with tact and wisdom, they will be the losers in the end. Ambode must take another look at stakeholder management. Everybody still can be a winner.

As I always say, the political management of reform is as important as the reform itself. But while the waste management crisis can be easily resolved (as soon as the streets are free of waste and efficiency sets in, the rest becomes history), the revenue drive of the government is a different kettle of fish. The underlining assumption is that Lagos is the economic nerve centre of Nigeria where real business is done and real money is made, and so the state should leverage on that to raise tax revenue. A mere N100 increase in any tax handle automatically guarantees the government billions of naira in extra revenue. Therefore, the temptation to keep milking the populace is hard to resist.

But as much as Lagos wants to continue to set the pace, there is a price to pay. There is a level of taxation that will inevitably activate resistance from the citizens. This has its own socio-political implications. There is, of course, the other side of the coin: if Lagos cannot raise tax revenue to finance its projects, it is either the projects are stalled or the state piles up more debts to execute them. It’s very tricky — and Ambode must beat a retreat to find a neat balance. He is facing a baptism of fire and how he wades through these challenges is yet another test of his leadership skills. We are watching. Keenly.

AND FOUR OTHER THINGS…

LIYA SHARIBU

It seems Christians are more willing to suffer for their faith in places where they are minorities. Liya (Leah) Sharibu, the only Christian among the kidnapped Dapchi schoolgirls, was held back by Boko Haram reportedly because she refused to be forcefully converted to Islam. A little girl is willing to pay the ultimate price for her faith. This is a country where Christians have reduced their faith to collecting anointing oil and anointed handkerchiefs for “miracles”. We are more fired up by prayers and testimonies over contracts, cars and mansions. Liya has thrown a challenge: there is something deeper worth living and dying for. Vanities.

DAPCHI DRAMA

There is so much scepticism about the Dapchi saga. Many critics think everything was a game: the conduct of security agencies prior to the abductions, the confident pronouncements of government officials that the girls would “soon” return because Buhari is better than Jonathan, the fact that Boko Haram never claimed responsibility or released videos as they normally do, the “triumphant” return ride given to the girls by Boko Haram, and the claim that no ransom was paid (not even “fuel money” for the long trip). Parents of the released girls wouldn’t bother about the scepticism anyway. Whatever, their daughters are back. My condolences go to the bereaved parents. Heartbreaking.

RELOOTING?

President Buhari must hear this! Any moment from now, the federal government will pay $16.9 million to two lawyers for their “services” in the imminent return of $321 million Abacha loot to Nigeria. What services? The loot was recovered from Luxemburg in 2014 through the services of a Swiss lawyer, Enrico Monfrini. He was fully paid for the job. The money was then domiciled with the Swiss attorney-general pending when Nigeria would sign an undertaking of “good behaviour” before its return to the country’s coffers. In 2016, the Nigerian attorney-general suddenly engaged new lawyers to do absolutely nothing — for a cool fee of N6 billion only. Nigeria!!!

PRIVATE POLICE

When the inspector-general of police announced the “immediate” withdrawal of police officers attached to VIPs (and their girlfriends, presumably), I laughed as if my favourite comedian, Okey Bakassi, was at full throttle. I must have heard the “immediate withdrawal” pronouncements at least a dozen times in the last 19 years. It is usually reversed. This time around, it took the IGP less than 24 hours to reverse the order (“for now,” he said — and that is what they usually say). In truth, Nigeria belongs to the elite. They own us. In case you don’t know, having a police orderly in Nigeria is not just a security measure; it is more of a status symbol. Twisted.

As the Nigerian legislature deliberates over a hate speech bill, a point to ponder is whether to go one step further and seek to abolish hate itself. Sure, this sounds whimsical. But, it isn’t. Well, at least not entirely. You see, to grapple with hate speech, we have to first grapple with hate. After all, the first springs from the latter. So, let’s give it a try, understanding hate, that is.

To begin with, everybody hates something or somebody some of the time. Some people hate something or somebody all of the time. And the hate can range from the harmless to the consequential.

