TRIBE,LAND AND POLITICS-AFRICAN’S TOXIC MIX

BY PETER GRESTE

wiser journalist that I once knew gave me a piece of advice, saying: “Beware of simple explanations for complex problems.”

It is a bit of wisdom that has proved profoundly true for the crisis that emerged on the Kenya-Ethiopia border over the past week.

On Friday, fighting between two ethnic groups – the Borana and the Garre – erupted on the Ethiopian side of Moyale, a town that straddles the frontier.

The brief but savage battle killed at least 18 people, and wounded a dozen more (the fact that so many more people died than were injured points to the ferocity of the fighting). More than 30,000 people fled over the border to take shelter in Kenya.

The obvious and easy explanation is that it was a battle over land. The two tribes have competing claims over a stretch of territory in Ethiopia’s arid southeast corner, and an ongoing drought has added pressure to the already scarce grazing land.

Neither the Borana nor Garre refugees could agree on who started the fighting, or what triggered it.

Power-vacuum

The Borana, who had crammed into the dusty Somare Primary School, a few hundred metres south of the border, said the Garre attacked with weapons the government had given them to fight off an insurgency by ethnic Somalis.

Across town, in another school, the Garre said another group of separatists linked to the Borana had taken advantage of an apparent power-vacuum in Addis Ababa to launch their offensive.

But in a rare moment of consensus, when I asked the respective community elders what lay behind the crisis, all agreed that it was a problem of politics and not tribe.

One Borana elder, Kefiyalewu Tikku, described it as a failure of governance, saying: “This business of tribe can be managed.

“We always had our traditional ways of solving our problems, but the central government (in Addis Ababa) has used a policy of ‘divide-and-rule’ to keep us marginalised.

“The government here is very weak, and so they use it to control us.”

In a way, that is encouraging. Tribe is, after all, an immutable characteristic in Africa. You can’t change your tribe any more than you can change the colour of your blood, so any “tribal conflict” is by definition almost unsolvable.

Describing a conflict as “tribal” also avoids the problem of assigning responsibility. It blames an entire ethnic community for the sins of a few protagonists.

Convenient diversion

And so, as is often the case in Africa, tribe becomes a convenient diversion from the deeper political malaise that seems to drive so many conflicts here.

In the case of Ethiopia, human rights groups and ethnic minorities have repeatedly accused Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of trying to centralise power in Addis Ababa, at the expense of ethnic minorities who live on the fringes of this vast, and incredibly diverse country.

That neglect has spawned separatist movements in the east and the south, and it is no coincidence that Moyale, where the latest fighting erupted, sits on the faultline that separates those two restive regions.

Anyone who doubts this need only look over the border in Kenya. Both Borana and Garre live on this side of Moyale too, yet literally a few metres south of the frontier beacons that dot their way through town, there is no fighting.

The geography and the ethnic mix are the same. The only difference is the way politics is done.

That’s not to suggest the Kenyans are immune from manipulating tribe for political ends though. The last time the Garre and Borana fought was in 2008, when Kenya last held its elections.

So, the solution to the fighting between the two ethnic groups is not to change genetics; it is to improve the way they are governed.

Of course, that needs courage and commitment by political leaders to sit down and discuss the problems that create friction in the first place.

At the moment, that is not on anyone’s agenda.

KILLING THE ECONOMY PROFESSIONALLY

One thing Ȋ̝̊̅ can assure Nigerians is that we are managing our economy professionally”– President Jonathan.

This was the view of the president during the presidential media chat sometimes ago, which Nigerians were strategically disallowed from calling into that live broadcast, knowing that pertinent questions will be asked, which the president might not be able to answer. The president was referring to the 24-man economy management team, that is being co-coordinated by the minister of finance, Dr.Ngozi, which members includes labour exploiter,Dangote and corruption aider, Femi Otedola.

The nigeria economy contrary to what the president opined, the economy management has being efficient in killing the economy professionally, which death is profitable to these national cronies,mentioned above and many others.

A look at this data authentic my observation that,indeed they are doing their job anti-clockwise. The poverty index is 60 per cent (placing the country 156th out of 187 countries), current exchange rate of the naira to the dollar is N162, foreign reserves below $38 billion while inflation stands at 12.7 per cent from 10.3 per cent level in 2011. The lending rate is 22 per cent, unemployment 37 per cent (over 40 million Nigerians jobless), domestic debt is N5.6 trillion, foreign debt $5.9 billion while allocation to the states from the Federation Account in the first quarter of 2012 was N705.77 billion. If an economy is manage professionally, how come the index is absolutely negative? And funny enough, the situation is getting worse.

