FEATURE ARTICLE

Temple Chima UbochiSunday, December 19, 2010
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Bonn, Germany

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SIX MONTHS IN OFFICE:
SOME OF THE MISSTEPS OF THIS PRESIDENT SO FAR AND BETTER WAYS FORWARD (AN ADVICE) 5

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities (Voltaire)

Coming generations will learn equality from poverty, and love from woes (Kahlil Gibran)

Nigeria must re-order the society in a way to reduce the proclivity to crime. The death of Osisikankwu will not achieve a new order (Vanguard Editor)

Government isn't a good way to solve problems ... [G]overnment is concerned mostly with self-perpetuation and is subject to fantastic ideas about its own capabilities. ... [G]overnment is wasteful of the nation's resources, immune to common sense and subject to pressure from every half-organized bouquet of assholes. ... [G]overnment is distrustful of and disrespectful toward average Americans (Nigerians) while being easily gulled by Americans (Nigerians) with money, influence or fame (P. J. O'Rourke)

To blindly trust government is to automatically vest it with excessive power. To distrust government is simply to trust humanity - to trust in the ability of average people to peacefully, productively coexist without some official policing their every move. The State is merely another human institution - less creative than Microsoft, less reliable than Federal Express, less responsible than the average farmer husbanding his land, and less prudent than the average citizen spending his own paycheck (James Bovard)


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r. President, not too long ago you bemoaned the crime rate in the country; this column is respectfully asking you to ponder over what Ogbonna Onovo, the sacked inspector general of police said recently. Although you relieved him of his duty, but, you can still gain from what he said; in that case you can throw away the messenger while taking the message. Onovo was right when he, during his official pull-out ceremony, blamed the high rate of crime in the country on socio-economic and geo-political consciousness of the youths as well as the 'do-or die' nature of politics. Onovo said the negative social consciousness had impacted strongly on Nigerians which he said results in violence. In his words: "This exhibited itself in the Boko Haram/Jos crisis, kidnapping in the South-East, and other parts of the country. Our health, education, power, financial, agricultural sectors remain in a state of suspended animation, making them democratic deficits rather than dividends. This has led to angst by the populace thus creating a serious challenge to security. The 'do-or-die' nature of our politics has not helped matters. The myriads of challenges confronting the nation, security inclusive requires the active cooperation of all Nigerians to solve."

Onovo suggested that as an emerging democracy, the nation has to collectively deal with issues of patriotism, ethnicity, bigotry and religious intolerance which tended to also fan the embers of violence. He also urged the Police Reform Implementation committee to intensify efforts to provide modern equipment and crime-fighting gadgets to the force, noting that the use of obsolete equipment and methods should be jettisoned in view of the criminal sophistication in the nation.

On the recent spate of kidnappings in the South East; Mr. President, you said it was criminal and done for purely commercial reasons. You're not well informed Sir. This column knows that you would not be comfortable putting the interest of the people of the south-east zone first by declaring state of emergency in some of the south-eastern states because of your political ambition. Unfortunately you allowed the political interest of winning the votes of the Abia State delegates at the forthcoming PDP national convention to becloud your sense of judgment. That informed you action of cuddling the worst and most incompetent governor in Nigeria, in the person of T.A. Orji. Sir, as long as such dreadful men "dine" with you, Nigerians who know who they really are, will never take you serious and will ever doubt your intentions. Kidnapping in Abia State was politically sponsored: T.A. Orji and his predecessors, Orji Uzor Kalu, made and equipped the kidnappers who they used during the 2007 elections. T.A. Orji planned to use them again during the 2011 election, but, that has backfired, and his claim of not knowing the kidnappers, was only to deceive you and others. Your Excellency, all that went on in Aba was not fully reported. The governor didn't give you the true picture of things in the town. What went out to the public was about 5% of actual activities which happened in there before the military campaign started. This was because the governor, out of fear of State of Emergency being declared in the state, seriously suppressed the Aba ugly tale. You can confirm this by getting undiluted information from other sources on the ground. Mr. President, it might interest you to know that two days before you visited Abia State, when the governor declared for PDP, he (the governor) took some gifts and went personally to the leader of the kidnappers, Osisikankwu, and begged him to stay action while you were in the state. Nobody told you that!