People hate lawyers (but regularly retain them). Most people hate politicians (then turn around and prostrate before them). Politicians hate the press (but then hanker for its attention). Presidents are some of the most hated people in the world (as well as the most beloved and revered).

In this sense, we all — our legislators included — indulge in hate speech all of the time. In fact, we probably say “I hate…” more often than “I love….”

Of course, the legislators’ concern is with a different kind of hate speech, the vitriol directed by members of one ethnic group towards another. Yet, it is important to reflect on the continuum of hate to grapple with the challenge of criminalizing hate speech.

You see then that the lead statement about abolishing hate is not a whimsical jab at the Nigerian legislature. It is rather a way of drawing attention to the fact that hate will be expressed for as long as people hate. Hence, it might be more productive to focus on reducing the causes of hate than to criminalize hate speech — vulgar, misguided and subversive as it might be.

Psychologists broadly classify hate as having affective and cognitive basis, that is, prejudices and reason. “In general terms, (the causes) include culture and what it transmits to people, social conditions such as difficult life conditions and the processes they generate, group relations such as conflict, especially intractable conflict, and the personal experience of individuals and the orientation it creates to human beings in general, to the self, and to members of particular groups,” writes Professor Ervin Staub in summarising his chapter in the book, The Psychology of Hate.

One doesn’t have to think too hard to see how all of these factors apply to Nigeria. We all grew up with narratives about other ethnic groups, far and near.  And often these narratives reflect pejorative views of the other and superior notions of ourselves. Sometimes the narratives inhere in myths, things that might have never happened. Sometimes, they reflect actual events that took place in the distant or recent past, such as the Nigerian civil war.

Such experiences provide the context for interpreting and reacting to current events, such as the ongoing atrocities by ostensible herdsmen. They have probably generated more vitriol than anything else in our recent history.

Intentionally or unwittingly, political leaders are catalysts for hate. And no Nigerian leader has fit this bill more than President Muhammadu Buhari. By disregarding the fact that appointments to federal offices are the most tangible evidence of inclusiveness to Nigerians, he has stoked ethnic suspicion more than his recent predecessors combined.

Remarkably, the same thing is happening in the United States, where President Donald Trump’s divisive rhetoric and policies have taken racial animosity to the highest heights in recent American history.

So, what are the antidotes for hate? “They include … constructive fulfilment of basic human needs; humanizing the other and the experience of positive connections to people who belong to different groups,” writes Staub, an emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.

Staub also recommends: “self-awareness both as an individual and as a group member, which among other benefits enables people to see the impact of their actions on others; and healing from past victimization and reconciliation between groups and individuals who have harmed each other.”

How about that for a challenge to Nigerian legislators?

Case for hate speech

In any case, is hate speech useful in some ways? I’d say yes. Winston Churchill, the World-War II era British prime minister, reputedly said at a White House meeting in 1954 that, “To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.” He was making the case for patient dialogue with the Soviet Union, the West’s emerging communist nemesis in the years after World War II.

One could take his reasoning one step further to dealing with hate speech.Sure, there is danger when falsehood and incendiary claims are allowed full rein. But criminalizing them beyond existing laws against libel and incitation to violence carries even greater danger.

For one thing, there is the steam effect, the reality that pent-up anger will explode at some point. In contrast, expressing it freely might have a cathartic effect. Thus, social media might be serving as the psychologist’s couch, where people vent their frustrations, whether well-grounded or not.

Moreover, leaders are better off knowing the depth of anger out there, whether the anger is justified or not — whether the leaders are culpable or not. Else, they risk the fate of Queen Marie Antoinette of revolutionary-era France and long before her Emperor Nero of ancient Rome.

In sum, it is much more beneficial to try to combat hate than to criminalize hate speech.

Nigeria’s dwindling fortunes in oil palm production aptly capture the character of a country that has consistently and woefully failed the test of managing success. The same also applies, in a wider sense, to the neglect suffered by the agriculture sector, which once served as the mainstay of the country’s economy, but has been relegated to a mere sideshow, having been supplanted by oil and gas as the main revenue earner.