Also in the time wasting presidential media chat, the president said as quoted here ” Our economy is growing but is not leading directly to job creation”. This shows why the word ‘clueless’ will never depart from numerous names given to the president. When there is growth in a nation, and it does not result into job creation but in unemployment at about 37 per cent,(40 million of the population) is it growth or what?

The small scale enterprises are closing down virtually everyday due to high rate in running the business, when every infrastructure that ought to be provided by the government is being done by the firms. And the government policy is much more favouring the importation of locally produce goods by these struggling small scale firm, killing the small scale enterprises, who are imperative for any nation that is really interested in economy growth and development, since small scale employs more than the large corporations in any nation. Compounding the national woes is the Boko Haram issues, that have successfully led to the closure of many companies, both the small and the big firms in the northern part of the country and negatively affected farming in that region, which have resulted into increment in price of food, since nobody is ready for an untimely death from the death agent-Boko haram, when the government over the years have make it clear, that they are helpless and inefficient in providing security for the lives and properties of her citizenry.

To be candid, if the president owned company is being run, the way he is running the nation’s economy, Ȋ̝̊̅ strongly believe that he would have sacked the manager for professionally mis-managing the company resources. Ȋ̝̊̅ wonder why he can’t be so humble and pity the future of this land by humbly resign since it is more than obvious that he is a colossal of failure, a paradigm of a clueless and direction-less leader at its nadir.

We have to understand that academy excellence is not a determinant of a problem solver, that Dr.Okonjo Iweale, studied in Harvard or London Business school does not mean she is competent to solve the economy woes of the nation. The solution lies in having a person that is efficient in managing resources, who have first class knowledge on the reality of the nigeria economy in addendum,integrity and brave heart, and this person might just be a B.SC, or an HND holder in one local institution.

For me, there is no hope anywhere, except to return to that theological medieval period of man, when everything is expected from God and any social occurrence can only be explain by Divine understanding, when man was just a little better than robot, since he has no capacity to think and reason.

Today, we are back into that period in this nation, because nothing on ground that is promise or hope giving to the youths. No working plan on how to create employment, no working plan on how to diversify the monotonous economy, no working plan on how to increase the power generation, no working plan on how to holisitically improve the infrastructures in the country, no working plan to know how many jobs that needed to be provided to reduce unemployment in five years, no working plan to make qualitative education an inalienable right of a nigeria irrespective of his family financial status,no working plan to proffer lasting solution to ethnic and religious conflict, to have a peaceful country,since peace encourages investors, no working plan to help and monitors the growth of small scale firms, no working plan to ensure that a fresh graduate get job within six months of graduation, no working plan to ensure an ordinary nigeria benefit directly from the vast resources in the nation, no working plan to develop the technology sector of the country, since this is jet age, no working plan to improve the nation agriculture, thereby making feeding the population, without eating food becoming a luxury, no working plan to develop the largest and inestimable resources-human resources, for the total development of the nation in all ramifications. Until we, the people awake and start demanding for a better life, and be ready to sacrifice it all, to achieve our aim, we will continue to be in perpetual disillusion that one messiah is coming for our deliverance and these national pen robbers, unscrupulous and devil incarnate in their microscopic numbers keep feeding fat at our expense.
As Ȋ̝̊̅ have continue to opined that nigerian youths should not be discouraged by these elderly corrupt ones, let our hope keeps radiating, someday, our society shall be humane for all.

TWITTER: please follow @socialist03

KENYA MUSLIM YOUTHS ATTACK POLICE WITH GRENADE

Stone-throwing youths have clashed with the police in the Kenyan city of Mombasa, Kenya’s second biggest city, in a second day of violence prompted by the killing of a Muslim religious leader accused by the US of helping fighters in Somalia.

Police fired tear gas and warning shots on Tuesday as youths barricaded streets with burning tyres in the predominantly Muslim neighbourhood of Majengo.

Youth also threw a grenade at a police truck, wounding 16 police officers, two of them critically.

Mobs moved around Mombasa’s city centre, taunting police who arrested some of the protesters, who are members of the city’s Muslim minority.

Shopkeepers reported looting in some areas of Mombasa, a tourist hub and major Indian Ocean port.

The unrest began after armed men killed Aboud Rogo Mohamed on Monday, spraying his car with bullets in an attack many Muslims in Mombasa blamed on the police, who denied involvement.

Rogo was the spiritual leader of the Muslim Youth Centre (MYC), a group viewed as a close ally of Somalia’s armed Islamist group, al-Shabab.