Mr. President, the south-east zone is a no go area and the governors didn't want you to know the true condition there in order to still keep their jobs. Despite the atrocities and brazen lack of security to lives and property, it took the kidnapping of the 15 school children in Aba, that happened during Nigeria's independence celebration when the world looked to Nigeria, for you to send the military to the town to flush out the miscreants. And that has paid off now that the notorious kidnapper Obioma Nwankwo alias Osisi Ka Nkwu has been killed. If you had acted early enough (sending the army many months earlier), lots of lives could have been saved and lots of damages could have been prevented. May be, without the kidnapping of the school children happening during Nigeria's independence anniversary period, you wouldn't have ordered the military into Aba, because, the governor of Abia State could have continued to deceive you by telling you that everything was still in order and under control. Mr. President, you're on facebook, you have access to the internet, please don't rely only on what sycophants and selfish politicians, hanging around you, would tell you; find a way to get first hand and truthful information on your own. This column wrote so many times about the hobbesian state of life in Abia State and there's no doubt that ministers and politicians of south-eastern extraction in Abuja must have lamented about the sordid condition of the zone to your hearing, but, you allowed the governors and those gaining from the insecurity in the zone to have their way. Mr. President, try to have your own independent "eyes" and "ears" in every region; people who would go into the field to know what's going on there and would then send unbiased and undiluted report back to you. Then based on the report, you can then act in the nick of time. That's how you would make a good president.

Sequel to Part 2 of this article, Lawrence Agha, a reader in France wrote this to me (an excerpt): "The aim of this write-up is to praise your unique style of writing and your knowledge of the happenings in Nigeria despite the fact that you live far away from our native country. Your long lists of advice to President Goodluck Jonathan are of good intention, the bottom line remains that Nigerian leaders are not made of species that accept genuine advice that will be of benefit to Nigeria and Nigerians. They prefer sycophants disguised as special advisers, besides, the so-called special advisers and spin doctors know little or nothing in the fields assigned to them. President Goodluck Jonathan should do himself and Nigerians a great favour by limiting the number of his advisers to the barest minimum, then he should employ some graduates from the teaming list of the unemployed and charge them with the responsibility of visiting the various internet forums where Nigerians in their diversity make suggestions on how to solve the Nation's numerous problems, believe it, the President will get better information from these sites free of charge rather than paying millions to special advisers who know no better"

Mr. President, Osisi ka Nkwu, the Abia State kidnapper-in-Chief is dead, but, the security situation in Abia State and other South-Eastern States remains dire. You need to do more for the zone. Kidnapping is still going on over there. It's good that Osisi Ka Nkwu has been eliminated, but, his death raises more questions than answers. This column rejoices with the people of Aba for the partial respite his death has brought, but, the notorious kidnapper was set up for the kill and was murdered to cover the truth about those behind the spate of kidnappings in the state. Osisi ka Nkwu was killed in the same bush the military task force ransacked over and over again since October, why is it that it was only now that the military was able to track him down? Osisi Ka Nkwu should have been caught alive so as to be interrogated in order to ascertain who his sponsors were. He should have face justice, but, only after extracting useful information, about his operations and those behind them, from him. Nowa wrote that "society would have been better served if he had been captured alive and investigations into his links and covert sponsors conducted. One only hopes this (his death) reduces the scale of kidnapping and criminality in the area and surrounding states although from experience the capture/execution of Lawrence Anini and others in Bendel in those days, did not eliminate Armed Robbery. The holistic follow-up will be important."

