It was a dirge, an elegy, that my colleague Funke Egbemode wrote on the back page of Sunday Sun this week. She was mourning, weeping, and lamenting the mindless slaughter of students at the Federal Government College, Buni Yadi, in Yobe State. More than 40 of those young people had their throats slit while they slept in their dormitories, reportedly by insurgents called Boko Haram.
I was in an aircraft to Asaba, enroute Onitsha, in Anambra State, when I read Egbemode’s piece. Another colleague, Steve Nwosu, was seated right beside me. I told him: “Great piece. Vintage Funke. Please read it.”
Egbemode is a mother many times over. But I also know she had lost a baby in her childbearing days. She had written about it in the past, so the pathos, the plaintiveness of personal experience was evident in her current piece. Who feels it knows it. You could feel the pain, the passion of a mother who has passed through the path. A path watered by tears.
A scripture came to my mind after reading the piece. “A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning. Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not. (Matthew 2:18).”
The children in Buni Yadi are not. They had been bludgeoned, decapitated, some burnt alive, and no one heard their cries. Not a country too engrossed with playing the politics of 2015. Not a land consumed in the paroxysm of hate, ill will, strife, a people held in the gall and thrall of bitterness. It is a country soused in infamy, marooned in the throes of resentment and acrimony. No wonder mothers are like the biblical Rachel, filled with “lamentation and weeping, and great mourning.” They are refusing to be consoled.
Egbemode asked these germane questions in her piece: “How did we get here? How did we inherit a nation where we slit the throats of teenage boys and night marauders carry off our innocent girls to places unknown? How, dear Lord, did we get to this evil pass when our children are snatched from our breasts?”
I will attempt to tackle the questions, because I think I know the answer: how did we get here? How did we become a country (I don’t like using the word nation, because we’re not) of vinegary people, always serving one another wormwood and gall? And we take so much delight in doing it, while an unconcerned leadership looks on in supercilious indifference. When they get tired of killing one another, they will stop. More champagne, please.
How did we get into this mess? I know it. Suspicion led us into it. Ethnic insularity charted the course. Religious intolerance sped our feet on the path. Corruption and rapacity set fire to our heels. Neglect of the poor and the helpless by those in government, who don’t give a damn for the feelings of the deprived, the bitter, the angry, positioned us in this cauldron. Because when all these things are fully grown, they lead to malice, and malice gives birth to hatred. When hatred is fully mature, a country finds herself where Nigeria is today. In a maelstrom, bedlam, turmoil, whirlpool. Turning and turning in the widening gyre, the falcon can no longer hear the falconer. Things fall apart, and mere anarchy is loosed (on Nigeria).
Buni Yadi occurred a couple of days before a jamboree called centenary celebrations. Nigeria was billed to mark 100 years of the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern protectorates, an event forced on us by Lord Lugard in 1914. World leaders had been invited. But as the zero hour approached, the innermost pit of hell was opened, and Buni Yadi happened. What would a more sensitive country have done? Cancel the jamboree, pronto! But not Nigeria. It was quite sickening, stomach churning to see us proceed with the so-called centenary celebrations, even as the wailings of those young students still hung in the firmament, on the way to heaven. Parents were mourning. The land was crying in revulsion, as the blood of those young people sunk into the earth. But Nigeria was clinking glasses. Emperor Nero was fiddling, while Rome burnt. By the mercies of God, why did we not cancel those centenary activities, after Buni Yadi? The world would have respected us more, they would have seen us as a people that are sober and reflective. The president should have called a solemn assembly, instead of the fanfare in Abuja. We should have sat in ashes, and worn sackcloth, entreating God for mercy on our country, pleading for forgiveness over the gruesome murder of those more than 40 young people. But not Nigeria. The show must go on. Don’t stop the music, it is food for the soul. Play on. And God was watching. And Jesus wept. Again.
Beloved countrymen and women, that is why we are in this mess. That is why we are in this sorry pass. Nigeria does not give a damn. In this country, you are O.Y.O – On Your Own. It is everyman for himself, and God for us all. Don’t look up to your neighbour, he doesn’t care. Don’t look up to government, they don’t know you are there. In fact, as far as they are concerned, you do not even exist. And if you exist at all, they don’t owe anybody a living.
