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Lagos is Fifth Worst City to Live In – EIU
Contrary to all the hype that Lagos is being transformed into a world class city, a recent survey on global cities has shown that Lagos is the fifth worst city to live in the world.
In the annual survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit, Lagos was only surpassed by Harare (Zimbabwe), Dhaka (Bangladesh), Algiers (Algeria) and Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea) as greater hell holes on earth.
In the opposite end of the spectrum, Vancouver (Canada) for another successive year topped a list of the top ten most liveable cities in the world, giving the Canadian west coast city an extra boost as it opened the 2010 Winter Olympics yesterday.
Vancouver scored 98 percent on a combination of stability, health care, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure – a score unchanged from last year. The city has also topped the index since at least 2007.
In the 2010 ranking, there was little change in the top positions with Vienna, Melbourne and Toronto still taking the second, third and fourth positions and the top ten dominated by Canadian and Australian cities which took seven of the ten slots.
Johannesburg, which is hosting the soccer World Cup finals in June, came in 92nd place, the highest score in sub-Saharan Africa.
"Vancouver scores well across all categories in the survey and the on going Winter Games contribute to a strong score in the cultural and sporting events category," said Jon Copestake, editor of the report, in a statement.
"Johannesburg has had well-documented crime problems, but performs better in other categories, with the highest overall livability rating in sub-Saharan Africa."
The EIU survey ranked 140 cities on 30 factors such as healthcare, culture and environment, and education and personal safety, using research involving resident experts and its own analysts.
It said in a statement that these rankings were used by employers assigning hardship allowances as part of expatriate relocation packages.
New York was ranked 56th, two slots behind London which was at number 54, while Los Angeles ranked at number 47.
Zimbabwe's capital Harare scored the least, making it the list's worst city, with a rating of 37.5.
Following is a list of the top 10 most liveable cities as ranked by The Economist: 1. Vancouver, Canada, 2. Vie-nna, Austria, 3. Melbourne, Australia, 4. Toronto, Canada, 5. Calgary, Canada, 6. Hel-sinki, Finland, 7. Sydney, Australia, 8. Perth, Australia, 9. Adelaide, Australia, 10. Auckland, New Zealand.
The bottom 10 cities were: 1. Harare, Zimbabwe, 2. Dhaka, Bangladesh, 3. Algiers, Algeria, 4. Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, 5. Lagos, Nigeria, 6. Karachi, Pakistan, 7. Douala, Cameroon, 8. Kathmandu, Nepal, 9. Colombo, Sri Lanka, 10. Dakar, Senegal.
Source: This Day, 13th Feb 2010
Rebuilding Nigeria's Dangerous
International Perception
By Luke Onyekakeyah
THE aborted airplane-bombing incident over Detroit in the United States on December 25, 2009 by the Nigerian-born Farouk Abdulmutallab and the subsequent listing of Nigeria in the U.S. terror watch list has shocked the entire country to the marrow. This is because among the real or imagined ills that the country is associated with, not in the wildest imagination of anybody in Nigeria would it be thought that a Nigerian would go to the extent of getting involved in suicide bombing of an airplane. The incident has confounded everybody. It gives credence to the philosophical dictum that nothing is absolute. Nothing is so certain that no reasonable mind can doubt it. The heart of man is unpredictable and you can't fathom it.
The incident has devastated the traveling Nigerian population. Nigerians at home and in the Diaspora have strongly condemned the misguided action of Abdulmutallab. The incident has changed the thinking and perception of Nigeria and Nigerians for the worse. The already battered image of Nigeria has been given a fatal blow. Nigerians being business minded and migratory by nature are not finding the development funny. The consequences of the incident on struggling innocent Nigerians are most regrettable.
But while Nigeria laments her inclusion in the terror watch list countries, it is also good to understand why America reacted the way she did. The security of America is a top priority in government. "The President's highest priority is to keep the American people safe. The President is committed to securing the homeland against 21st century threats by preventing terrorist attacks and other threats against our homeland, preparing and planning for emergencies, and investing in strong response and recovery capabilities". These are part of the guiding principles of the U.S. homeland security on which America based her action.
Consequently, the U.S. goes to any length to ensure that her security or that of her nationals anywhere in the world is not compromised. The life of an American is sacred to America. That is why the U.S. government takes all necessary precautionary measures to secure the life of her citizens all over the world. And for a terrorist of any nationality to attempt to cause mass destruction of American lives on American soil, that would be the height of insult that America wouldn't tolerate. Thus, we should thank God that the Abdulmutallab attack was foiled otherwise we don't know how America would have reacted. If the U.S. could blacklist Nigeria that has no single history of international terrorism, certainly, a more severe consequence would have befallen Nigeria if the attack had succeeded.