Looking at the picture of Abia State Governor inspecting Osisi Ka Nkwu's lifeless body, one deduces that the governor was relieved that he (Osisi Ka Nkwu) has died with a lot of implicating information. The Army guys were sad, but, the governor was smiling because, for him, Osisi Ka Nkwu was better dead than being caught alive as that would have revealed the extent of their relationship and how he (the governor) used the kidnapper (Osisi Ka Nkwu) and his gang to wrack havoc in Aba for political gains. The death of Osisi Ka Nkwu is a nice cover for the governor and that made him happy. Mr. President, this column would want you to relegate your political ambition to the background for a while and then investigate the nexus between the Abia State leadership and criminal activities in the state.

Inspection by the Governor with the Army crew

Mr. President, please permit this column to share with you this Vanguard Editorial:

"Notoriety has its place as the death of Obioma Nwankwo, also known as Osisikankwu, shows. Why the jubilations? Why the expectation that the death of this individual will mark the end of kidnapping and criminality in Abia State? Expectations like these minimise the depth of challenges from the social complications of a problem that was left for too long.

What makes anyone think the death of Osisikankwu will be the end of the social descent Nigeria has begun? How will the death get other kidnappers off the trade? Will the death create new jobs? Will governments act more responsibly? Will the security agencies be up to their roles because Osisikankwu was killed?

There is cause for alarm in many ways. What does Osisikankwu represent? Who were his supporters? Who were his godfathers? How was he released in the instances he was arrested? Could he have survived for this long without collaborators in government, the security agencies or both? Are we celebrating the fact that we may never know how Abia State and environs got into this mess? Was Osisikankwu killed to silence him? Who was interested in his death instead of his arrest?

Should he not have been arrested, tried, so that he could provide information on the operations of his gang? Was someone afraid that if he was arrested he could reveal his godfathers? How was he killed? Why was he killed? The jubilations cannot cover the fact that our security agencies act with undue force. If it was true they had enough intelligence on Osisikankwu, why did they not arrest him? It would have been important to put Osisikankwu on trial. Kidnapping is big business for criminals, governments and security agencies. Nigerians are told of billions of Naira spent on security equipment. Why is criminality not abating?

What did invitation of Interpol and Israeli security agents achieve? Has the training of our policemen in anti-terrorism operations made impact? People benefit from these budgets. Without kidnapping, the flow ceases. Had Osisikankwu been captured he could have revealed his informants in the security agencies. Did someone know he would talk? Who was afraid of Osisikankwu beyond the spates of criminality he spread in the South East?

In addition to taking 15 school kids last September, Osisikankwu was credited with the kidnapping, last July 11 of four journalists and their driver, on their way from Uyo. Senate President David Mark had advocated application of 'jungle solution' to the rising level of kidnapping and armed robbery. He said the rule of law could not be applied in a jungle situation. Are security agencies adopting the Mark prescription? Our security agencies are involved in too many extra-judicial killings. Abuses are possible. Exterminating criminals will not deter others as has been proven times over. They become more vicious. Nigeria must re-order the society in a way to reduce the proclivity to crime. The death of Osisikankwu will not achieve a new order".

Your Excellency, Mr. Anokute in New York wrote "Contrary to the news that the Abia suspected notorious kidnapper was gunned down in a battle with the military task force hunting for him, an eyewitness has come out to dispute that assertion. Speaking to reporters by phone this morning (the day Osisi Ka Nkwu was killed), a man who identified himself as Akabuzo claimed to have both audio and video clips of the events that led to the execution of the kingpin Kidnapper. He said that (Obioma Nwankwo a.k.a Osisikankwu) was captured alive, tortured and summarily executed. He was armless when he was captured as he was sleeping with his girlfriend. He was not operating alone; reliable information I had was that he was silenced, brutally murdered to keep a secret. I was told confidentially that he was a mole of the State government. People around Governor Orji know who Obioma Nwankwo was and infact he had phone numbers of those whom he has been communicating (with) when he was arrested. "His hand-set disappeared as soon as he was arrested and the girlfriend is now missing since yesterday (the day he was killed) , the police took her away because people wanted to hear from her..." said a knowledgeable source who requested anonymity this morning . So there's more to this killing that we are allowed to know. Foreign and domestic Journalists are now combing Abia State looking for Osisikankwu's accomplices. One reporter told me this morning that the police are not helping matters, informants are demanding huge amount of money and a safe passage out of Abia State. Meanwhile, thousands of jobless youth still walk the streets, and to think that the death of one man will stop kidnapping in Abia is pure foolishness...." And Elder Fred J. Umunnakwe summed it up by writing: "there was Onyenusi; there were the duo of Anini and Rambo; and now Osisikankwu. Each represented the abysmal depth our society has sunk to. Killing these "mirrors" of the Nigerian decadence by either firing squad or extra judicial means is not the solution; it is merely addressing the symptoms while the sore gets even more cancerous by the day. The Only Solution is a New Nigeria!" Mr. President, this column hopes you are getting the message from what these Nigerians wrote and would "sort certain things" out accordingly.