Did you notice the calibre of the so-called world leaders who attended the centenary celebration? How many Grade A leaders did you see there? They could not have come, when Nigeria was flowing with blood and gore. They could not have shown their faces, when the country was suffused in bitterness, rivalry and hatred. Not many major leaders would come and clink glasses some hours after more than 40 young people had been so cruelly slain. Only Nigeria would have proceeded with such celebration, because she doesn’t care, she doesn’t give a damn.
At the risk of being branded a dissident (I tell you, I’m a loyal Nigerian through and through), I agree with the position of Gov Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State on the centenary celebration. “Can we really celebrate when our children are being slaughtered while at school? Can we really celebrate when our fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters are being slaughtered like chickens? Can we really celebrate when fellow citizens live in constant and growing fear of kidnappers, hired assassins and armed robbers? Can we really celebrate when those constitutionally empowered to protect us turn their fury on us? In these questions lie the state of the nation. Where is the country headed? Where will the country be in another hundred years? What legacy are we leaving for our children?”
These are very sobering thoughts. With hate, malice, ill will, ethnic jingoism, religious intolerance, governmental disdain and levity, where will Nigeria be in the next 100 years? Or even in the next ten or 20 years? Or even in 2015, after the elections? Very thought provoking questions. And unless we change our ways, both the citizens and the government, the answer will continue to blow in the wind.
After Buni Yadi, the trail of bloodbath continued. To Maiduguri. To Mafa, which was completely set ablaze, to Mainok, and many others. Over 300 lives have been lost in one week, and that is the same week the leadership of the ruling party felt it was right to congregate in Kwara, and accept decampees. Fine, nothing wrong in taking in new members, but not in a week of blood. The president was there, the vice president was there, decked in aso ebi, when they should be mourning, fasting and praying. Now, you know why we are where we are. It is not just about President Goodluck Jonathan, not just about Vice President Namadi Sambo, it is about the way we are. We don’t give a damn! If only we did!
Another thing that has landed us in a mess is corruption. When you drive on pothole-riddled roads, it is the result of corruption. Each time you turn the switch, and there is no electricity, it is the fruit of corruption. Each time anyone dies prematurely, due to lack of medical care, corruption is the grim reaper. Children learn under trees, sit on bare floors in public schools? Corruption. No petrol, no kerosene, because the refineries are not working? Corruption. Graduates are unemployed because there are no jobs, corruption. And you have millions of youths, a potential army of Armageddon, roaming the streets angry and hungry, waiting to be recruited into Boko Haram, into an armed robbery group, into a kidnap gang. Like somebody told me last week, when you produce graduates of Physics or Chemistry, and they have no jobs, they are potential bomb makers, because it’s a piece of cake for them to assemble bombs. When you have people who have no stake in society, no job, no pay, no investment, they then have no reason to preserve the equilibrium of that society. In fact, they have no qualms moving against society, like Boko Haram is doing today. When you have no need for water from a well, you may as well urinate in that same well. Yorubas call it bo le ya, ko ya. If it would tear, let it tear. If it would break, what’s stopping it? Nigeria has a large army of people with that mindset. The country does not give a damn about them, and they too do not care a hoot. And that is why we are where we are.
I must not forget to say kind words about our security forces. They are doing their level best. But water is now more than the yam flour. The Army, Air Force, Police, and the State Security Service, are stretched to the limits. Special kudos to the SSS, however, for the way they cracked the riddle of the murder of Islamic cleric, Sheikh Auwal Adam Albani, in record time. The man was killed in Zaria on February 1, and some days ago, the SSS paraded the self-confessed killers, trailing some of them to as far as Cameroun. Good job! Despite where we are and how we are, some people still make us proud.
Egbemode, in that jeremiad she wrote last Sunday, advocated full emergency rule in states where insurgency prevails. She wants military administrators in place. Is that a magic ward? No. I’ll rather identify with the solution former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar proffered. Engage the people more. Improve on what the Civilian JTF has been doing. It will have more long-lasting effect than complete military crackdown. You had that in Iraq, did it work? You had it in Afghanistan, did it end terror? A man conquered by force is only half-conquered. The fact that you have silenced a man does not mean you have won him to your side. Sending military administrators to Boko Haram-infested states will only win some battles, it will not win the war. If it wins the war temporarily, it will not win the peace. History has shown that to us clearly. The only tragedy is that we never learn from history. And “those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” (George Santayana).
Gov Amaechi is worried about what happens to Nigeria in the next 100 years. A legitimate thing! But me, I have learnt never to worry about tomorrow. Worry never takes away tomorrow’s troubles, it only saps today of its strength. We will do our best for Nigeria today. We will say what needs to be said now. Let those who will be here in 100 years worry about that time. Will you be among?