Before now, many Nigerians have been subjected to the most inhuman screening at airports around the world over drug suspicion. By adding terrorism tag to an already bad situation, Nigerians have become endangered species by the sins of a few disgruntled elements. That is most regrettable. But while Nigerians have been dehumanised all over the world, the Nigerian authorities have done little to ensure the security of Nigerians.
Unlike in America, the life of Nigerians has no value. That is why government shows little concern. The Nigerian system doesn't care for the welfare and security of Nigerians. If you don't care for yourself, how would you expect other people to care for you? The other day, there were news stories of corpses of Nigerians abandoned in China, which the Chinese were threatening to cremate. If Adulmutallab were an American citizen, the U.S. won't disown him but would call for his fair trial. America would ensure that justice is done. But since the young man is a Nigerian, the Nigerian authorities wish he were not Nigerian. They wish he were never born in Nigeria. Nobody in government has asked that he should be given fair trial. That is not how a government deals with issues concerning her citizen's welfare. Nigeria must rebuild herself before she could get proper handshake in the comity of nations.
These things don't just happen without reasons. There is no smoke without a fire. The point I'm making is that Nigeria has become weak and vulnerable that she could be visited with all manners of undesirable actions by strong nations. And as you can see, there is hardly any power in Nigeria at the moment that is capable of engaging the United States over this matter. Nigeria at the moment has no leader. President Yar'Adua is sick in Saudi Arabia and the political institutions in the country don't consider it dangerous to leave the country for one day without a leader. Consequently, Nigeria is exposed to danger. Anything could happen as we have seen from the American action. There is power vacuum. Who would decide on the appropriate Nigeria's response to a very critical issue such as being branded a terrorist nation?
Nigerians and their government functionaries think that a foreign-based brainwashed young man does not justify it for the U.S. to blacklist Nigeria on the basis of one off incident. But that argument is only looking at the effect without evaluating the cause. The pertinent questions are why did the U.S. take such a drastic action on Nigeria being fully aware that the young man in question was made outside the shores of this country? Some have questioned why America didn't blacklist Britain in 2001 after the self-confessed terrorist shoe bomber, Richard Reid attempted to destroy a U.S. passenger aircraft. But can we compare Britain with Nigeria in any ramification? Does Nigeria have strong institutions like Britain? What data of Nigerians citizens at home an abroad does Nigeria have? Richard Reid and Abdultallab may have committed similar offense but the consequence on their countries is different because the two countries are incomparable.
Thus, when burning issues such as the inclusion of Nigeria in the list of "countries of interest" by the United States arises, it is normal to hear all manners of public reactions many of which mince no word in condemning the American action as unjustified, harsh and undeserved punishment for millions of innocent Nigerians. This is what has happened since Monday, January 4, 2010, when the news broke that following the aborted Christmas Day attempt by a lone Nigerian national, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, to blow up a Delta Airline commercial jetliner with 273 passengers and 11 crew members on over Detroit, Michigan, the American authorities included Nigeria in the "terror watch list". The Nigerian authorities reacted sharply and vehemently condemned the blacklisting of Nigeria.
Consequently, all air passengers with Nigerian passport entering the United States would be subjected to more rigorous security screening at airports around the world. That is an extra burden for weary innocent Nigerians who are already subjected to strenuous body screening around the world for drug. Nigeria had earlier made the list of drug trafficking countries, which exposed her nationals to ridicule.
Nigeria has been included in the infamous list along with countries such as Somalia, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, Algeria, Zimbabwe, among others. Protracted civil strife, weak social and political structures, poor governance and consequently traumatised citizenry have characterised most of the countries in the list. That is where Nigeria has found herself. Some of the countries in the list are perceived as failed states. A failed state according to the Crisis States Research Centre of the United States is "a state that can no longer perform its basic security and development functions and has no effective control over its territory and borders".
The Foreign Policy magazine published a list of failed states index (FSI), which since 2006 put Nigeria in the highest red alert classification with FSI of 90 or more. That indicates high vulnerability to collapse. Most countries in sub-Saharan Africa are in this category. Besides, according to the 2009 United Nation's Development Programme (UNDP) human development index, Nigeria scored appalling 0.511 and was ranked 158th out of 182 countries! From that ranking, Nigeria is at the bottom of human development and only managed to scale above countries like Togo, Malawi and Niger. These are among the poorest countries in the world but that is where Nigeria now belongs.
The evidence is on ground all over Nigeria that the indicators released by the various competent international organisations were not mere fabrications. The deplorable state of affairs in Nigeria is the reason behind the treatment meted to the country. What is needed in the country is a genuine and deliberate determination by the government to change the fortunes of this country. This is what is needed to change the dangerous international perception of Nigeria.
