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Dick Cheney, the immediate past Vice President of the United States once said, ‘it is easy to take liberty for granted when you have never had it taken from you.’ Yet liberty and freedom is regularly denied Nigerians and because we are not the ones behind bars in anyone of the nation’s 228 prisons, we do not give a hoot. Additionally, police stations across the land are holding unknown number of Nigerians, many of whom their only crime was that they were unlucky to be outdoor the day the giant money making broom of the police swept through streets and cities, raking off scores, even hundreds to their stations where they have to pay to secure their ‘bail’ and freedom. If you are unable to pay or blinked at the wrong time, argued too much or an officer felt your eyes lingered too long on his name tag or service number, your situation rapidly deteriorates just to teach the unfortunate a lesson. This happens somewhere every day.

During my undergraduate days, I was involved in a motor accident in which I broke my thigh bone and was consequently confined to a bed for three months. The world became so small because all I could see every day for the three months through the same window was the same patch of sky. Even though I was surrounded by family and friends and eating what I wanted, the confinement was not fun.

Imagine then being suddenly and violently as is the arrest method here,  unjustly swept off into dungeons that pass for prisons for years on end, watching your life in slow motion at best, or on pause at worst like an out of body experience. Some are paraded before television cameras with weapons retrieved fifteen years ago from another generation of criminals. Sometimes, inmates as they are called remain in prison unknown to relatives. Father Jacob Adeyemi, the Chaplain of the Catholic Prison Chaplaincy of the Archdiocese of Lagos, a veteran of ten years and still counting told the story of someone who was held in Badagry prison for years, his where about unknown to his family. They had conducted a search without success and declared him dead. He was mourned and consigned to the dark regions of memory where unpleasant experiences are stored. When this prisoner’s residence was eventually traced by the Church, it was difficult to convince the parents their son who they had mourned was alive but wasting away in prison. Father Adeyemi lamented that many people remain behind bars because they could not provide N10, 000 to ‘secure’ their release. The fact that the investigating police officers routinely do not try to find and locate the parents of those they arrested and held for years, speaks volumes of the quality of their investigation.

Across Nigeria’s 228 prisons, there are 49,000 prisoners, confined in hopelessly overcrowded spaces that seemed designed by the creeping failure of government to physically and mentally destroy inmates by instalments. Out of this number, Father Adeyemi disclosed that about 29,000 inmates are awaiting trial, some for as long as ten years! Ikoyi prisons in Lagos illustrate the twin horrors of congestion and awaiting trial. Built to handle 800 inmates, it has a population of 1,659, out of which less than 200 are convicts. Father Adeyemi explained that the number of those awaiting trial is the major reason for the congestion. Hunkered down in the trenches, he expects the situation to worsen as soon as Nigerian prisoners in British jails are returned to Nigeria to complete their prison terms. This arrangement between the Nigerian and British governments led to the construction of a unit at the Medium Security Prison at Kirikiri at British government expense. More convicted Nigerians are also expected from Thailand to complete their terms here in Nigeria. He hoisted the problem of those awaiting trial on the police, the prison service and judiciary, insisting vehemently that those who should be in prison namely the politicians who have failed Nigeria are walking free.  His words: ‘Our politicians, those who embezzle money, those who award and receive contracts that are not executed are not in prison. Those who made it to trial by EFCC have had their cases stalled or suspended because of political connections. How many of them slept in the prisons for one week?’ In a nutshell, most real criminals do not end up in prison. Their formidable war chests are more than sufficient to buy them freedom.

Every step of the way from arrest to trial is booby trapped. First of all, if you can bribe your way at the police station you go home. If you cannot, you move down the conveyor belt of misery to prison to await trial after surviving horrifying torture to extract ‘confession’. The judiciary receives the baton here.  Father Adeyemi narrated the story of one Chidinma Nnekwe whose file went missing for three years. A Catholic Church lawyer, Barrister Mary went to investigate. She was told that for N5, 000 the file would be found. She told them she had only N3, 000 which they took and after a few minutes produced the file that had been missing for three years. But they told her they will hold on to it to shake off accumulated dust while waiting for the balance of N2, 000, the final portion of grease that will after three years turn the wheels of justice! Chidinma’s dilemma is common place, clogging the wheels of justice, bringing them close to a halt.

In a paper titled ‘A Great Need For Prison Rehabilitation,’ presented by Sister Elma Mary Ekewuba who is director of Port Harcourt based Justice Development and Peace Commission/Caritas (JDPCC), she said that some of the congestion is due to the activities of some prison staff who ask for tips from inmates due to appear in court before they are allowed to go to court. ‘Inmates who are unable to meet this demand are kept away from court.’

Getting inmates to court is also riddled with other unbelievable failures and excuses, of which the most cited are lack of, insufficient number or broken down vehicles.  Available statistics indicate up to 45 percent of inmates have never been taken to court. Lucas Diapak, the officer in charge of Ikoyi prisons during the quarterly visit in October 2009 of the Directorate of Citizens Rights (DCR), an agency of Lagos State Ministry of Justice told The Guardian that because Ikoyi prisons serves 17 courts, sometimes for as many as 100 inmates a day, many inmates arrive the courts after the judges have ended the day’s session. According to Diapak, ‘these vehicles go to drop some and return to carry others. Before they can go and come back from a place like Ikeja for example, the judge would have finished sitting… Sometimes one vehicle services seven courts…’ It is easy to picture inmates waiting endlessly year after year to have their day in court. It is also easy to see how this contributes to the congestion even when the solution is to get more vehicles to take inmates to court.

The director of DCR Mrs Omotilewa Ibirogba also told The Guardian that ‘Some of those inmates are in for minor offences and sometimes when they are picked up, their families do not know where they are…’ The Lagos state Comptroller of Prisons, Mr Kayode Benjamin Boguntokun is worried about the number of people arrested for environmental offences brought to prison. But since it is outside his control, he can only voice out his concerns and expect the relevant agencies of government to act accordingly. Mrs Funke Tella of the Directorate’s human rights desk subsequently highlighted alternative ways of punishing minor offenders, which include community service, non custodial sentencing, suspended sentencing and other forms of punishment  that preclude confinement in prison. As good as these alternatives are, the question is, who and when will they be implemented?

During the 2009 Christmas visit to Maximum Security Prisons, Kirikiri of His Eminence, Anthony Cardinal Okogie, the Archbishop of the Catholic Diocese of Lagos, the Catechist, Chigozie Anthony in his address pointed out a catalogue of issues that keep inmates awaiting trial for up to eleven years. They include, ‘denial of bail by the judiciary; granting of difficult bail conditions such as providing sureties with landed properties with certificates of occupancy of Lagos state; refundable cash deposits in the court that poor defendants cannot afford to provide.’ What Chigozie did not add is that many inmates are more often than not tortured by the police to extract false confession that they use as evidence against them in court.

Father Adeyemi’s voice rose when he talked of one William who was arrested in 1983 and released 26 years later in 2009, declared innocent of the charges of armed robbery. The second man arrested with him was released in 1996 through a well connected brother during General Abacha’s regime.  How do you give back to such a man one day talk less of twenty six years of his life? According to Chigozie even when defendants are found guilty, the considerable number of years they stayed while awaiting trial is not often taken into consideration, so sentences start running from the day of conviction or judgement.