Mr President, the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria Eastern Zone, recently called on the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency in the Southeast for what it called the Government's insensitivity to security and education in the Zone. The manufacturers were of the opinion that the South East Governors have proved incapable of "guaranteeing security of lives and property" in the area after one of their members, Dr Chike Obidigo, was kidnapped at Okigwe, Imo State while travelling to catch a flight at Owerri. The association was right when it accused the Governors of failing to address the problem of rising unemployment and of being indifferent to the strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, which has shut down the state-owned universities in the area for some six months. According to Lawal Ishaq: "the pervasive sense of insecurity in the area is a double whammy. While creating jobs can partly be used to fight the kidnapping menace, individuals who have created jobs in the area by investing there or have the resources to make such investments are paradoxically the chief targets of the kidnappers"

Emeka Oparah, in Vanguard Editorial: Eastward for Yuletide? No!, lamented that the insecurity in the south-east is keeping him and many Ndiigbo away from home this yuletide, and he was right. Part of what he wrote was:

"Such is the reality of the depravity in the east, as we approach the Christmas, and that has been the case for over four years now. It is now much easier for a pregnant camel to pass through the half-closed eyes of a needle than for sensible parents to encourage their children to come home for Christmas. The security situation is absolutely terrifying. Nowhere is safe. Way back in the days, if you had security scare in the city, you would run back to your home town. Nowadays, security is more challenged in the villages than the cities, and if you don't get smoked out by your traducers, you will get hurt by other agents of crime and violence.

Aside the security situation, there is literally no access to the east in terms of roads. It is as if the east has been abandoned. Everywhere you look, you see dilapidation, craters, potholes, failed roads, diversions, name it, plus of course the eponymous police check-points. The famous Lagos-Benin express way, which used to be a delight to peripatetic traders and other travelers, is now a mere skeleton. A trip from Lagos to Owerri (via Benin), which used to take an average of 6-8 hours in the 80s to late 90s now takes an average of 24 hours! People are subjected to all kinds of horrendous experiences including accidents and robberies while travelling on that road through the day and the night. The same goes for other roads into and across the East.

One of the major Luxury Bus operators told me recently that they are almost out of business on account of bad roads and the menace of robbers which have culminated, predictably, in loss of custom. Some smart airlines have mopped up what used to be the high-end of luxury bus travelers, with the ubiquitous online promo prices. Even when you manage to navigate the highways through to the villages in the east, the roads down there are atrocious. You will be lucky to still drive your car back, when the Christmas is over! Quite rightly so, because it's either it gets stolen by the omnipresent marauding thieves or it gets damaged by the terrible roads. A priest friend, who doubted my account of the security situation in the East, two years ago, had an unpalatable (!) encounter with armed robbers when he stubbornly returned home from the United States-for Christmas. He literally fled right back to Lagos and was back in the US in less than a week, after he was robbed and stripped butt-naked on arrival at Sam Mbakwe Airport, Owerri. He promised not to visit again for a long time. The funny part was

One question that constantly wracks my brains is: how did we get to this sorry pass? Negligence. Wickedness. Incompetence. Ungodly leaders. Sometimes I wonder what Governors Martins Elechi, Ikedi Ohakim, Peter Obi, Theodore Orji and Sullivan Chime are doing. I wonder even so, what their predecessors did. I wonder what their focus is. For example, would it be a big deal to get the Federal Government to direct the military authorities to deploy soldiers to maintain peace and security in the East? What do they do with the eye-watering security votes they collect monthly? Indeed what do they do with the monthly allocations they receive from the Federation Account in addition to their Internally Generated Revenue (IGR)?