It is sad that a country that was once the world’s leading producer of palm oil has become a major importer of the same product. But because of the importance of palm oil in cooking and as an industrial raw material, the commodity continues to be in very high demand in Nigeria and beyond.  While the current domestic production stands at 970,000 metric tonnes per annum, the demand is put at 2.7 million metric tonnes yearly. This means that, despite the scarcity of foreign exchange, the country has to get the shortfall through import.

Available reports show that the country spent a whopping N116.3 billion importing about 450,000 tonnes of crude palm oil last year. From controlling the global market share of 43 per cent in the early 60s, Nigeria is now a bit part player, shamefully boasting just a paltry 2.9 per cent of global palm oil production. This is indefensible since she has the right weather and soil conditions suited to the growth of oil palm.

Regrettably, Indonesia, which was nowhere near Nigeria, is now the world’s largest producer of oil palm produce, followed by Malaysia, both in Asia. Now stuck in the fifth position, unable to produce anything close to the needed quantity to service domestic demand, let alone for export, Nigeria’s fortunes stand in sharp contrast to those of her Asian competitors. Also ahead of Nigeria are Thailand and Colombia.

Nigeria’s case has continued to defy logic. The country has woefully failed to take full advantage of the areas in which she has comparative advantage. The neglect of palm produce in Nigeria also brings to mind the fate suffered by other cash crops, which has made it difficult for the country to achieve her set target of diversifying the economy from the current oil-reliant status. This has always left the country stranded in event of the usual fluctuation in crude oil prices in the international market.

Prior to the discovery of petroleum in commercial quantity, Nigeria was a global power in cocoa cultivation and export, next only to Ghana. Today, Ivory Coast leads the world in cocoa production, followed by Indonesia, Brazil and Ghana. Nigeria languishes somewhere in the seventh position. The famous groundnuts pyramids have literally vanished from Kano, while the cultivation of cotton has been virtually abandoned, in the absence of a thriving local textile industry. Rubber is nowhere to be found. This is the tragedy of a nation that has chosen to depend solely on oil and gas.

But this is a trajectory that has to change. It is unfortunate that the Senate has had to go to the extreme of calling for the ban of further imports. Nonetheless, that cannot be the solution. When an essential commodity is in short supply, the solution is not to ban its import, but to encourage local production to meet demand. An outright ban now will only worsen the level of smuggling, which is already a very serious problem. Experts have reported that over 400,000 metric tonnes was smuggled into the country last year, leading to massive loss of revenues in duties and tax to the government. They also complain about the negative effect of smuggling on local production.

The government has to come up with an innovative policy to encourage a return to the farms to produce oil palm. Investors should be encouraged to take advantage of research findings of the Nigeria Institute for Oil Palm Research in Benin City to access improved high yielding seedlings to be able to cultivate oil palm at plantation level rather than the old methods of the past. There are already plantations in Imo, Cross River, Rivers and many other parts of the country.

Relegating palm oil to the background as a result of crude oil finds was a big mistake that will continue to haunt Nigeria. Apart from being a money spinner, cultivation and processing of oil palm create jobs on a far larger scale than the crude oil industry. Besides, while the gains derivable from oil and gas are finite, those from oil palm cultivation and processing are almost inexhaustible. New plantations of oil palm can be developed when the old ones die off, but when the crude oil wells dry up, that is the end.

A 2017 report in GlobeAsia, an Indonesian business magazine, quoting the chairman of Indonesian Palm Oil Association, Joko Supriyono, said about 50 million Indonesians build their lives around palm oil and its derivatives, either directly or indirectly. Indonesia’s Cargill, a top palm oil firm, had $107 billion revenue in 2016. These are some of the reasons why our government should take special interest in the oil palm industry, just as it is now doing with rice. Special grants should be provided and, in a matter of less than 10 years, Nigeria could become a world leader once again.

Punch