What happens if a person is found guilty for a crime that attracts a six month sentence and sentenced as such but had spent five years awaiting trial? Is the state not guilty of crimes against her citizens, against humanity? There has to be a way to penalise government for this kind of negligence even for the guilty who spent interminable years beyond what would normally be his prison term but more so for those wrongfully imprisoned. We can take a cue from the advanced nations of the world, where anyone who served time on account of wrongful conviction is compensated financially and in other ways as a way of atonement. How can we get the government of Nigeria to atone for arresting and wrongfully convicting fellow Nigerians? The National Assembly should rise up and enact laws that will compensate such citizens and hold everyone including those involved in investigation and the judiciary responsible for subverting the course of justice.

Nigerian prisons are certified dungeons not fit for animals. The so called prison reforms delivered nothing except perhaps extending the National Open University to prisons. Sometimes prisoners are served garri to drink as a meal while warders and wardresses sell sugar and groundnut within the walls of the prisons to them. Father Adeyemi averred that as far as he knows the constitution or any criminal code did not prescribe denial of food as part of punishment for crimes.

Prisons are so congested inmates practically sleep on top of each other on bare floors, breathing in the bacteria and viruses of each other and spreading diseases including tuberculosis. Prisoners’ body odour is better imagined than smelt, an indication that bathing is a luxury. He recounted observing prisoners use a bar of soap and a small bowl of water to create soap lather they rubbed on their bodies as body cream. Father Adeyemi sees the provision of basic amenities, water and electricity, food for prisoners and liveable wages for warders and wardresses as not negotiable in a genuine prison reform. That will be the beginning of turning prisons from a choking punishment environment to reform centres.

In a Thisday newspaper editorial on prison congestion published on October 28, 2009, they wrote, ‘…appalled by the deplorable condition of  Nigerian prisons following an extensive audit in 2005, Ojo, the then Attorney General and Minister of Justice, inter alia, made the following recommendations to the Federal Government: that the then Federal Executive Council should declare the issue of Awaiting Trial Persons in Nigerian prisons a matter of urgent  national importance and further, that the Federal Executive Council should appoint an independent Chief Inspector of Prisons in Nigeria and to report his finding to the President. Ojo also told the House of Representatives in 2005 that his office had drafted and sent to the House, the Prisons Bill clearly defining prisoner’s rights and the minimum standards for all aspects of prison life in Nigeria. He also told the lawmakers that his office had completed work on the Administration of Criminal Justice and improving the general criminal justice system. Unfortunately, four years on, these initiatives of the former Attorney General are yet to come to fruition. We are pained by the large number of prisoners awaiting trial because it is possible from the way the police easily arrest people and hurl them into prisons that there are many innocent people among them.’ In lamentation at the lack of progress in addressing the issues Thisday quipped: ‘Really, prison decongestion should not be a task beyond the intelligence and capacity of our police, judicial officers and political office holders.’

Perhaps in recognition of what seems to be beyond our political and mental capacities to solve, Thisday fired off another editorial less than seven months later on April 9, 2010. Taking it from another angle, it reads in part as follows; ‘Some of the problems of criminal  justice system in Nigeria include, torture and inhuman treatment of suspects at police stations and prisons; delay in charging suspects to court; incompetence of police prosecutors; corrupt judiciary and so forth. Many of our police stations are dungeons of torture and extra judicial killings. The recent Amnesty International Report on Nigeria was quite revealing about the reality of police extra judicial killings and brutality in Nigeria. Worse, crime investigation drags on endlessly in Nigeria. Criminal suspects are hardly brought to court. And when they are eventually arraigned in court, the trial is marred by endless and frivolous adjournments mostly at the instance of the police for lack of vital evidence to prosecute the suspects. More importantly, Nigerian prisons are over-congested and hope of de-congestion seems not to be in sight. Also detainees’ rights are regularly violated.’ When it comes to investigating ‘juicy’ cases the police usually swing into action.  While we fumble and wobble, hell on earth grows everyday in our prisons.

The new Attorney General of Nigeria and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke, less than two weeks after his appointment constituted a nine member committee to look into the Prisons Decongestion Programme of his ministry. Headed by the Solicitor –General/Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Justice, Alhaji Abdullahi A.Yola, is supposed to aggressively and without exception deal with every component of justice administration in Nigeria. This new initiative came a few days before the attempted jailbreak of the Kaduna Prisons during which between two and ten inmates were said to have being killed by security forces. The Comptroller General of the Nigerian Prison Service, Mr Olusola Ogundipe said the reason for the attempt by awaiting trial inmates was predictably overcrowded condition of the prison built to take 524 prisoner but housing 797 inmates out of which 539 are awaiting trial. He acknowledged that the congestion has overstretched the facilities, adding to the misery of inmates. Out of the convicted 258 inmates, 139 are on death row awaiting execution.

Even the new Minister of Interior, Capt. Emmanuel Iheanacho after a visit to Kuje Prisons in Abuja was on record to have vowed that the vexed issue of overcrowded prisons will be history by the end of his tenure in about twelve months from when he made the promise.  Because there have been a lot of gap between  promises and reality, very few will expect anything positive out of this new effort by the new Attorney General of the Federation. Only time will tell if both ministers will live up to their promises or not.

Olawale Fapohunda, who was secretary to the National Study Group on death penalty set up in 2005 by former President Obasanjo, through his piece in Thisday raised fresh alarms based on the thinking of government officials on how to decongest prisons across the nation. The governor of Abia state, Theodore Orji speaking  for all the governors created the impression that executing the less than 1,000 prisoners on death row will somehow, in the words of Fapohunda relieve ‘the unenviable state of our prisons including congestion…’ With the shoddy way investigations are carried out, ‘confessions’ extracted through torture, how many of those to be executed are really guilty of the crimes they were tried for? During the attempted jail break in Kaduna, newspapers had reported that none of the death row inmates took part in the attempt. This simplistic solution for governors to urgently sign death warrants that will authorise their execution across the nation will solve nothing given the fact that the government knows that the real reason for congestion is the huge number of awaiting trial persons, which is more than half of the 49,000 inmates in the nation, aided and abetted by the consistent and worsening failure of the police, the judiciary and the prisons service.

Fapohunda’s call for a legal audit of all awaiting trial inmates across the nation should point the way to any government, its ministers and governors serious about ending congestion. In his words, ‘the purpose of this audit will be to determine those inmates who should not be in prison including inmates who are unable to pay fines, meet bail conditions or those whose case files are lost. In all, consideration should be given to the release of awaiting trial inmates who have spent upwards of ten years in prison. Any prosecutor that cannot obtain the conviction of an inmate in ten years is not likely to be in a position to do so.’ If in a rare moment of clarity government agrees to a prison audit, they must guide against what will quickly become a lost files racket designed to get all categories of criminals out for a fee, the bigger the crime the higher the fee.

The question we must begin to ask is why the House of Representatives has done nothing about the bills sent to them to pass into laws. Is their lack of interest because this largely affects the poor and the unprotected? Is it because their friends can easily buy and talk their way out of any crime and out of prison?