As for the problem at hand, emotions will not solve the problem but rugged diplomatic engagement will do. The US reviews the terror list every now and then. Nigeria can be removed at any time because the list is dynamic. Nigerian authorities should focus more on what to do get the country out of the list. Nigeria should engage America diplomatically with convincing argument. Once America is satisfied that Nigeria is determined to counter terrorism, she would reconsider Nigeria's inclusion. That is the way to go.
Source: The Guardian, 12th January 2010.
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Yar'Adua and the ghost of Biafra
14th January 2010
By Ogaga Ifowodo
NOW that President Yar'Adua has assured the nation, appropriately through the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) - to hell with NTA, FRCN, AIT, Channels, or any Nigerian news medium - that he is neither brain dead nor dead in any way, perhaps we can return to the central question posed by his unilateral revocation of the constitution. In all good faith, let us assume that the voice that spoke to the BBC was Yar'Adua's and leave alone for now the question of the patriotic fervour, in a time of turmoil, that dictated the choice of medium for squelching speculations about his true state of health.
A unilateral revocation, I say, because a constitution which a self-styled rule of law president cannot bring himself to respect is as good as non-existent, as under a military dictatorship. But right from Absence Day One, it ought to have been clear that whether the president was "sound and fit" or "brain dead" was of secondary significance in the light of the constitutional dilemma unleashed by his forced absence.
"At the moment I am undergoing treatment, and I'm getting better from the treatment," Yar'Adua allegedly told the BBC. "I hope that very soon there will be tremendous progress, which will allow me to get back home." Then he added, quite thoughtfully, "I wish, at this stage, to thank all Nigerians for their prayers for my good health, and for their prayers for the nation." At this stage! Meaning the 50-day mark of his leaving the country rudderless and on the brink of disaster! And it took the threat of street protests combined with rumours of his death for Yar'Adua to break his stony silence. But then not a word about the anxiety, chaos and looming instability he left behind. Yet if he could speak at all, then surely he could also make known his wish on the matter of honouring the constitution so Vice President Jonathan can act pending his return. Alas, not a moment's thought on the burning question; only a self-serving assurance that he is alive and hopes to return soon. In the interim? Oh, Nigeria can hurry on to the precipice and take the plunge. Better to be president over the rubble and the ashes than miss a day of being "executive president and commander-in-chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria!"
Apparently, Yar'Adua has every confidence in his Attorney-General's notion that he can govern the country from anywhere on the planet, so any talk of a power vacuum must seem to him the figment of the nation's and the world's imagination. But if, for the sake of argument, it is true that the president of a sovereign nation can or ought to govern in absentia, never mind if from the sick bed of a foreign hospital, it ought also to be the case that he be able to govern at the very least. Which requires that he possess a sound mind in a sound body, a condition that even Yar'Adua's alleged phone call to the BBC proves he cannot meet while "undergoing treatment." In my view, were he to return this very day the mortal damage he has done to the social health of the nation would still be incalculable. In short, Yar'Adua's precedent-setting affront to the constitution poses a clear and present danger to the tottering edifice called Nigeria.
This may sound alarmist to the incurable optimists, who more likely than not are just opportunists and inveterate deceivers, but the decision by Yar'Adua and his circle of self-always-and-nation-never handlers to scorn the constitution is capable of igniting a national calamity comparable only to the Biafran tragedy of 1967-70. Look carefully at the events that led to the total loss of faith in the Nigeria project by the Igbos and you wouldn't need the oracle to discern the growing tremors caused by the crisis of legitimacy threatening state and nation at the moment. It is even literal: we have had no head of state for two months! We may have come to terms with government doing nothing to improve our lives. Indeed, to seeing government as the very cause of our troubles - from the price of yam or petrol to full-scale warfare misnamed elections. So that Yar'Adua's government-in-intensive-care may appear as a lesser evil. But in the framework of a nation, such thinking is fatal. Suppose for a moment that an opportunistic enemy foreign, seeing the glaring power vacuum, were to attack the country, how would we fare with an invalid commander-in-chief an ocean away from the troops he should lead in self-defence?
To dismiss this claim, we can take the myopic view buoyed by the hope of a quick rectification of the illegalities, crimes and sleights-of-hand committed in the president's absence whenever constitutional order is restored, whatever the short term costs may be. But how might we begin to restore faith in a deeply alienated, factionalised and bitter populace in the wake of this needless act of political vandalism? The rumour mill has been rife with speculations on the real reason why Yar'Adua refuses to take the simple obligatory step of handing over the government to the vice president.