One person was killed in riots on Monday when protesters torched some churches, raising fears that the unrest may become more sectarian in a city where grenade attacks blamed on Somali fighters and their sympathisers have already strained Muslim-Christian relations.

Police and Muslim leaders had described the church burnings as impulsive, not premeditated. On Tuesday, the gangs of youths appeared to focus their anger more on the police.

“This kind of violence goes against our faith. The protesters shouldn’t hide behind Islam or any of its teachings”

– Adan Wachu, secretary-general
Supreme Council of Muslims in Kenya

Church leaders scrapped plans for a peaceful march for fear it might incite further clashes in a country where overall relations with minority Muslims have been relatively good.

The Supreme Council of Muslims in Kenya condemned the violence, especially the targeting of churches.

“This kind of violence goes against our faith. The protesters shouldn’t hide behind Islam or any of its teachings,” Adan Wachu, the council’s secretary-general, said. “These are criminals and should be treated as such.”

Kenyan police appealed on Tuesday to the public for information on Rogo’s killing. Raila Odinga, Kenya’s prime minister, has condemned the “horrific” murder, adding the government was “committed to bringing whoever was responsible to justice”.

Rogo had been accused by the UN of using the MYC group as “a pathway for radicalisation and recruitment of principally Swahili-speaking Africans for carrying out violent militant activity in Somalia”.

He is also alleged to have introduced Fazul Abdullah Mohammed – the late head of al-Qaeda’s East Africa cell, shot dead last year in Somalia’s war-torn capital Mogadishu – to at least one of the men who helped him carry out the twin US embassy bombings in 1998.

The bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam killed 224 people.

Al-Shabab appeal

Al-Shabab, for its part, urged Kenyan Muslims on Tuesday to protect their religion at all costs and boycott next year’s presidential election. It condemned what it called a “witch-hunt” against Muslims by the Kenyan authorities

ROMNEY GETS GOP NOMINATION OFFICIALLY

Mitt Romney officially clinched the GOP presidential nomination on Tuesday to move a step closer in his five-year quest for the White House.

To roaring cheers at the Republican National Convention in the packed Tampa Bay Times Forum, the delegation from New Jersey put Romney above the 1,144-delegate threshold, ensuring he will be the GOP challenger to President Barack Obama in November.

Earlier, the 2,200-plus convention delegates approved a conservative platform that called for less government, opposed same-sex marriage and endorsed a “human life amendment” to ban abortion with no specific exceptions for cases of rape, incest or when the mother’s life is threatened.

Romney and his running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, will be formally nominated on Thursday, and Romney’s acceptance speech that night will conclude the convention that had its agenda delayed by Hurricane Isaac, which hit Louisiana as early evening speakers addressed the delegates.

Republican officials appeared determined to stick to a tightened three-day schedule that kicked into full gear earlier in the day with official business and speeches accusing Obama of failed leadership and undermining the American dream.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus launched the litany of attacks, saying that another term for Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will mean “four more years of failure.”

In reference to Obama, Priebus said “he hasn’t even run a garage sale or seen the inside of a lemonade stand.” The nation needs a president “with real experience in a real economy,” Priebus added. “Mitt Romney will be that president.”

Other speakers continued the effort by Priebus to frame the election as a referendum on the policies of Obama.

“The American people are still asking ‘where are the jobs,’ but President Obama only offers excuses instead of answers,” House Speaker John Boehner told the delegates. “His record is a shadow of his rhetoric. Yet he has the nerve to say that he’s moving us forward, and the audacity to hope that we’ll believe him.”

Boehner also said “we can do better,” adding that “it starts with throwing out the politician who doesn’t get it, and electing a new president who does.”

MINISTER Of POWER,RESIGN

BARTH Nnaji, a professor and minister of Power who promised to take electricity supply to 6,000MW by December, yesterday waved a final bye to the job he did with great passion.

He was forced to resign.

President Goodluck Jonathan pushed Nnaji to throw in the towel, following an alleged conflict of interest between his office and the ongoing privatisation of the power sector – the government’s antidote to the epileptic supply that has held Nigeria down, industrially.

The alleged abuse of office was in conflict with the Performance Contract Agreement which ministers signed last Wednesday  and the Oath of Office to which they swore at inauguration.

Nnaji, a professor of Computer Integrated Manufacturing and Robotics, is the first victim of the Agreement.

A company, Geometric Power, in which the former Minister allegedly has interest was involved in the bids for the privatisation of Afam Generation Company Limited and Enugu Distribution Company Limited.