The time has come to pressure the United Nations to declare conditions of prisons in Nigeria and the reluctance of officials and agencies of government and the national assembly to do something about them as crimes against humanity for which nations such as Nigeria will be named and shamed during the annual United Nations General Assembly. Additionally, government officials responsible for observed failures and lapses should be banned from travelling abroad and tried at The Hague even in absentia. Perhaps this threat will penetrate the calloused consciences of government officials and compel them to do the right things and treat prisoners like human beings and not like animals. From their harrowing experience, it is obvious that even guilty inmates wish that the state is as forgiving as the Almighty God.

Those who commit crimes should be punished for their crimes. And the one sure way to reduce crime in Nigeria is for government to rise up to its responsibilities and create jobs. An idle hand is the devil’s workshop and the number of idle hands is multiplying daily. They resort to vices like prostitution and crimes such as armed robbery, assassination and kidnapping. This vast army of the unemployed represent very serious security risk which is the direct result of neglect spanning fifty years. Father Adeyemi wants government to provide business friendly environment and pay particular attention to education and arrest the shameful falling standards. Referring to the recently announced 98% failure rate in NECO examination Father Adeyemi shook his head ruefully and said, ‘You are talking about very massive failure. The blame goes to government. No light to read. Books are expensive. Teachers are not paid. Strikes last for too long during which students are not taught. The examination boards do not care whether the syllabuses were covered or not. This is why private schools are emerging everyday and I do not support it. There were no private schools thirty years ago when the standards were high.’

Father Adeyemi who exhibits the kind of rugged spirit required for taking on hide bound bureaucracy and officials interested only in feathering their own nests spoke of other challenges. Recently someone tried to smuggle into one of the prisons 34 wraps of Indian hemp concealed in what looked like a giant water melon.  Investigations then revealed there were three sellers of Indian hemp but the arrested man did not pay the ‘required’ money and was rumbled. There was also another attempt to smuggle in 42 bottles of undiluted local gin in one litre water bottles with an estimated prison community value of N859, 000. These attempts have the potential to undermine the spiritual work done by churches to change the mind set of inmates and prepare them for life after prison.

The Catholic Church has a programme for helping ex inmates settle down after their release. They used to have a transit camp for that purpose in Yaba which became too small and was abused. They have acquired a large parcel of land at Alakuko to build a customised facility for rehabilitating ex prisoners. For now the church is actively involved in reconnecting them with their families to make integration easier. They also prefer that they stay outside Lagos to reduce the temptation of returning to crime. This effort according to Father Adeyemi has not always been successful with recorded incidences of ex prisoners returning to prison. Another herculean battle is to prevent hardened criminals indoctrinating those brought in for minor offences and upon their release sending them to meet their gang members and contacts and into higher levels of crime.

If the truth is to be said, we are all prisoners either behind physical prison walls or unseen walls known only to us, but no less as deadly. A first time visitor from advanced nations will assume there are many prisons in Nigeria, easily mistaking the high walls of our homes topped by razor wire as prisons, not knowing the walls and razor wire are not desired to prevent break out but break in! The wife of a former military governor was burnt to death because of a fire outbreak. Hemmed in by the fire, she could still have gotten away if not that the windows of her residence were heavily fortified with iron bars.

We are all invisible prisoners of our minds, our past, our fears, unforgiving spirit, and compulsive behaviours like alcohol addiction, drug addiction, fornication, gossiping, lying and so many others. For instance, the fear of previous failures stops us from daring again, effectively making us prisoners of the past. We cannot navigate our way past the past because we allow them to force themselves into the present.

As a nation, we are held captive by failed policies, ethnic loyalties, unconscionable politicians, the smallness of our politics, religious bigotry etc. These have bred unemployment the scale of which is now extremely dangerous. Our idle young men gravitate to crime and are called by evil men to kill in the name of God. Young girls and increasingly married women so easily take to prostitution, operating out of homes, university campuses and offices to make ends meet, taking unbelievable risks in the process. The man who cannot travel home because of robbers and kidnappers is a prisoner of the fear of insecurity across the land. The failed school system is the prisoner of mindless incompetence. Joblessness is a prisoner of failed economic policies and lack of political will. We are all prisoners of a nation that has continually failed its citizens.

Overcoming these self imposed prisons is as daunting as reforming the physical prisons but it can be done. We start by liberating our nation from evil politicians by demanding and getting the electoral reform bill passed, getting a trusted person to chair INEC and making sure our individual votes count. This is the only way we can remove from positions of authority the sick minds who have made the physical prisons a living hell, the demented minds that have cornered our common wealth meant for roads, hospitals, well equipped schools that are not there. It is the only way to throw out corrupt politicians who according to Transparency International have built the second highest walls of corruption in the world, protecting each other because as they say dogs do not eat dogs. They created the mess and cannot be part of the solution. Everyone who serves only himself or ethnic group, who is a member of the consortium of corruption, should be thrown out so that for once leaders will be accountable to those who elected them. For once we can become deserving beneficiaries of policies that will work to our common good making the economy to grow, creating jobs and reducing criminality. Prosperity will feed on prosperity until we are able to climb out of the deep ditch corrupt politicians dug for us. With our huge population, amazing mineral deposits, vast agricultural potential, Nigeria can within a generation become a first world nation. Singapore, South Korea and Malaysia did it in one generation and none of them has one quarter of our endowments. We too can. Good men in office and good policies are the twins that will bring in investors desirous of tapping into our domestic market on the one hand and as a launch pad for export on the other. Good policies and incentives will compel them to tap into our massive resource base to export significantly value added products such that rules of origin will confer on such products the made in Nigeria tag. That is how employment will be created.  It is in our hands to demand leadership through service and liberate ourselves from the huge prison Nigeria has become. We do not have to wait till the next election. Now is the time to start or remain prisoners in our nation. So help us God!

Okechukwu Peter Nwobu

okechukwunwobu@yahoo.co.uk

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.

ionyclaret@gmail.com

https://www.codewit.com

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Many images of what I wanted to be as a child conflicted with each other in my head. Topmost was a priest, then a lawyer, and then a soldier and I admired men of these professions greatly. Because I lived with my aunt at a place where we operated a provision store on the major road, I admired the bus drivers and conductors too. If not for any other thing, becoming one of them would afford me the opportunity of enjoying free ride from Enugu to Onitsha, the two greatest cities in my mind then. But I cannot remember whether my mind had for once had a flip of being a politician. Of course, as children, we did not know them as such. Though we admired their big cars whenever we saw them, the term politician was too amorphous. Politics is not profession. Though we also wanted to be the presidents of our country and the governors of our state, we never associated them with the noisy politicians we used to come across occasionally in their places of meetings.

Later in life, I came to realize one fact about politicians. They have neither permanent enemies nor friends. Note well that even the saints have at least one known enemy – the devil. But the politicians have no permanent enemies. Their greatest enemies turn into their best friends wherever and whenever their interests meet. This may be counted as good quality for them. It has to be noted too that it is only a harlot that has no permanent friend. Her business does not know friendship. It only knows money and she can open her laps to any man who strikes the highest bargain; thieves, kidnappers, house boys, tenants, landlords, chiefs, dwarfs, giants and anything that goes in trousers in so far as you have your money in hand. Sometimes, when the day becomes too dry for business, the harlot can settle for anything, even just a meal and you have your way into her. Recently, their business has been ‘improved’ to include dancing naked for money. They are as cheap as that. The politicians are not different. They can go to any extent to achieve what they want, including dancing naked around the market places and before fetish deities. They can worship both the devil and God simultaneously. Many a time, when they are in the church, it is just to show off and make their presence felt. Their minds are not in the worship of God, the Father but in their godfathers. It is not difficult for them to change positions. That is why it is folly to hold onto their words. An author said that they promise to build bridges where there are no rivers. The women politicians are said to be more dangerous.