The Northern power oligarchy, it is speculated, will not let go of power, even for a day, let alone to a minority, and worse, a Niger Deltan. And there is ample ground for this reasoning. Would the nation have been subjected to this ordeal and shame were the vice president of a suitable ethnicity? For instance, would Yar'Adua have so obdurately declined to hand over power to a Yoruba deputy in the face of his incontrovertible incapacitation? Perhaps not to an Igbo deputy, the Igbos being an honourary majority as the power clique continues to exact war retribution from them over Biafra. But could a Yoruba president have conceived that dare with a Hausa-Fulani vice president? At what cost?
Matters, of course, may be more complicated than this, as is often the case in all questions political. But Yar'Adua's determination, even "at this stage," to spit on the constitution reeks of the divine right to governance that the Northern power oligarchy has publicly boasted. No less an oligarch than Alhaji Yussuf Maitama Sule articulated God's allocation of national talent thus: to the Hausa-Fulani, leadership; to the Yoruba, diplomatic skills; and to the Igbo - of course, commerce! As for the minorities? Well, they do not exist, not even those from under whose feet the oil is drawn that made it possible for Maitama Sule to gain the prominence and perch for his gratuitous insult. And if they do not exist, how can you hand over power to one of them, to a "ghost?"
And herein the troubling portent. If such a clear-cut path to mere temporary leadership of the country by a Niger Delta minority cannot be countenanced by the Northern oligarchy, then the message is unmistakable: the Niger Delta exists only for the purpose of being internally colonised, expropriated and brutally subjugated. And this bitter truth destroys, absolutely, the spectre of trust in Yar'Adua's or any unpopular government's efforts to find a peaceful solution to the crisis festering there. Yet if that crisis lies at the heart of the National Question itself, then the North's insufferable will-to-power lately demonstrated stands as the greatest threat since the civil war to Nigeria's continued corporate existence.
Already, some allegedly disarmed militants have made their stance on the matter known and echoes of renewed sabotage have been heard again in the creeks. Predicting the Biafran war that claimed him, Christopher Okigbo, warned: "The death sentence lies in ambush along the corridors of power." Whether those corridors be still the hallways of Aso Rock or now of a Saudi Arabian hospital, it seems the ghost of Biafra currently haunts them. We must all rise now to banish that ghost. Before it is too late.
Ifowodo lives in the United States
© Ogaga Ifowodo: Yar'Adua and the Ghost of Biafra
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Harvest of ideas from Achebe for Ndigbo
From January 19 to 22 in Owerri the Imo State capital, the cream of Igbo intellectuals gathered to hold the First World Conference on Igbo Civilisation in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the classic Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. The theme of the conference was Igbo Civilisation and Things Fall
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Apart. And on January 23, 2009, Achebe presented the 24th Ahiajoku lecture, with the theme 'Igbo intellectualism and Development.' Below are Achebe's thoughts on the conference.
NDI IGBO have immense manpower resources, and have the human capital to solve their local problems. Since the struggle against colonial rule from Great Britain, Ndi Igbo have contributed substantially to the development and progress of Nigeria. The adventurous spirit of Ndi Igbo has led to the export of this precious human capital. Since the civil war, Ndi Igbo have continued this export around the world - England, America, Canada, Asia, and Europe. There are many talented at home and abroad. Ndi Igbo should not allow the civil war to depress indefinitely their spirit and should galvanise their myriad talents to develop Ani Igbo and Nigeria. They have achieved this lofty goal in the past and they can do it again.
Other groups that share similar histories have risen above their predicament. Ndi Igbo, indeed Nigerians, need look no further than to Barrack Obama's success in America for inspiration. We can borrow a leaf or two from this collective history.
As aforementioned, Ndi Igbo have immense human resources. This conference no doubt is creditably handling the day-to-day decisions concerning Ndi Igbo. I will not touch on those issues. However, let me add to a few issues that are dear to my heart concerning Ndi Igbo in particular, and Nigeria in general today in seeking the way forward:
Importance of good governance in the South East
Ndi Igbo should hold their leaders accountable. The people must demand transparency and accountability in government. The people should insist on clear plans from the leadership concerning development, timelines etc. Ndi Igbo should organise pressure groups and insist that budgetary allocations to local governments and state governments continue to be published every month, as has been the practice in the recent past. If government refuses, Igbo institutions should seek out and publish such allocations. Igbo society is one of the most democratic in the nation, we should take a leadership role in preserving the tenets of our burgeoning democracy
Job creation
As the significance of oil decreases globally, Ndi Igbo must diversify our economy and create jobs that are not based on the oil sector. The greatest importers of oil and oil products such as America and Europe are working feverishly to decrease their dependence on imported oil from countries like Nigeria. Nigeria and Ndi Igbo have no choice but to see the clear writing on the wall concerning the future of fossil fuels. Ndi Igbo celebrate great farmers. They give titles like di-ji to them. Today, we seem to have settled for a diminished status for farming.