Geometric Power is said to have a minority stake in the Eastern Electric Nigeria Limited, which submitted technical and  financial bids for Enugu Distribution Company on July 31.

Also, one of the consortia bidding for Afam Power Plant, O and M Solutions of Pakistan, was once Geometric Power’s contractor.

It was also learnt that security reports allegedly implicated Nnaji, who sat transfixed in office as at 9.40pm when our correspondent visited .

According to a source, the ex-minister was in the middle of a meeting at about 4pm when he was summoned to the Presidential Villa by the President who told him to resign.

The source, a senior government official, said: “The ex-Minister and his officials in the Ministry of Power were holding a meeting at the Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity with labour leaders on the exit package of disengaged PHCN workers when he   was summoned to the Villa.

“Oblivious of what fate that was awaiting him, Nnaji left instructions on how the negotiation should go. 

“But when he got to the Villa, the President told him that reports of the National Council on Privatisation(NCP) and security agencies indicated that he could not divorce his personal interest from official matters.”

The source claimed that the President wasted no time to tell Nnaji, “Go and turn in your letter of resignation.  I wish you the best.”

Another source said: “All attempts by Nnaji to justify the fact that he had left the board of Geometric proved abortive.”

Apparently, overwhelmed by the manner  – sudden and shocking – of his resignation, Nnaji could  not immediately break the news to the key directors in the ministry.

Another source added: “He remained in his office to tidy up his desk. We later went to him when we heard the news. He simply said: “it is true but I did my best. I had divorced myself from Geometric Power to serve this nation. My interest was put in a blind trust.”

Although Nnaji, who felt much concerned about his integrity, had wanted to address the media,  the session was called off last night.

As at 9.40pm, he was still in the office, preparing his handover note.

It was in line with the resignation soft landing given to Nnaji that the Presidency issued a statement that he had resigned.

According to a statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, the Nnaji’s  resignation has been accepted.

The statement said: “President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has accepted the resignation with immediate effect of the Minister of Power, Prof. Barth Nnaji.

“President Jonathan thanks Prof. Nnaji for his services to the nation under the present administration and wishes him well in his future endeavours.”

The National Council on Privatisation (NCP) has cancelled  the technical bid evaluation process conducted for both companies.

The cancellation was to allow for transparency in the process.

The evaluation of the Enugu Disco, which is still ongoing, has been stopped. The evaluation team may be disbanded, it was learnt last night.

The NCP, at its meeting last Friday, announced the results of the technical evaluation conducted for the 25 bids it received last month for the six generation companies (Gencos) created from the unbundling of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).

It disclosed at the end of the  process that seven bidders  successfully met the cut-off mark of 750 and above during the technical evaluation process and were prequalified to have their financial bids opened on September 25.

They are: Phoenix Electricity, Transcorp Consortium and Ampiron Power Distribution Limited, which bid for Ughelli Power Company; CMEC Energy and GPN Nestoil Power Services Limited for Sapele Power Company.  Ampiron Power Distribution Limited, Mainstream Energy Solution Limited and North South Power Company Limited were prequalified for Geregu, Kainji and Shiroro Power Companies.

O & M Solutions has a stake in Skipper Nigeria Limited, which had submitted technical and financial bids for Afam on July 17, the deadline set by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) for the submission of bids for the Gencos.

Other companies that bid for Afam, a power plant in Rivers State with an installed capacity of 776mw, are Primeniza Energy Limited and NPG Consortium.

Nnaji, it was learnt had  notified the NCP that Geometric Power has a minority stake in Eastern Electric Nigeria Limited, which had submitted technical and financial bids for Enugu Distribution Company Limited on July 31.

He was said to have  resigned from its board and transferred his shares to a blind trust.

Nnaji had severally maintained that since his appointment as the President’s Special Adviser on Power and later as Minister of Power, he had resigned his appointment in Geometric Power, with his shares held by a blind trust and participated in the company’s day-to-day operations. 

Geometric Power, a pioneering independent power producer, was set up by Nnaji and built the 22mw Emergency Power Plant in Abuja. The company is also about completing the construction of an integrated power plant in Aba, Abia State

5000 NOTE, WILL WORSEN THE ECONOMY-NLC,ANC

Opposition mounted yesterday against the planned introduction of N5,000 note by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

The Nigeria Labour Congress accused the CBN of trying to legitimise further devaluation of the nation’s currency.” It warned that the proposed introduction of the currency is capable of spurring a demand for wage increase by workers.

The ACN said the plan’s “uninvited consequence and collateral damage may outweigh the benefits of the new measure.”