Most recently, there is a deluge in the fortunes of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) especially in the South-East. Apart from Governor Obi’s winning of the February 6 Gubernatorial Election in Anambra state and his subsequent swearing-in for the second term, there seems to be a mass movement towards the party in the state. Two legislators in the Anambra House of Assembly have decamped from the PDP to APGA and one member of the House of Representatives is set to decamp from the PDP to APGA soonest. The arrangement is said to have been concluded. This does not include many other supporters of the major players who decamped with them.

A major break-through is in Abia State, where Governor Theodore Orji with his numerous supporters decamped from the Progressive People’s Alliance (PPA), the party in which he contested and won the Abia Gubernatorial polls in 2007 and joined the APGA. That was after an alleged protracted inclement political condition in the hands of his godfather and mentor, the former governor of Abia State and the Chairman Board of Trustees of PPA, Orji Uzor Kalu. It was said that the influence of the mother of the former governor, Mrs. Eunice Kalu, alias Mama Excellency, who with her son, was alleged to run the affairs of the party as a family business, became too much on the governor and he had to seek refuge elsewhere. He found APGA. Attempts had earlier been made to deny this rift between the governor and the Kalu family but the recent events exposed the fact. Another big fish that moved into APGA with Gov. Theodore Orji is Senator Uche Chukwumerije, one of the most respectable and vocal senators of Igbo extraction. This finally sealed the coffin of PPA in the country.
Also, the APGA came very close to clinching the governorship of Imo State on the 16th of July, 2010 through the Supreme Court judgment. However, the judgment went the side of Ikedi Ohakim, the incumbent governor of Imo State and a decampee from the PPA to the PDP. The Supreme Court ruled that the relief sought by the APGA candidate, Chief Martin Agbaso is basically an election petitions tribunal matter and cannot be entertained by the Apex Court. Though Chief Victor Umeh, the National Chairman of APGA accepted the verdict, he pointed out that both the Election Petitions Tribunal and the Appeal Court had earlier declined hearing on the matter. That was why they went to the High Court. However, he and his supporters must have been greatly consoled by the previous Supreme Court judgment that finally ratified the expulsion of Chekwas Okorie, the former Chairman of the party from the fold. The chairmanship tussle had lasted so long and nearly marred the chances of the party winning any elections. It was a big relief and a plus having it solved for the last time. You cannot win all the time.

In a desperate move to counter the movement of Gov. Orji and basically in frustration of seeing the house of PPA collapsing over his head, Orji Uzor Kalu returned to the PDP from which he decamped to form the PPA. Though the state chapter of the PDP has denied the ex-governor’s return to the party, his movement can be likened to that of the former vice-president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who, after a long battle with his boss, Olusegun Obasanjo, left the PDP and became a major factor in the Action Congress (AC), and later returned to the PDP against all expectations. Orji Kalu had a similar battle with Obasanjo and the PDP before he left the party. The politician has no bus stop and stories of such political flirtation abound. This puts a very fundamental question to the numerous parties in the country as regards their principles, manifestoes, aims and objectives. One finds out that the politicians have no clear vision of all these. They just want money, fame and power. The easiest way to achieve these is through political parties. Every other thing is mere story.

However, my focus remains on APGA as a party. Honestly, I fear for its soul. Many people have sought for a party that will grow from the ashes of the PDP and its tattered umbrella. But no party in the past and present has marched its ghoulish powers. It swallowed all of them and their remnants do not last long before they helplessly return to it on their knees to remain the rags for the masters’ shoes. One must note that initially the PDP did not set out to become the shark. Those who formed it had good intentions for the country. But it was made a monster by greed and avarice of infiltrators especially the money-bags who do not brook opposition. That was how it began to swallow other parties

Right now, I see such movement of infiltrators into APGA which may destroy it. It is true that politics is a game but good name is more than a game. It is life. It is greater than wealth. The Ikemba Nnewi, Dim Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, the Chairman, BOT of APGA, should know that it is better to have quality than quantity and that the party has done well is not because of its quantity but quality. I believe strongly that “too many cooks spoil the broth”. Yes. Politics is a game of numbers but not all numbers. It must be a good number. The new entrants into the party should be men and women who have in mind doing good for the people and not just those who need refugium peccatorum – refuge of sinners. Such people, when they get what they want, go their way. It has happened before. I always remember the words of my lecturer, Fr. Thaddeo Onoyima, that, “The recruitment of women is not the problem. The problem is management and control.” It is not all who seek membership into the party that will be accepted. There should be insistence on integrity of the intending members. Any follower of my works will know that my words may not have been accurate, but they have not failed. Beware! APGA, beware!!

Meanwhile, since Orji has found a twin brother in Obi, let the past stories of the stranglehold and god-fatherism in Abia State cease. The money that was allegedly used in maintaining one family can now be channeled to the provision of democracy dividends to the state. The APGA government can rewrite the political history of the south-east and make it the envy of other zones of the country. What it takes is the type of courage that Obi has exuded from the onset. Orji must learn this to do better as we expect the best from Obi.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.

ionyclaret@gmail.com

https://www.codewit.com

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The changes mean elections originally set for April could take place in January.

President Goodluck Jonathan has not yet declared if he will stand for election

Nigeria’s House of Representatives must still give its approval to the changes.

The new date is intended to allow any legal challenges after the election to be settled before the new president takes office in May.

Correspondents say the announcement puts pressure on President Goodluck Jonathan – both to declare if he will run, and to push through reforms to ensure fair elections.

Senators backed a proposal to hold the general election “not earlier than 150 days and not later than 120 days before the expiration of the term of office” of either the president or a state governor.

Under the current rules, polls must be held between 30 and 60 days before the new president’s term begins.

Nigerian presidents take office on 29 May.

Attahiru Jega, the head of Nigeria’s electoral commission, said the election could be held some time between 8 and 15 January if the constitutional changes became final.

Nigeria has a long history of electoral fraud, and courts are still dealing with disputes over the April 2007 poll. International observers said the election was seriously flawed.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.

ionyclaret@gmail.com

https://www.codewit.com

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Umaru Yar’Adua’s presidency of Nigeria was haunted by rumours of his death.

In fact, one paper even announced his demise before he was made president.

In the middle of the 2007 campaign, he was whisked away to a German hospital for treatment.

At a rally days after, the outgoing President Olusegun Obasanjo called the man he had personally picked to succeed him in his hospital room and, holding the microphone to the telephone, bellowed: “The papers say you are dead. Umaru! Are you dead?”

His tremulous voice was inaudible under the cheering of the crowd.

The reports shocked many Nigerians who considered that, after the selection of the candidate at the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) convention, the actual election was going to be just a formality.