I think the time has come for the people of Eastern Nigeria to ask their leaders and themselves very important questions. We cannot continue to blame everyone else but ourselves for our misfortunes. The time has come for things to change. It's all in our hands to make that change. I will surely miss my village this Christmas. I write with tears in my eyes. I know the same goes for so many other Easterners, who have, for their own safety, said NO to the East this Christmas".

Mr. President, what are you doing to get the federal roads fixed? Are you actually carrying out your over-sight function on your ministers/appointees to see if they are performing satisfactorily or are you just pre-occupied with winning the 2011 election and as such nothing else matters? The Ore-Benin highway that is one of the most important highways in Nigeria lies in ruin and nobody cares to get it fixed. What the minister of works said recently was that the road has outlived its usefulness as it has surpassed it life-span. One wonders who made that cretin a minister of works. How can a highway surpass its life-span? Who builds a road and attaches a life-span to it? Here in Europe and America, many of the highways were built about 100 years ago and they are still in excellent condition because of constant maintenance. Even in Nigeria, some of the roads built by the colonial masters are still in good condition (better than the ones built ten or five years ago) despite the fact that nobody is maintaining them. The problem is that Nigerian government officials cut corners and award contracts to unqualified companies which do shoddy jobs by compromising on quality since they had paid off those who are meant to inspect and certify the quality of the job on completion.

Connected to the bad roads is also the issue of misplaced priorities, Mr. President. Money that should have been invested where it will be more useful is wasted on frivolous projects. Nigeria's former High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Dr. Christopher Kolade, said recently that the Federal Government's multi-billion naira expansion of Abuja Airport road to 10 lanes was unnecessary as the government would have rather diverted such huge amount of funds into rehabilitation of the 'long neglected' Benin-Ore road, which was more important and key to Nigeria's realization of Vision 20:2020. Also, the former secretary general of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, has expressed regrets over the condition of the nation's roads, hospitals and the decay in the educational system. Chief Anyaoku lamented that the lack of sound academic environment and poor funding of the Nigerian educational institutes had contributed to the level of brain-drain in the country.

Chief Anyaoku said: "Well, there are so many things to regret about Nigeria, the condition of our roads for example, the condition of our hospitals, and condition of our educational system, schools, colleges and universities. When you go outside and you see much better conditions in these areas, you come back with regret that we are not doing better in this country." On security as one of his regrets, Chief Anyaoku blamed the government for not being able to provide what he called social condition for the teeming youths of the country, arguing that if there were better jobs for the youths, it would eradicate the spate of kidnapping in the county.

Though he condemned the spate of kidnapping and armed robbery particularly in the South-east zone, the former scribe also suggested that educational system in the country should be enhanced to be able to accommodate the teaching and learning of civic in all the categories of education. He said: "The government needs to do something. We need to re-introduce the teaching of civics so that young people should be enabled to grow up learning what the civil responsibility is all about. As I said, the state needs to do more to curb unemployment and create social condition that will discourage young people from getting involved in kidnapping and armed robbery."

Mr. President, you said this recently: "When you are a sectional leader you feel insulated from problems outside your region and can "laugh" at the downfall of others. Leaders build unity. I promise to always be a national leader. When any part of Nigeria mourns, I mourn, when they rejoice, I rejoice. I'll laugh with you, not at you. I'll be a shoulder to lean on". Now walk the talk, Mr. President!

To be continued!

THE THANX IS ALL YOURS!!!

Continued from Part 4

Continued from Part 3

Continued from Part 2

Continued from Part 1

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