The Institute of Chartered Accountant of Nigeria (ICAN), in its online professional forum, at the weekend, described the decision as an avenue for corruption and inflation.

ICAN’s past chairman (Ikeja District, Lagos) Joshua Oderinde, said: “It is going to increase inflation and corruption. Besides, it contradicts the principles of cashless economy which we are all supporting. It is simply a contradiction of the whole idea. The naira notes we have currently are okay.”

The CBN said last week that the N5,000 note will  go into circulation early nest year. It also said N5, N10 and N20 notes will be coined.

The faces of woman activists – the late Gambo Sawaba, the late Margaret Ekpo and the late Funmilayo Ransome Kuti, are to adorn the N5,000 note, CBN Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi said.

But NLC Vice-President Issa Aremu, who is an economist, in a statement yesterday, said the apex bank was further devaluing the naira as there is a direct relationship between higher banknotes and devaluation.

According to him, Nigerian workers are opposed to the proposed introduction of the N5000 notes. The government should concentrate on revamping the manufacturing sector, he counselled.

The Labour leader said: “We oppose the proposed introduction of higher banknote of N5000  next year as announced by the Central Bank of Nigeria under its currency redesign programme tagged `PROJECT CURE.’  

“The current highest banknote of N1000 was introduced in 2005.  We had currency review in 2007 and 2009. It should not be customary for every CBN governor to change the nation’s banknotes.  

“Incessant turning out of higher banknotes is an attempt to legitimise the devaluation of the Nigerian currency. There is a direct relationship between higher banknotes and devaluation of the currency.

“The CBN should concentrate on stabilising the value of the Naira rather than legitimising the devaluation of the currency.  CBN under Sanusi Lamido Sanusi should continue with the good work they are doing with respect to revival of manufacturing sector and management of inflation and interest rates.  The double digit inflation rate as we currently have cannot take us out of the economic crisis.

“Psychologically, for the working people, it means they work so much for little notes with the introduction of N5000. This may fuel crisis of expectation for more wage increase as bigger banknotes will be chasing fewer goods. Nigeria is better with smaller banknotes that can deliver goods and services rather than higher bills without any value”.

But the Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Matters, Senator Joy Emodi, described the planned inscription of pictures of Mrs. Fumilayo Kuti, Margaret Ekpo and Gambo Sawaba on the N5,000 currency as a welcome development.

 Emodi in a statement entitled “N5,000 Note: A plus for Nigerian Women and democracy” commended President Goodluck Jonathan for his “thoughtfulness” in approving that the “soon-to-be-introduced N5000 note bears the pictures of three distinguished and highly respected Nigerian women, namely Fumilayo Kuti, Margaret Ekpo and Gambo Sawaba, in recognition of their contributions to the development of this nation.”

She added that the inclusion of the logo of the National Assembly on the new notes is worthy of praise as it is not only a symbol of democratic governance but indeed a micro Nigeria. 

She stated that the move is historical for Nigerian women “as it marks the very first time any government, whether military or civilian, would bestow them with this magnitude of recognition and respect.”

Emodi also said that the unprecedented appointment of many Nigerian women into the Federal Cabinet and other key positions in government “not only affirmed that Jonathan could be trusted to keep his promise to elevate women to where they rightly belong in the scheme of things.”

Jonathan, she said, “is indeed a fair-minded leader who believes in gender equity and Nigerian women have more to offer than they were previously given opportunity to offer.”

HOW WE ARE TALKING TO BOKO HARAM, BY PRESIDENCY

Govt states its stand as sect dismisses peace moves as false

The Presidency is insisting that it is in talks with the fundamentalist Islamic sect Boko Haram, contrary to the reports of the group’s denial of such moves.

Besides, the Presidency argued yesterday that the refutal might be coming from one of the goup’s factions. 

Abu Muhammad, who claimed to be the second in-command to the sect’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, alerted Nigerians to ongoing talks between the government and the sect.

But, Boko Haram spokesman Abu Qaqa, in an e-mail statement last week, denied that the group had been meeting with government officials as widely reported in the media.

“We believe that the purported Abu Mohammed – who was quoted to have blown the lid over the alleged talks from Saudi Arabia – is the creation of the Nigerian government in order to mislead Nigerians on the crusade we are waging and that by the grace of Allah, they will not succeed.”

Qaqa added: “The media should know that as far as we are concerned, there is no difference between those that are fighting us with weapons (security forces) and those that are fighting us with their tongues and pens.”

However, the Presidency said there is nothing to worry about over the issue. 

Reacting to the controversy, Special Adviser to the President (Media and Publicity), Dr. Reuben Abati, assured that President Goodluck Jonathan is tackling the matter through multi-faceted levels.