The question on most people’s minds was: why were they being given a sick president by the outgoing leader?

Delta amnesty

President Yar’Adua’s record of achievements is not a long one.

Militants like Government Tompolo were given a deal by Mr Yar’Adua

The glacial pace of his decision-making virtually locked up all government business for two years.

One area where he is said to have made progress is in a peace deal for the oil-producing Niger Delta, where groups of militants had shut down production by about a third, choking off important revenues.

In late 2008 and 2009 Nigeria faced a financial crisis, in part caused by the plummeting value of oil during the global economic crash.

The government had made budget assumptions based on a benchmark oil price that was, in the harsh light of the global economic crisis, too high.

It struggled to pass a budget on time, realising that unless oil revenue was freed from the grips of militants, government funds – on which much of the economy is reliant – was seriously at risk.

The president was left with little choice but to come to an agreement with the militants; they had to be bought off, or “settled” as it is known euphemistically in Nigeria.

After personal talks with militant leaders in the capital, Abuja, President Yar’Adua got armed groups in the area to come in from their remote bases in the creeks and swamps and hand over their weapons.

Stymied

But the solution has not lasted.

Many of “the boys”, as they are known, were placed in resettlement camps where they sat around waiting to be provided food, clothes, money and jobs.

After waiting for a long time, many ex-militants have grown dissatisfied and left the camps.

A small number of attacks on pipelines and kidnapping of expatriate workers has started again.

Mr Yar’Adua has bequeathed one other development to Nigeria.

A dynamic central bank president, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, who has been working to reform the system which was on the brink of collapse just nine months ago.

The real problem facing Nigeria is a mixture of corruption and the government’s inability to enact reforms – or even its most basic functions.

And the ailing president simply did not have the energy or the capability to push through anything like the reform programme he promised in his inaugural speech.

Gentlemen’s agreement

And now, what of his successor?

Will Mr Jonathan get the backing he needs to run for president?

There is much speculation about whether Mr Yar’Adua’s deputy Goodluck Jonathan – now sworn in as president – will actually run for the office in 2011.

It is not yet clear if he will.

The PDP has a kind of gentlemen’s agreement to rotate power between the mainly Muslim north and the majority-Christian south, but it is not impossible that the deal could be changed or altered slightly.

Also the terms “north” and “south” encompass many factions, all representing the interests of a small political elite rather than the needs of a geographic region.

This time, there is no large figure on hand to anoint the next president, as Mr Obasanjo did last time, at least not yet.

Mr Obasanjo is said to be making a play to get the party to accept Mr Jonathan as their next candidate, but he is opposed by other factions in the PDP.

To settle the argument, a big political player will have to emerge and placate all the factions in order to find what is called a “consensus candidate”.

Whoever this kingmaker is, he will have to have very deep pockets, or make promises which the eventual candidate will have to stick by.

One of the tasks Mr Jonathan set himself when he became acting president in February was to push through electoral reform that would see elections brought forward by four months to January.

This makes the probable date of the PDP convention around mid-September, just four months away.

The one thing that Nigerians can be certain of is that the real election for president is happening right now.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.

ionyclaret@gmail.com

https://www.codewit.com

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Many years ago, in one of his albums, the late Reggae exponent, Peter Tosh asked this question, “Everybody is talking about crime, tell me, who are the criminals?” This becomes more relevant in our life as a country today. In a media chat with some selected journalists transmitted live by the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) a few weeks ago, the President of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan admitted that kidnapping has become a national issue. Again, he admitted that it has become a lucrative industry and that there are some ‘big men’ behind the small boys in the field. He also said that his government is after those big guys. He specifically pointed out that kidnapping has paralyzed commercial activities in the South-East in particular.

Obviously, the president is not wrong. Kidnapping and its twin brother, broad daylight bank robbery, believed to be operated by the same syndicate, have held the south-east to ransom. Funny enough, a friend of mine described kidnap as a nomad who went out wandering from the south-south. On reaching the south-east, he found a clement environment and settled there and began a flourishing business with headquarters in Abia State. On the 11^th of June, 2010, the Lagos State Chairman of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Mr. Wahab Oba was kidnapped with three other journalists and their driver in Abia State. As if to show that kidnapping is not just a South – East problem, Hajia Labara Abdullahi, the mother of Sani Lulu, the impeached president of the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) was kidnapped in Kogi State. Many questions have been raised on why this strange business has refused all solutions. The complications following some of the kidnap incidents have raised no fewer questions. As at now, no answers have been provided. The one answer readily available is that there is lack of security in the country.

It would be recalled that apart from Lagos State, no other state has provided the Police Force with logistics than the South-Eastern states. I’m sure that Anambra has been praised for providing the Police with not less than 150 operational vehicles, two armoured personnel carriers and other things. Yet, whenever kidnapping is mentioned, the state is not left out. It is true that some of the kidnap incidents are mere political hype, but some are also true and many of them are attributed to the ineptitude of the law enforcement agents especially the Police. In Anambra State which is fundamentally considered a business state, the Police have been said to find a haven for their own business. Hence, more often than not, they spend their time collecting the Nigerian ‘Green Card’ on the roads and allowing the kidnappers and other criminals a free access. This has equally caused untold accidents on the roads which have claimed the lives of Nigerians and even some men of the Nigerian Police.

Many in the South-East now believe that some law enforcement agents must be involved in these violent crimes in one way or the other. Some people believe that some of them either engage directly in the business as kidnappers or as negotiators for ransom. This, according to them, is why kidnapping has refused to go. The popular belief is that on the days of the violent crimes like the bank robberies, the check-points are always deserted to give way for the criminals. It is also believed that the cases where the law enforcement agents are killed are largely due to improper arrangement, lack of information or misinformation between the Police and the criminals. The Police may not know that the people hold these opinions about them. That is why many never believe that the Police in their present form can provide security for the Nigerian citizens. The most horrible part of this is that on many occasions, the Police have turned their weapons on innocent citizens in ‘intentional’ accidental discharges which have sent many to their untimely death. Why has reforming the Nigeria Police become such a Herculean task?

June this year, Nigerians witnessed a horrible scene in the House of Representatives. It was a free-for-all fight between just 11 out of 360 legislators and the rest. People were beaten black and blue, clothes mercilessly torn to shreds and thanks to God that nobody was stripped naked. The cause of the fracas was allegations of fraud against the Speaker of the House, Oladimeji Bankole by the Progressive Group led by Dino Melaye. The speaker was accused mainly of misappropriating N11b capital vote of the House in 2008 and 2009 financial years. The other allegations against the speaker were innumerable. In the same vein, in a serendipitous discovery, our Honourable Senators’ earnings per annum were uncovered as follow: Basic salary – 2,484,245.50; Hardship allowance @ 50% of Basic salary – 1,242,122.70; Constituency allowance @ 200% of BS – 4,968,509.00; Furniture allowance @ 300% of BS – 7,452,736.50; Newspaper allowance @ 50% of BS – 1,242,122.70; Wardrobe allowance @ 25% – 621,061.37; Recess allowance @ 10% – 248,424.55; Accommodation @ 200% – 4,968,509.00; Utilities @ 30% of BS – 828,081.83; Domestic Staff @ 75% of BS – 1,863,184.12; Entertainment @ 30% of BS – 828, 081.83; Personal assistants @ 25% of BS – 621,061.37; Vehicle maintenance allowance @ 75% of BS – 1,863, 184.12; Leave allowance @ 10% of BS – 48,424.55; severance gratuity @ 300% of BS – 7,452,736.50; Motor vehicle allowance @ 400% of BS – 9,936,982.00 (every 4 years); Total = N29,479,749.00; Senator’s Salary per month = 2,456,647.70; Grand Total (109 Senators) = N3,264,329,264.10 (Newswatch, July 12, 2010, p.14). This is in a country regarded largely to be poor and where an average Nigerian lives below a dollar per day. Folake Lebi, a US – based consultant lamented this situation thus, “I wonder why these thieves there in the National Assembly talk of economic saboteurs in Nigeria. I wonder if they have the sense to introspect long enough to see themselves as worst robbers Nigeria has ever encountered” (Ibid, p.20). By this, Lebi means that the condemned criminals in Kirikiri are saints.