Importance of education
Ndi Igbo should invest in education again as they did in the past and make education relevant to our youth. Our young men are not attending secondary and post-secondary schools. If this development persists, it may cause a deep chasm in the intellectual and creative/innovative capability of Ndi Igbo. We must make education relevant to our youth.
Professional instruction can be brought to the traders in the market; establish night schools for traders who work in the markets during the day. Let us encourage young traders to pursue business degrees, MBA etc. I suggest that the government should provide teachers for this purpose and invest in professional teacher education.
Urban and rural development
Ndi Igbo should recognise what is good for their citizenry like: tarred roads and walkways.
There is a total collapse, indeed absence of a good health care sector. The citizenry is burdened by one of the worst health care systems in the world. Infant mortality rates and other indices of societal wellness are some of the worst in the world. Why, I ask is there not a single world-class hospital in all of Igboland comparable to the best hospitals in Europe and America? The one and only reason I remain abroad is the absence of world-class health facilities in Ani Igbo. Waste disposal and environmental sanitation are critical for the health and wellness of Ndi Igbo. Private and public sector funders should establish green waste disposal facilities; and reinstate sanitary inspection.
Abrogation of Osu caste system
Ndi Igbo are strongly encouraged to abandon practices that dehumanise their citizenry such as Osu/Oru system. This will require a deep introspective process and should be addressed at this conference decisively.
Improve the status of women in our society
Ndi Igbo should, as a matter of great urgency, work towards the removal of impediments in the status of women in our society. Several studies have clearly indicated that when women are well educated, the entire society benefits positively in overall standard of living. The dehumanisation of our women through acts such as wife beating, funeral rites that take away the dignity of our mothers, wives, sisters and daughters must be abolished.
Mammon worship
The enterprising spirit of Ndi Igbo has led to great success in merchant professions and the acquisition of wealth, often very great riches, among a certain segment of our people. However, there is an ugly under belly of this great success. An endemic obsession for materialistic accumulation has taken a hold of Igboland and has the dire possibility of eroding, permanently, the moral and intellectual capability of an entire society.
Civilisations that have been obsessed with money and materialistic accumulation alone have all failed. We need to emphasise the importance of ideas and education, not simply for job attainment, but for the overall improvement and advancement of our civilisation.
Religious fanaticism and ethnic intolerance
One of the banes of our young republic is the erratic eruption of religious based murders. There has been a complete failure on the part of the successive governments to curtail religious extremism in Nigeria. Having said that, Ndi Igbo should encourage amongst us the virtues of humility, tolerance and temper our natural zest for life often interpreted as Igbo aggressiveness. We are in the project called Nigeria, for us to be successful we have to work towards living well with our neighbours.
Source: The Guardian, 27th January 2009.
Biafra Radio, London...
'Our Response To Injustice Against Igbo At Home'
If any country is set up to destroy your way of life, you take the exit. The Yoruba are very proud race culturally. If there is a system that will decimate their lifestyle, they will not tolerate it. That is why there is the OPC in order to safeguard the Yoruba cultural and political interest. Arewa is doing that.
I'm a Republican by nature; I don't bow down before anybody. Because of Nigeria, in Igbo land in every kilometre there is a king. It's an abomination; the Igbo do not have kings. We only recognise one king and that is God (Chukwu). That way of life has been destroyed because you want all of us to conform to Nigeria. We never had kings before.
When the duo of Nnamdi Kanu, director and Dr. Chukwuma Egemba, presenter of Radio Biafra, London, broadcasting on frequency 1205khz (short wave) came visiting recently, they exuded their strong passion for the enthronement of Liberty, justice and the re-establishment of Igbo core values for which Biafra stands. In this interview with Anote Ajeluorou, they reveal their vision for a better Nigeria, where injustice and under-development will stop thriving. Excerpts:
You operate a radio station in London. What is it about?
There is a radio station called Radio Biafra, London. It broadcasts for an hour between 8 & 9 pm. It was established roughly nine months ago. We try to bring a degree of enlightenment and education in terms of politics, economics and social arrangement for the people of Biafra and the entire world.
And, who are the people of Biafra?
They are those from Idoma - most people don't know that; the Igbo, the Anioma or people we call Delta Igbo; the Ikwerre, and the Ibobio.