The presidential spokesman revealed that the said dialogue is not the conventional talks.

He noted that the government has adopted the back room channels to reach the  Boko Haram sect.

“When government says it is already talking to Boko Haram, the form of that dialogue must be properly understood. I think a lot of people are under the impression that the dialogue involves a situation whereby government officials are sitting on one side, Boko Haram persons are sitting on the other side in an air-conditioned room and there are negotiations across the table. 

“That is not the form of the dialogue. The form of the dialogue is that back room channels are being used to reach across with the sole objective of understanding what exactly the grievances of these persons are, what exactly can be done to resolve the crises, in the overall best interest of ensuring peace and stability in Nigeria and the security of life and property. 

“And all of this is consistent with the position of Mr. President. So what is called dialogue is at many levels: through back room channels and through multi-level, constructive interventions to address a difficult issue that is multifarious.”

Abati added: “One thing that is noteworthy is that the Boko Haram spokesperson made it clear that they were prepared to go a step further to ensure that persons who are using the name of Boko Haram for political and criminal purposes are identified and checked. 

“What that original statement indicated was that indeed Boko Haram has many faces. It confirms that this thing called Boko Haram is such a multifaceted phenomenon. 

“The true situation has already been stated by the Minister of Information on two different occasions. First in an interview, second through a press release, namely that the Federal Government is involved in dialogue with Boko Haram. 

“You will recall that what led to this is that a spokesperson for Boko Haram issued a statement confirming that government and some leaders of Boko Haram were already discussing; in that particular statement the issues being looked at were clearly identified. 

“You will recall that in one instance, during a Presidential Media Chat, President Jonathan had made it clear that the Boko Haram phenomenon, the terror phenomenon in Nigeria, is quite a novel phenomenon and that many of the persons involved in the low level insurgency are not known, they have not come forward. However if such persons should come forward, government will grant them a listening ear to know what it is that they are after. Again the President is on record, as having made it clear that government’s approach to checking the Boko Haram insurgency is at many levels. 

“The available option, according to Mr President, is not solely one of military action or police action and it is on the basis of this that he had reached out to leaders of political thoughts in the parts of the country that are affected. 

“It is on this basis that President Jonathan held a lot of meetings with politicians from the Northern states. Because his position is that look, this people, yes they may not come forward but they are not ghosts, they live in communities. They are members of the Nigerian community, there would be persons who know them. There would be leaders in these communities, in these villages, in these towns who may have an idea and such persons needed to be carried along to assist in addressing the Boko Haram issue. When government adopts this approach, it does not mean government is abdicating its responsibility to ensure that persons who go against the law are sanctioned. 

“There is even a third level of intervention, the economic and social level of intervention. In this regard, President Jonathan has made it clear that many of the efforts being directed towards the affected parts of the country are meant, in fact, to redirect the energies of the youths and this is the whole point of using the agricultural sector to transform lives, to create wealth, to create a value chain, the end of which is to create jobs and to engage young people more effectively. This government has a robust agricultural transformation programme that has been justly praised by IFAD and the World Bank.”

Abati also said: “The Jonathan administration has been providing wider opportunities for many of the youths in the affected parts of the country to be able to go to school. No other government before now has done as much. Get them off the streets, engage them meaningfully and then, of course, you know that the government introduced the You Win programme, and several other pro-people initiatives and policies. 

“So, this is the issue at this stage, but one thing you should also note is that the Boko Haram, as has been admitted, even by its spokespersons, is a phenomenon that has mutated. So it is not unusual that you will find a situation whereby a variant of the mutation may express a view that sounds like it’s contradicting the other. What is certain is that government is considering all of this, government is taking on the issue frontally and through back room channels, with the assistance of a number of persons who have an understanding of the sociology and the character of the problem.

“You must admit of course that a lot is being achieved. Within the last one year and more, you can see that a lot has changed in terms of the knowledge that has been gained about the nature and character of the problem. A lot has been done, and a lot has been achieved in terms of the capacity of the state to deal with the problem. What President Jonathan is asking for as his government tackles this issue from the various dimensions that we have identified, the political, the economic, the social and also, law enforcement, what he calls for, what he demands from Nigerians is support.”

MASSACRE BY SYRIAN REGIME

The Syrian civil war reached new heights of brutality on Sunday with government troops accused of massacring civilians a few miles from Damascus on a weekend which saw one of the worst reported death tolls in 17 months of conflict.