Election rigging is now regarded as normal in Nigeria and no serious punishment is meted out for the systematic robbery of the people’s mandate. One can boldly say that many of our political office holders are with stolen mandates. It is only just a handful of the states of the federation that can be said to have elected governors especially those who struggled to regain their mandates. Even the immediate past president admitted that the process that threw him up with the incumbent president as his vice was marred by irregularities. That was where it ended. But if we still think correctly, is there any crime greater than the theft of the people’s mandate? We now have a new electoral umpire, Professor Attahiru Jega. Before him, Nigerians had witnessed sham in the name of elections and the professional riggers boasted openly, always sure of rigging and none had ever been brought to book. Can Jega move beyond his predecessor, Professor Maurice Iwu? Can he withstand the politicians’ enormous financial inducements?

We have heard of billions upon billions recovered by our anti-graft agencies where they were stashed away in foreign banks. Where are the monies and who stashed them away? On many occasions, the leadership of the anti-graft agencies has been accused of complicity in crimes. In fact, many believe that some of the leaders of such agencies were planted to protect the sacred cows. As a result of that, no serious cases have been made against some of the obviously corrupt ex-governors and other politicians, except to settle some scores. Many are of the view that some of their case files have mysteriously been lost in the custody of the agencies while those with countless charges have surprisingly been discharged and acquitted by the courts. Funny enough, at least one of such people has been convicted in a foreign country.

Though kidnapping holds sway these days, it should not distract us from the fact that it is not the one and only crime in the country. If the truth has to be told, what Chinua Achebe pointed out many years ago as the problem of Nigeria is still there and is worse now. Ours remain a problem deeply rooted in corruption of our leaders and has given birth to a confusion of what crime is and who the criminals are. If the corridors of power can be swept clean, kidnapping will naturally solve itself. But there is the lack of courage to begin because many are involved.

 

Rev. Fr. Clement Muozoba                                                                                                                             okochacm@yahoo.com

07060843010

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.

ionyclaret@gmail.com

https://www.codewit.com

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Quick, name the rogue state in the Middle East. Hints: It has an active nuclear-weapons program but conducts it in secret; its security organs regularly kill perceived enemies of the state, both at home and abroad; its political process has been hijacked by religious fundamentalists who believe they are doing God’s will; its violent recklessness destabilizes the world’s most volatile region; and it seems as deaf to reason as it is impervious to pressure. Also: Its name begins with “I”.Instead of treating Israel and Iran so differently, the West might try placing them in the same policy basket, and seeking equivalent concessions from both.

How you answer this riddle depends in part on where you sit. From an American perspective, the obvious answer is Iran. Iran seems alone and friendless, a pariah in the world, and deservedly so given its long list of sins. In Washington’s view, Iran poses one of the major threats to global security.

Many people in the world, however, see Iran quite differently: as just another struggling country with valuable resources, no more or less threatening than any other, ruled by a regime that, while thuggish, wins grudging admiration for standing up to powerful bullies. They are angrier at Israel, which they see as violent, repressive and contemptuous of international law, but nonetheless endlessly coddled by the United States.

The way American diplomats have spent the last few days shows how differently the U.S. treats Israel and Iran. After Monday’s deadly Israeli raid on a flotilla of ships bringing relief aid to Gaza, a U.S. envoy, George Mitchell, flew to Tel Aviv and then traveled to Ramallah. He urged Israeli and Palestinian leaders to salvage whatever possible from the debacle and look for common ground, even though prospects for peace are remote.

American diplomats at the United Nations, meanwhile, are working intensely to win support for punishing new sanctions on Iran. Their message about Iran is the precise opposite of the one Mitchell is preaching to Israelis and Palestinians: Negotiations are hopeless, oppressive regimes understand only force, and all compromise equals appeasement.

It is always difficult to compare the danger one country poses to global security with that posed by another, and it is natural to treat old friends differently from longtime enemies. Israel is a far more open and free society than Iran. Millions of Americans feel personally tied to its fate. Nonetheless the contrast in American attitudes toward the two countries is striking. Toward Israel the attitude is: You may be rascals sometimes, but whatever pranks you pull, you’re our friend and we’ll forgive you. Toward Iran, it’s the opposite: You are our implacable enemy, so nothing you do short of abject surrender will satisfy us.

This dichotomy is now on especially vivid display. Israel’s raid on the Gaza flotilla, like the Gaza occupation itself, has evoked only mild clucks of disapproval in Washington. But when Turkey and Brazil worked out the framework of a possible nuclear compromise with Iran a couple of weeks ago, American officials angrily rejected it.

Instead of treating Israel and Iran so differently, the West might try placing them in the same policy basket, and seeking equivalent concessions from both.

It is easy to denounce Israel and Iran as disturbers of whatever peace exists in the Middle East, and to lament that the region will be in turmoil as long as they keep behaving as they do. More important is the fact that both countries are powerful, and can upset any accord to which they are not a party. Punishing, sanctioning, and isolating them would be emotionally satisfying, but it is not likely to help calm the region.

Instead of pushing Israel and Iran into corners, making them feel besieged and friendless, the world should realize that without both of them, there will be no peace in the Middle East. This requires a new, more creative approach to the challenge of protecting Israel over the long term. It also requires a willingness to engage Iran. As Lyndon Johnson famously reasoned when he reappointed J. Edgar Hoover to head the FBI, “It’s probably better to have him inside the tent pissing out than outside the tent pissing in.”

Treating Israel and Iran more equally would also mean judging their nuclear programs by equivalent standards. If Israel and Iran are placed under the same set of rigorous nuclear safeguards, the Middle East will quickly become a safer place.

In the same spirit of equality, the world should do whatever possible to encourage higher human-rights standards in Israel and Iran. Ruling groups in both countries treat some honest critics as traitors or terrorists. They rule without the tolerance that illuminates Jewish and Persian history.

Israel and Iran have come to pose parallel challenges. They are the region’s outcasts—yet the region will never stabilize until they are brought back out of the geopolitical cold. Rather than stoke their escalating hostility, the U.S. should work to reduce tensions between them. Holding them to the same standards would be a start.