Seems an arguable proposition grouping the Idoma and Ibibio as part of Biafra. Surely, you don't mean it yourself, do you?
There is one unique thing that runs through these people I mentioned to you. They share the same ancestral heritage. They all claim to have descended from the Jews - from the Idoma all the way to the Ibibio. And, if I may remind all of us, the word Ibibio means 'little' Igbo; not little in a small sense but as in greater like Igbo-uku or Igbo-nta.
The people we have today in Calabar actually migrated from Umuahia. Rather than go into a complex debate, if we do genetic profiling of the Igbo, the Idoma, the Ibibio and the Ikwerre, we will see that they are from the same family. That is what we are doing in Radio Biafra, to say that they are from the same family.
And you broadcast from London. Are you being received here in Nigeria?
Our reception goes all the way to the entire continent of Africa and to people in Brazil, Australia, Finland much like Duetschwelle or the BBC.
The word Biafra connotes breakaway or secession in Nigeria and not very favourable. Why use that name?
It's a name that has existed for thousands of years. You cannot wipe it away. You cannot go to the north and tell them to do away with the name Arewa or to the Yoruba and tell them to do away with Oduduwa. The fact that the name was used to declare the sovereignty of a people does not make it bad. I do not see why there is this constant demonization of the word Biafra when the name has existed for thousands of years before the word Nigeria came into being.
I have nothing against Arewa; I have nothing against Odudwa; they are wonderful names for great people the same way that Biafra is there to give us that over-arching identity for all the Igbo, who are in the eastern part of Nigeria.
Does Biafra Radio have anything to do with Uwazurike's MASSOB agitating for the sovereign state of Biafra? What exactly do you aim to achieve with Radio Biafra?
The truth is that what we are pursuing is justice and emancipation of a people. We are of the viewpoint that the way Nigeria as a country is put together is fundamentally flawed. Flawed in the sense that before you can bring people together, they must have a shared or collective identity of some sort. In other words their value system must be the same. The value system of the Igbo of Biafra is inherently distinct and different from the value system of the major constituent parts of Nigeria.
Nigeria is an artificial creation. I'm not saying that the people of Nigeria cannot come together and try to fashion a way out of the present malaise.
The people who call themselves Biafra, the people who identify themselves as Biafra, are people who have a very distinct, a very different way of existence from all the people around them. And, it is the preservation of this very unique way of life that we are campaigning for; nothing more nothing less.
In Nigeria today, there is no 'live and let's live'. It's dog eat dog more or less. No sensible person will want to live in a country that is regressing year after year. When you talk like this, some say you're being excessively critical. So, what is the way forward? No one offers you any credible alternative. The only alternative left is for people to seek to determine how they are governed and how they will live with one another.
In other words, the current arrangement is not conducive to the Igbo man. Is that what you are saying?
Yes; to the entire Biafran family all the way from Idoma to the Bight of Biafra. These are people from the same family, if I must reiterate again. If you go to Idoma, you have eke, orie, afor and nkwo, the four market days you have in Igboland. If that's not an indication that these people are related, I don't know what is any more. You go to Ibibio and Efik, they have Obasi, which is God in heaven; people bear Obasi in Igbo in Abriba and some parts of Arochukwu.
But the irrational demonization of the word 'Biafra' is what I take exception to. When the Portuguese came here in 1425, they recognised the unique ways those who occupy east of the Niger do things. It was there in 1425; Nigeria was only created in 1914 out of political expedience.
Where I come from there is what we call trial by jury. When you have a problem with me you call the elders and people to come and give judgment. We replaced that with the Warrant Chief system that then metamorphosed into the Magistrate system that we have now. In other words, if you and I have a problem, we go to one individual rather than go to the entire people to determine who is guilty or who is innocent.
And, do you know what becomes of the system? It is prune to corruption. The legal system we had in Biafra is infinitely superior to what we have today. And then, there was no miscarriage of justice. Then all men were equal before God and the law; then, there was no king. People knew that sanctions and consequences were immediate. If you go against what we called the gods of the land, a way of talking about the collective consciousness of the people, and repercussion is immediate.
The reason why some of us left this country is because we could not understand why things operate they way they do here. There is something fundamentally wrong. Why can't knowledgeable people be mobilised to do the most mundane of things that are bringing development to other countries of the world less endowed? There are rock and bitumen all over parts of Yoruba land yet we cannot build roads. There is no planned city in Nigeria; Abuja has no drainage system but the Roman Empire had drainage thousands of years ago.
We regressed from drinking tap water to pure water and God knows what else; people are dying of typhoid fever every day.
But how would the Biafran nation address these issues you're raising without suffering some sort of hangover from Nigeria?