Opposition groups claimed more than 200 bodies had been found in Daraya, a poor Sunni community on the south-west outskirts of the capital, after Syrian troops had stormed the town on Saturday, going door to door in what President Bashar al-Assad’s regime described as a counter-terrorism operation. Opposition and human rights activists claimed many of the dead were civilians.

A New York Times employee in Daraya reported seeing “scores of bodies lined up on top of each other in long thin graves moist with mud”.

The paper quoted a 40-year-old resident, Abu Ahmad, as saying: “The Assad forces killed them in cold blood … I saw dozens of dead people, killed by the knives at the end of Kalashnikovs, or by gunfire. The regime finished off whole families, a father, mother and their children. They just killed them without any pretext.”

The claimed death toll could not be independently verified, but if confirmed, it would be the worst single massacre of the civil war.

With the world’s major powers still divided on how to respond to the bloodletting, Syria’s neighbours took urgent steps to try to stop the violence spreading on to their territory. Turkey temporarily closed its borders to refugees, trapping 2,000 people trying to flee the conflict on the Syrian side of the frontier, until shelters could be built to accommodate them. Jordan appealed for more international aid for looking after more than 160,000 Syrian refugees, who it said were arriving at the rate of 2,000 a day.

The spillover into Lebanon was being held back by a fragile ceasefire in the port city of Tripoli, where Sunni-Shia clashes broke out as a result of the abduction of Lebanese pilgrims by an anti-government militia in Syria, evoking uneasy memories of Lebanon’s own long civil war.

Egypt called for a regional peace conference, including Saudi Arabia and Turkey, both supporters of the Syrian rebels, as well as Assad’s main ally in the Middle East, Iran.

Anxiety over the risks of a regional conflagration deepened further as it became clear that the violence in Syria was intensifying, with more civilians killed. The Local Co-ordination Committees (LCC), an opposition network, claimed that more than 200 bodies had been found in Daraya, and activists circulated a video appearing to show dozens of bodies lined up in dimly lit rooms, described in the commentary as being in the town’s Abu Suleiman al-Durani mosque.

The government, which has rejected previous allegations of atrocities, portrayed the attack as a counter-terrorism operation. “Our heroic armed forces cleansed Daraya from remnants of armed terrorist groups,” the state news agency said.

The junior foreign minister responsible for the Middle East, Alistair Burt, said that if the reports were verified “it would be an atrocity on a new scale, requiring unequivocal condemnation from the entire international community”.

The storming of Daraya followed three days of heavy bombardment by government tanks and artillery, which the opposition said killed another 70 people. The offensive appeared to be part of a larger struggle for control of the southern fringe of the capital. Residents said that government tanks on the Damascus ring-road shelled the neighbourhoods of al-Lawwan and Nahr Aisheh late into Saturday night and that there was also heavy fighting in the Ghouta suburbs to the east of the city.

The LCC said forces loyal to Assad had killed 440 people across Syria on Saturday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based activist group drawing information from a network of monitors across Syria, put the nationwide death toll for the day at 370, including 174 civilians. If confirmed, it would be one of the bloodiest days the country has suffered since the anti-Assad revolt broke out in March 2011.

It was impossible to verify such claims because of severe Syrian government restrictions on independent or foreign media coverage.

A United Nations report this month into an earlier massacre at Houla found that the indiscriminate attacks against civilian populations and other atrocities were “state policy” and claimed Assad’s forces and allied Shabiha militia were involved at the highest levels in “gross violation of international human rights”.

The UN inquiry found that anti-Assad forces had also committed war crimes including “murder, extrajudicial execution and torture” but that these abuses “did not reach the gravity, frequency and scale of those committed by government forces and the Shabiha”.

A new Amnesty International report on the fighting in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, also found that “the overwhelming majority of victims were killed in air strikes and artillery attacks by government forces”, but it criticised rebels for using imprecise or indiscriminate weapons like mortars and home-made rockets.

Activists in Daraya alleged that most of the victims had been summarily executed by government troops moving from house to house. “Assad’s army has committed a massacre in Daraya,” Abu Kinan, an activist in the town, told Reuters news agency by telephone, using an alias to protect himself from reprisals. “In the last hour, 122 bodies were discovered and it appears that two dozen died from sniper fire and the rest were summarily executed by gunshots from close range,” he said.

The activist said he witnessed the death of an eight-year-old girl, Asma Abu al-Laban, shot by army snipers while she was in a car with her parents. “They were trying to flee the army raids. Three bullets hit her in the back and her parents brought her to a makeshift hospital. Nothing could be done for her,” he said.