Stephen Kinzer is an award-winning foreign correspondent. His next book, Reset: Iran, Turkey and America’s Future, will be published in June.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.

ionyclaret@gmail.com

https://www.codewit.com

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The new book The Unspoken Alliance, about a secret deal between Israel and South Africa, has created controversy around the world but has largely been ignored by the U.S. media. Stephen Kinzer on the book’s explosive claims.

The Unspoken Alliance is a provocative book. It has ignited a firestorm in the British press and sparked angry reactions in Israel. Yet the book, which traces Israel’s close and largely secret relationship with apartheid South Africa, has drawn relatively little notice in the U.S. Only a few media outlets have focused on its revelations.

The most intriguing of Israel’s far-flung security partnerships was its long and close relationship with the apartheid regime in South Africa.

At the heart of this book is a richly detailed account of how Israel and South Africa cooperated as they worked to develop nuclear weapons in the 1960s and ’70s. It is especially relevant today, as nuclear rivalries escalate in the Middle East, because it explains—calmly, methodically, and with full documentation—how Israel and South Africa helped each other build atomic bombs in secret.

 The Unspoken Alliance: Israel’s Secret Relationship with Apartheid South Africa. By Sasha Polakow-Suransky. 336 pages. Pantheon. $27.95. According to President Shimon Peres, however, the book slanders Israel. Peres took special umbrage at author Sasha Polakow-Suransky’s assertion that when Peres was defense minister in 1975, he was involved in offering to sell South Africa advanced Jericho missiles, which could be equipped to carry nuclear warheads. In a letter to The Guardian, which reported the allegation, Peres said it had “no basis in reality” and was the result of “selective interpretation of South African documents.” Replying in Haaretz soon afterward, Polakow-Suransky called Peres’ letter evasive.

“The 1975 deal was never consummated,” he wrote, “but there is no doubt Peres took part in the discussions and that the South Africans perceived Israel’s proposal as a nuclear offer.”

Israel has been an exporter of military power for most of its existence. During the Cold War, usually acting with at least tacit approval from Washington, Israel served as unofficial quartermaster to pro-Western regimes around the world. Arms exports became a foundation of the Israeli economy and helped the country win a remarkable array of friends.

During the 1980s, Israel was the chief supplier to the Guatemalan army, trained anti-terror squads in Honduras, and sent hundreds of tons of weaponry to the Nicaraguan Contras. Israelis established private security forces in Colombia that ranchers used to protect themselves and dispatch their enemies, and did the same in the Philippines during the Ferdinand Marcos era. Dictators from Chile to Indonesia equipped their armies with Israeli-made Galil assault rifles and Uzi submachine guns. Israeli advisers trained anti-Marxist rebels in Angola and Libyans fighting Muammar Qaddaffi’s regime.

The most intriguing of Israel’s far-flung security partnerships was its long and close relationship with the apartheid regime in South Africa.

The book opens with what was surely the most jarring public moment in the history of this odd relationship. In 1976, Prime Minister John Vorster of South Africa, who the British had jailed during World War II for his pro-Nazi activities, was given a red-carpet welcome in Israel, laid a wreath at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, and heard Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin praise him at a state banquet for creating a “prosperous atmosphere of cooperation” between their two countries.

Israelis were conflicted about their relationship with the Pretoria regime. Early leaders, notably David Ben-Gurion and Golda Meir, were outspoken critics of apartheid. Gradually, however, as the center of gravity in Israeli politics shifted, Israeli leaders came to see South Africa as a kindred state, besieged by an angry ethnic enemy and unfairly stigmatized by a hypocritical world. Blacks in South Africa “want to gain control over the white minority just like the Arabs here want to gain control over us,” reasoned one Israeli chief of staff, General Raful Eitan. “And we, like the white minority in South Africa, must act to prevent them from taking over.”

According to The Unspoken Alliance, the Israel-South Africa relationship began to blossom in the 1960s and became rich and multi-layered during the 1970s. Israelis trained South Africa’s elite military units, sold tanks and aviation technology to its army, and licensed the production of Galil rifles at a factory in South Africa. What made this relationship unique, though, was that both countries were pursuing nuclear weapons.

They made a simple deal: raw materials for technology. South Africa mined uranium, and sent 500 tons of yellowcake to Israel from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s. In return, Israel shared its ballistic-missile technology and sent South Africa 30 grams of tritium, which Polakow-Suransky describes as “a radioactive substance that thermonuclear weapons require to increase their explosive power. Thirty grams was enough to boost the yield of several atomic bombs.”

With each other’s help, Israel and South Africa succeeded in producing nuclear weapons. The United States was not a party to their conspiracy, and in fact sought at several points to monitor and restrict it. American nonproliferation efforts, however, were not vigorous enough to penetrate an operation that both sides worked assiduously to hide. “Secrecy about the extent of their ties was paramount,” Polakow-Suransky writes. “Disguise and denial became the norm.”

This account of the two countries’ parallel nuclear programs has attracted considerable attention for The Unspoken Alliance in the Israeli press. The author has been widely quoted there, and has made the rounds of public-affairs interview appearances in Washington, San Francisco, and elsewhere. Curiously, though, no bookstore or local media outlet in New York, where he lives, has yet given him a forum.

Israel remains a nuclear power, albeit undeclared, and since details of its programs are secret, it is naturally eager to keep them hidden. South Africa dismantled its arsenal in the early 1990s. Prime Minister F.W. de Klerk’s announcement in 1993 that the job had been completed was the first official confirmation that South Africa had in fact possessed nuclear weapons. It constituted what Polakow-Suransky calls “the world’s first case of voluntary disarmament.” The motivation was compelling: De Klerk and his white caste were not about to bequeath a nuclear arsenal to the African National Congress.

During the 1960s, Israel courted African governments, but its cooperation with apartheid South Africa ultimately poisoned many of those relationships. “The people of South Africa will never forget the support of the state of Israel to the apartheid regime,” Nelson Mandela said soon after being released from prison. And Polakow-Suransky reminds us that in 1981, the 19-year-old Barack Obama centered his first public speech on a demand that his school, Occidental College, divest from South Africa.

Polakow-Suransky concludes his book with two maps, one showing the isolated South African “homelands” into which the apartheid regime herded many blacks, and the other showing Israeli settlements on the West Bank. He quotes former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as warning that his country could one day “face a South African-style struggle for equal voting rights, and as soon as that happens, the state of Israel is finished.”

In an interview, Polakow-Suransky said the clandestine cooperation that propelled Israel and South Africa into the nuclear club is an instructive model for today’s proliferators. “Aspiring nuclear powers like Iran probably study the South African case from the ’70s very closely, and also Israel’s case from the ’60s, in terms of deceptively developing a nuclear capacity,” he said. “Both are models of covert development with denialist rhetoric on the surface. Both countries faced the threat of sanctions, yet both managed to complete their programs.”

Can sanctions slow a country’s drive for nuclear weapons? Only at early stages of the program, Polakow-Suransky said. “In the South African case, all of the pressure and total isolation of the late 1970s pushed them further toward full proliferation,” he asserted. “Any aspiring nuclear power close to the finish line will do anything necessary to get across. Israel did that, and so did South Africa. Whether Iran gets there or not, it’s probably trying to do that now.”