In Biafra I can hold an Igbo man to account. I can hold a fellow Biafran to account. In Nigeria if I hold somebody, say Hausa man, to account, they will say it's because you're an Igbo man. If a Yoruba man holds an Igbo man to account, they will say it's because he's an Igbo man, when your own brother was there, what did you do?
Criticism is not allowed. In any country where criticism is not allowed, where critical appraisal of performance is not tolerated, this is the type of quagmire you get. We have Igbo groups and associations; you cannot steal from the association's common fund but you can steal from Abuja, and nothing happens.
But you can go to Abia, your state, and demand accountability from the governor, can't you?
No; because you cannot divorce Abia State from what is happening in the country. Abia is a core component of what is called Nigeria; and because Nigeria is rotten at the core, you cannot do that.
Do you have any relationship with Uwazurike, leader of MASSOB?
Yes; I do have a relationship with him being that he is a very credible Igbo leader. And he is fighting for the struggle that is both for the Igbo and for the emancipation of Nigeria. Some day Nigerians will come to be very grateful for what Uwazurike has done because I'm sure that the Yoruba want to be free, Arewa wants to be free as well to go and practice Sharia law.
What Uwazurike is doing will give them that opportunity to be able to do what they want to do in their own way. I don't want to go to Katsina and say to them. Don't practice Sharia law! I want to go to Katsina and cover myself up if that's what it takes. If they come to Biafra, they will be able to do the same. That's all we are saying. There is no umbilical cord binding us together.
So, there is nothing wrong to be associated with Biafra; in fact, it's a great privilege to be Biafra.
What drives your passion for the cause of Biafra?
I hate hypocrisy and I love liberty. The difficulty we're having is lack of transparency. I didn't use the word 'freedom'. I want to be at liberty with myself to be able to be the best of my potential. In this country called Nigeria, people are not free; that is why some are abroad. People are not allowed to develop to their potential. Nuhu Ribadu is abroad because he said people should not steal. He came to deliver you from your bondage and you say, No! So, you are the problem. He has turned out to be the criminal.
I want the truth, and the truth is that what binds a country together is shared, common values. That's why you have California, New York; they believe in the Christian fundamental principle of liberty and freedom - those are the values on which America is founded. You cannot take a section of Afghanistan and put it in America and expect them to survive because they have their own way of how a society is structured.
America is founded on Western liberal ideals; the way the average, educated Igbo person sees the structure of a society is inherently different from how the Sultan of Sokoto sees it. I don't believe anybody is above the law; but the Sultan is above the law. You cannot take him to court, and you cannot jail him. But I want a country where everybody is equal before the law. That's why I find it difficult to understand the kind of Nigeria we're running.
In Biafra there will be equality of everybody before the law and liberty for everybody. Nigeria must be divided in order for it to get back together again.
And, let me take away their fears. The oil belongs to every Nigeria; so let them take away the oil if that's their problem. I can make more refining palm oil that refining crude oil. Malaysia is rich with our palm oil today; they have no crude oil.
How then do you intend to achieve the Biafran nation of your dream?
Through peaceful, democratic means; we will challenge every election called by Nigeria in any of the Biafra territories. And once a majority of the people vote for an independent Biafra, we will have it.
Is a referendum part of your vision for achieving Biafra?
Absolutely! A series of referendum will start it. One thing at a time, and it starts with the Anambra election. Anambra has a golden opportunity to deliver Africa and the rest of Nigeria. What we're pursuing is truth and justice. We have not come to make people in the north feel uncomfortable or to deny them access to the oil blocks. That's not what this is about. If possible we'll relocate the oil wells in Igbo land to the north but let them just give us our liberty, that's all we want.
How strong is the Biafran consciousness back home here? Do you think the people are ready in view of the last civil war?
The Igbo are more marginalised because they are denied the right to practice their political, economic and social way of life. You have forced them to conform to an alien system that is destroying them. People say that they are money-hungry, that they are greedy; but it's because they are operating within a system that does not recognise their core values as a people who are hardworking and strident in pursuit of any endeavour.
If any country is set up to destroy your way of life, you take the exit. The Yoruba are very proud race culturally. If there is a system that will decimate their lifestyle, they will not tolerate it. That is why there is the OPC in order to safeguard the Yoruba cultural and political interest. Arewa is doing that.
I'm a Republican by nature; I don't bow down before anybody. Because of Nigeria, in Igbo land in every kilometre there is a king. It's an abomination; the Igbo do not have kings. We only recognise one king and that is God (Chukwu). That way of life has been destroyed because you want all of us to conform to Nigeria. We never had kings before.