A thorough investigation of atrocity claims can only be carried out by the international criminal court in the The Hague if it is given a mandate by the UN security council, but that has been blocked by Russia, the Assad regime’s principal backer and arms supplier, together with China. Moscow and Beijing have also vetoed resolutions threatening Assad with sanctions for non-compliance with a peace plan backed by the UN and the Arab League. The last UN monitors in Damascus left earlier this month when the security council failed to agree on a new mandate for them.

Western officials say they have largely given up on security council diplomacy and are stepping up their assistance to the fragmented opposition, though they say that assistance stops short of weapons. Saudi Arabia and Qatar are reported to be shipping arms to rebel groups, however, as the conflict continues to escalate.

Egypt became the latest country to offer its services as a peace broker, calling for a regional conference on the crisis, aimed at bridging the Sunni-Shia divide. The new Egyptian president, Mohammad Mursi, is due in Tehran for a meeting of more than 120 countries in the Non-Aligned Movement this week. He will be the first Egyptian leader to visit Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

While Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have all backed the mainly Sunni Free Syria Army rebels, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard forces have fought alongside Assad’s forces. Syria’s vice president Farouq al-Sharaa met an Iranian delegation on Sunday, according to Syria’s state news agency, marking his first appearance in several weeks. It put an end to opposition rumours that he had defected.

In the increasingly daunting search for a diplomatic solution, the UN and Arab League have appointed a new special envoy, a veteran Algerian diplomat, Lakhdar Brahimi, after the resignation of the former UN secretary general Kofi Annan. On Friday, Brahimi declared himself “honoured, flattered, humbled and scared” to be given the job.

Escalating violence

February 1-8 More than 100 killed in shelling of Homs

March17 Bombs in Damascus kill more than 30

April 25 Dozens killed in rocket strike on the city of Hama, central Syria

May10 At least 50 die in bomb attacks at intelligence building in Damascus

May 25 More than 100 people, including children, killed in Houla, western Syria

June 6 Around 80 people killed at Qubair, near Houla

July 13 Dozens of people killed in the village of Tremseh

July 18 Suicide bomber kills senior defence and security officials in Damascus

August 25 Regime accused of killing 200 at Daraya in suburban Damascus

SAVE SUNKANMI FROM UKRAINE DETENTION

SAVE OLAOLU SUNKANMI FEMI FROM UKRAINE ILLEGAL DETENTION

The arrest of a Nigerian student for allegedly defending himself against six teenagers who attacked him at the entrance to his apartment block. The student,
OLAOLU SUNKANMI FEMI, who is currently languishing in jail and may be facing life imprisonment in Ukraine is the mother of all injustices and continuation of slavery treatment to Africans.

Sunkanmi was arrested after defending himself against his assailants with a glass from a broken bottle in front of his apartment block on November 5, last year in Luhanski, Ukraine.

Witnesses at the scene said that one of his friends was physically attacked in front of his apartment by four Ukrainian young men and two women who pulled them to the ground while hurling racist slurs on them.

Sunkanmi was said to have managed to get up and defended himself against the assailants with a glass from a broken bottle.

It was while he was defending himself that police arrived at the scene and the Nigerian was subsequently arrested and charged with attempted murder of five people

The story of Sunkanmi is one out of thousands of mal-treatment and inhumane treatment, nigerians and other africans abroad do experience from the hands of the citizenry and even the government of that land.
The questions I want to ask is, could self-defence be a crime? And what more can be a total dehumanization for someone to be remanded in detention since November 5, 2011 without taking the case to court?

For the fact that Nigeria embassy in Ukraine have not been able to do anything meaningful for the release of that young man or even compel the Ukrainian government through the ministry of foreign affairs, to take the case to court instead of the continuous illegal detention of the nigerian shows that, the ambassador is clueless about his responsibility as an ambassador and recalling him won’t be too much to ask.

However, we in Nigeria cannot afford to fold our arms when one of us is facing injustice and if care is not taken, life imprisonment could be the lot of this young man. I, therefore, call on human rights organization like CDHR, UAD,CLO,Nigeria Amnesty international and others, activists and every noble nigeria to come forward and rescue this nigerian from this injustices and send a warning to other countries that Nigerians, without even their government will not condone the maltreatment of any nigerian in foreign land as we, nigerians don’t maltreat any foreigners here.

Please, if you have heard about the story of this young man before and you wish to take a positive move kindly contact me for us to work together as a team. Together everyone achieve more. Thank you.

Ifade Olusegun
07036426393
Email: ifadesegun@yahoo.com
Twitter: socialist03
Blog: http://www.humanesocietypost.wordpress.com