Stephen Kinzer is an award-winning foreign correspondent. His new book is Reset: Iran, Turkey and America’s Future.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.

ionyclaret@gmail.com

https://www.codewit.com

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The news is almost stale that the Federal Government has budgeted a whopping N10 billion for the celebration of Nigeria’s 50th independence anniversary come October 1^st 2010. Some Nigerians feel there is every reason and need for us to throw a lavish party to mark this event. They argue that “it is a big achievement for Nigeria to clock 50 years as a politically independent nation”. Interesting! This reminds me of an amusing incident which occurred during my secondary school days. A classmate of mine wrote only his name, date and subject title as his answer to an assignment on Literature in English. When the teacher queried him, he answered thus: “Madam that is an achievement”.

Conversely, many Nigerians regard the amount budgeted for the celebration as outrageous, unnecessary and a misplacement of priority. They feel we do not have any good reason to roll-out the drums. Their opinion is that our current and past rulers should rather mark the anniversary by soul-searching and self-assessment, mindful of our dismal performance over the years as a nation. They argue, and very rightly so, that the N10 billion naira will serve a worthy purpose if judiciously and conscientiously deployed to the provision of basic amenities and infrastructures which are starkly lacking in the country. I pitch my tent with this group.

Every past Nigerian ruler claims to have performed excellently well during his regime, yet we are still in the doldrums. Contrariwise, successive administrations always blame previous ones for our woes, yet no past Nigerian ruler has been convicted and jailed for mal-administration. Rather, these past rulers continue to dictate the fate of Nigeria and the pace, shape of her politics. Is this part of our reasons for having a lavish 50^th independence anniversary?

Should we celebrate the fact that Nigerians have over the years received epileptic electricity supply despite the many hydro-electric power dams, gas turbines and power stations in the country and billions of naira spent in the sector? Is it justifiable that Nigeria supplies steady and reliable electricity to neighbouring countries while its citizens enjoy blackouts always? Is Nigeria’s status as the world’s largest importer of generators a thing of pride? Are we happy that many companies hitherto located in Nigeria (and even Nigerian businessmen) have relocated to Ghana and other neighbouring countries which boast of steady electricity? Is it fair that Nigerians pay through their noses for electricity that is never supplied or consumed? In the face of these, how do we justify the planned hike in electricity tariff? Now, the same lame arguments for the hike in the prices of petroleum products are being used for the planned hike in electricity tariff. So, as with petroleum products, poor Nigerians must pay exorbitantly for items with which God has bountifully blessed our country?

Are we happy that potholes and gullies litter all the roads in Nigeria, continuously resulting in daily loss of uncountable human lives and damage to vehicles? What happened to the billions budgeted or realized through tollgates which were not applied towards the repair, maintenance and reconstruction of our roads? What of contractors who, though substantially or fully mobilized, abandon the road construction jobs and go away scot-free? Should we celebrate these or the planned re-introduction of tollgates in spite of our ugly experience or that new and reconstructed roads in our country have a lifespan of just few months?

Perhaps, we may brandish our collapsed educational system as part of our numerous “achievements” as a nation. Pray, are the brain drain in our academic sector; the recurring examination malpractices; the yearly churning out of half-baked graduates; the irrepressible monster of cultism; the use of nepotism, ethnicity and religion in the appointment of administrators, recruitment of lecturers and admission of students in tertiary institutions; the politicisation of boards of tertiary institutions; the commercialization of academic certificates; and government’s apparent abandonment of public primary, secondary and tertiary schools worth celebrating? How do we see the touted planned privatisation of public schools? Is it worth celebrating that countries with less than 10% of Nigeria’s gross national product provide free education for their citizens up to university level, while “government alone cannot fund education” in Nigeria? Do we also celebrate the shame that Nigerians now seek quality education in Ghana, Cameroun and other African countries?

Should we beat our chests over the recurring decimals of unresolved assassinations, armed robberies, kidnappings, ritual killings, electoral malpractices and violence, menace of fake drugs and adulterated products, politically-motivated sectarian crises and the ever rising unemployment level? Do we celebrate our successive governments’ apparent helplessness in the face of all these? Yearly, governments at all levels in Nigeria allocate huge sums of money for capital projects which end up in private pockets, leaving the targeted projects unexecuted. Are we to showcase the many communities ravaged by gully erosion over the years, apparently abandoned to their fate?

Are we ecstatic that the quickest route to stupendous wealth in Nigeria is by getting “elected” or appointed into political posts? Do we rejoice that since 1999, almost all the state governors, legislators (Federal and State) and Local Governments’ Chairmen have been taking the electorate for a ride, channelling public funds into their private pockets? Does the fact that many of them see their positions as opportunities for self-service and enrichment thrill us? Should we dance that our legislators, most of whom do absolutely nothing, periodically approve huge emoluments for themselves while denying same to civil servants?

Are we elated that we lack functional and equipped public hospitals in Nigeria? How do we rejoice that insecticide-treated mosquito nets – supplied by the World Health Organisation – do not get to the targeted poor Nigerians but are sold in open markets at exorbitant prices? What do we say about agricultural inputs – fertilizers, insecticides, etc – subsidized by the government for use by farmers, never get to them but find their way to the open markets? Is it hilarious that the daily refrain in Nigeria is government’s plan to abandon the provision of social amenities – schools, hospitals, housing, pipe-borne water, electricity, motorable roads (for which we pay taxes) – to the faceless and amorphous private sector and investors?

So, we want to imitate Ghana and India which, at different times, celebrated their 50^th independence anniversaries? Comparatively, in what sphere can Nigeria hold candle to any of these countries? Sometime ago, Ghana celebrated 10 years of having had uninterrupted electricity supply! Let us also imitate this. Despite its enormous size and population, India has functional and well-equipped schools, hospitals, potable water, dependable electricity supply, good roads and a people-oriented government. Its government has reduced maternal and child mortality by offering financial incentives to pregnant rural women to have their childbirth in hospitals. Can’t we have such in Nigeria? Can we bask in euphoria regardless of our rating as one of the most corrupt countries in the world?

The litany of things which yawn for urgent attention in Nigeria is very long. Public office-holders spend so much public funds and time to theorize on “how to move Nigeria forward”, but in fact work against that end, because they are not committed to same. Frankly speaking, Nigeria is lagging far behind, and has a lot of catching up to do. There is so much work for us to do. Let the government work sincerely towards closing the gap between Nigeria and her peers between now and 2020, and then we may celebrate our 60^th independence anniversary.

President Goodluck Jonathan is renowned for his humility and indisposition towards ostentation. He should discountenance the urgings from selfish advisers, politicians and unpatriotic Nigerians who desire to milk the country through a flamboyant 50^th independence anniversary celebration. The fact that the project was initiated by late President Yar’adua does not make it binding on him. Experience has shown that whenever Nigeria organizes any money-gulping ceremony, some persons utilize the opportunity to rake in millions of public funds into their private pockets. This was so with COJA, CHOGM and all the FIFA games held here. The N10 billion should be channelled towards providing social amenities what will better the lot of hapless, poor Nigerians.

Ikechukwu A. Ogu, a legal practitioner, writes from Central Business District Abuja. Email: ikechukwuogu@yahoo.com

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.

ionyclaret@gmail.com

https://www.codewit.com

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