Secret of the Igbo nation
E
ureka! I’ve found it. Now I know the secret of the Igbo nation. Now I know how they could go to war, armed only with cudgels and sticks, and they held their own for three whole years. I now know why they have produced a large number of illustrious people in almost all areas of human endeavour. I now know why their region was one of the largest growing economies in the world before the Nigerian civil war. I know it!
On Monday, I was at Onitsha Main Market, in Anambra State, with my publisher, Dr Orji Uzor Kalu. What were we out to buy? Nothing! We were just there to join in the early morning fellowship held by traders, before they begin their business for the day. Pastor Uche Emeto is the coordinator of the prayer group.
If you know Kalu, you would give it to him that he is a people’s man. He loves people, and people love him. He started business as a trader, and he never forgets his roots. That was why he asked some of us in the management of The Sun Newspapers to accompany him to the prayer meeting. In the team was Steve Nwosu, General Editor, Damola ‘Lajumoke, GM Sales Operations, and Onuoha Ukeh, Editor, Daily Sun. With Kalu were Senator Emmanuel Onwe, Chief Emma Okewulonu, and other personal aides.
By 7.00a.m, we were at Onitsha market, but the prayer session did not start till 8.20a.m. We waited patiently, using the period to reflect on the state of the country, and things ahead.
Praise songs, led by Prophetess Joy Chinyere of Victory Base Deliverance Ministry, Onitsha, signified that the event had begun. We were at the balcony of what is called White House, which is the headquarters of the market union. And come and see how the traders began to troop out – men, women, boys, girls, old, young. Soon, it became a sea of heads, some on the ground floor, others on the balconies of their various shops. All singing, dancing, praying. Each acted according to the predilection of his denomination – the orthodox in calmness and utter serenity, the Pentecostals in the exuberance and ebullience so common to them.
Prophetess Chinyere knows how to move a crowd, and how she did! She almost whipped them into frenzy with the right songs, and prayer points that touched their condition. She told them: “If you don’t stop the power pursuing you, it would stop you. When God wanted a place to live, He chose the city of a king. That is your portion in Jesus name.” Come and hear prayers like thunderstorm.
And then, the time came. Chief Innocent Agudiegwu, Chairman of the Main Market introduced the Special Guest. The applause was deafening, as Kalu got up to speak. And the man can sing too. I never knew. He started with Tuwara ya nmanma, tuwara ya nmanma, si ya n’omela, Eze Jesus, tuwara ya nmanma, si ya n’omela. And then another song: Chineke nk’igwe, onye di ka gi, nmalite n’ogwugwu, onye di ka gi. Maybe the man will eventually become a preacher. You never can tell.
Kalu gave the traders his best wishes, told them he had things doing in Asaba and Anambra over the weekend, and felt he should not leave the vicinity without coming to share fellowship with them.
When I was called to speak, and to make a donation of half a million naira on behalf of The Sun Publishing Limited, towards the maintenance of the White House, I told the audience that I had discovered the secret of the average Igbo man and woman. Prayer. And God! No wonder they thrive so well, even in a hostile polity. No wonder there’s no repressing them. The more you push them down, the more they spring back, powerfully. The Igbo man loves God. He loves commerce. He loves prayer. He may not have got his due from the polity, shut out from power at the centre for so long, but one day, he will get there. I pray for him. That the God the Igbo man loves so much will lead him to do the right thing. An that when God leads, the Igbo man will know that it is God, and follow faithfully.
Watch out. There’s no repressing the Igbo man forever. Not with his ability and capacity to pray.
Obasanjo and godliness in politics
By IMIKAN ATTAH
I
t came as the surprise of the year for me to hear the statement credited to Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, three times President of Nigeria, that “politics is not for the ungodly.” For any student of logic, you are taught a system of reasoning called Deductive Reasoning. Logical conclusions are drawn based on certain premises.
Taking the statement- Politics is not for the ungodly- it is ‘politically correct’ to subject it to rigorous logical imperatives:
Premise 1: Politics is not for the ungodly
Premise 2: Obasanjo is a politician
Therefore: Obasanjo is godly.
The substance of this conclusion, will also be subjected to some examination; not at all rigorous but dispassionate, to determine the mystery of godliness! Indeed, Obasanjo’s words and actions are measurable, and worthy of close examination.
Last month, Obasanjo, on a trip to the UK, told a gathering that Dr. Goodluck Jonathan had previously repeatedly told him that he (Jonathan) would only spend one term in office, and that in view of current denials, that the “most important thing in life” was for one to be a man of one’s words.
He then waited long enough for Jonathan’s reaction; and when the silence became deafening, he shot back with –politics is not for the ungodly.
Politics is not for the likes of Dr Jonathan.
Obasanjo had one term as President, after which his securing his 2nd term ticket as allowed by the constitution became uncertain. The apostle of do-or-die politics then staged and arranged the marking of ballot papers, such that the Open Secret aspect of the primaries became a mockery; a rape on democracy. He marked out those who voted against him!
During campaigning then, the EFCC repeatedly sent him incriminating evidence of criminal activities of one of his Governors. These, Obasanjo waved aside because this Governor promised and delivered 100% delegate votes in the above-mentioned presidential primaries.
He even gave the Governor the all-clear to contest for a 2nd term (mercifully, at the end of his tenure, the said Governor was later tried in a British court and is now serving 14 years for the same offence previously covered up! Did this, in Caeser, seem honorable?
Next, Obasanjo embarked on the path of tinkering with the constitution, for the critical national issue of getting himself a 3rd term in office. When asked if he was indeed making overtures for a 3rd term, he replied that even his chickens were expecting him back at his farm after his 2nd term.
But it was not until the legislature quashed all his surreptitious 3rd term moves that he reluctantly left office.
Was that godly?
It is amazing that the same person is now holding a gun to Dr Jonathan’s head to spend just one term in office. I happened to have served as one of the masters of ceremony during the presidential visit (by Obasanjo) to Bayelsa with Dr Jonathan, then Governor, as host. At several of the events, Obasanjo had described Dr Jonathan as a godly, God fearing man.
Suddenly, curiously just before Dr Jonathan’s anticipated declaration to contest a 2nd term, he has become a man whose words are not to be trusted. An ungodly man!
Again, in Obasanjo’s curious open letter to Dr Jonathan, he had harped extensively on the security situation in the North East, and had alluded to how the Federal Government was not acting. But the same condemnable, murderous actions of the Boko Haram in the North are what Obasanjo himself unleashed on the people of the Niger Delta when he was president. He sent a detachment of troops against whole communities of the Niger Delta, over problems of internal conflict. Whole communities were razed (Odi), and the few surviving women and children were repeatedly raped and abused in broad daylight by soldiers.
All of this is documented and was even presented before the Oputa Panel. That time, Obasanjo raised no alarm about the horrors, mayhem and insecurity that he had created. No open letters were sent out. But what is a fact is that there is no part of Nigeria that was spared his onslaught when he was President.
In Lagos, a state with a population then of over 12 million (the equivalent of three full countries) and few local governments on a tiny land mass; the then Governor decided to split the state into smaller local governments for more effective governance.
But simply because that Governor was in the opposition party, Obasanjo kicked against this brilliant administrative step, and harshly and illegally withheld all their funds from the federation account for years, right up until he left office. He put Lagos people under siege and starved the people, just to play his so-called godly politics.
While the naira plummeted and the cost of staple foods skyrocketed to highest recorded levels, and while the Boko Haram and militant groups were being formed and birthed under his watch, he spent a great deal of the nation`s resources and of his time ordering presidential jets on junkets around the world, chasing invisible foreign investors at astronomical cost.
Obasanjo went after the oil resources in Akwa Ibom with most unbridled avarice. He decreed that no offshore oil belonged to coastal states, but rather to him at the centre, and collected all the money from oil exports, which he put into a secret account only he and his cronies could access.
With all ruthlessness, he took Akwa Ibom to court for even daring to request for a tiny portion of these revenues; and even backdated and deducted all previous payments made to the state in order to starve the people and punish the governor for ever daring the GODLY President.
Every human index fell, every sector of socio-economic life collapsed under Obasanjo in his Joseph-like dreamland; and now he says politics is not for the ungodly. Indeed, he is right. Politics is not for the ungodly. That is why politics is not; and will never be evermore for Obasanjo.
•Chief Imikan Attah is a broadcaster, and former columnist with Daily Sun.
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Warri Wolves Football Club of Nigeria have booked a place in the next round of the CAF Confederations Cup after playing out a 1-1 draw at home to Cameroonian side Union Douala in Warri, Delta State.