So, Nigeria has done more damage to the fabric of the Biafran people than any plague could have done in a hundred years. Nigeria never defeated Biafra in the civil war; the super powers of America, Britain and Russia ganged up to fight Biafra that was barely six months old. Biafra must have something very special that they are afraid of.
Source: The Guardian, 10th January 2010.
The Great State of Biafra Is Strong & Alive
It is appropriate to again recall and remind all and sundry that events that culminated into what later triggered the Nigeria/Biafra War (1967-1970) are ubiquitously staring us in the face today, more than any other time in human history. These prevailing elements that were bequeathed man by British-colonial infrastructures of 60s remain anti-freedom and liberty today. . In 2009, this blemished-estate is worse than what it was in post-colonial era. By January 15, 1970 the hostility that was mischievously declared on defenseless people of former Eastern-Region was deferred not ended. These facts are self-evident and widespread across the land. For example, there is massive lack of regulatory compliance at constitutionalism with diminished intellectual property, collapsing institutional governance, and more. Report-card—of what follows is criminal truisms.
Facts—destruction of Delta-Basin region is a manifestation of the aforementioned deferment at hostility against innocence lives. Ongoing confrontation between the freedom-fighters of Niger-Delta- Basin & Nigeria government is another phase of this aggression against our peoples that must be resisted by any means necessary. Some commentators and international observers say the situation and sufferings of indigenous population has gotten worse and increasingly strengthened with no light at the end of tunnel. One option and one-option only—Emancipation for her survival.
All civic democratization is emboldened at all level. Failings at technological advancements, failing at centralization of power at the center for centralization sake, lack of professionalism, failings at deployment of skilled human capital, in-competency, brain-drain, depleted moral-capital, discriminatory practices, massive marginalization and total destruction of whatever is left of civility and civilization is unheard of. Today this undeclared aggression against former East Central State, etc., speaks volume, hostility engineered by her enemies because of her petro-dollar is troubling. It is pertinent to demand total re-examination and re-assessment of forced co-existence of nations-states against the will of the people inside this euphemism called Nigeria-State.
There are claims at unfounded national recognizable national accomplishments 40 years later. These claims are "puzzlingly" unimpressive record at accomplishments that is not worth the paper it is written on. Others see these lies at reconciliation, reconstruction, and rehabilitation (3Rs), they proclaimed unprecedented in modern history, yet untrue. We must state that these criminal claims, are simply disingenuous, insulting, a window-dressing in the face of unprecedented corrosive corruption. After January 15, 1970 Biafra Soldiers were still being slaughtered in massive numbers with some 2.5 million or more sent to untimely graves under supervised institutional pogrom. We reject these lies and all characterization of magnanimity and warmth expressed in some quarters.
We must state that meshing murderous Arab-nationalism & expansionism with Judaism & Christianity as criminal, impermissible. An illegitimate project that is bound to fail flat on its face; an illogical fallacy called enterprise without or lacking legitimate institutional capacity for her sustainability and survival.
For records, Biafrans, death and the living believes—The Great State of Biafra Is Strong and Alive—was and will never defeated. We'll continue to seek our freedom away from "Lugard-Captivity" , because the idea Biafra is a better alternative for her nationals, better alternative away from neo-Arab-nationalis m & expansionism. Biafrans will not relinquish her quest for self-determination, self-rule with clear technical and logistical territorial borders expressed; until stronger and enduring nation-hood is come in this generation and for generations, yet unborn is actualized. Freedom and justice loving world's peoples support self-determination for our nationals & all nationals. This derivative will, evidently launch-back our technological and scientific ingenuity today delayed by Nigeria-State at all cost to her rebirth.
We will not compromise our existence and freedom for peanuts. It is relevant to state that there is serious urgency of now; and, we refuse to participate at governance and/or in government with establishments that continues to behead Igbo-nationals and other nationals at the turn of 21st century; at point-blank, an Igbo-national was beheaded in 2008 in Kaduna-State. Last time I checked an Oodua-national (female teacher) was murder because of some claims at Koran by Arab-fanatics. Extremism is Satanic and we stand against those that peddle it; we reject this evil-menace in all its ramifications and manifestations.
We believe all mankind have all the immunities, rights and privileges to worship who, where, when and what they may without marginalization, discrimination and coercions of any form or shape by any governmental or non-governmental agencies.
40 years later, it's still empty political rhetoric after another, while massive killings and disappearances go on unaddressed and unblemished.
Let there be no mistake, we understand the dangers and trials ahead will widen in thickness and scope, so will our demand for self-determination and freedom increase. We understand the difficulties and challenges that we face today, but make no mistake, we take courage and confidence of resilience of our people and confidence in our ideals—that this nation—Biafra— will never falter or blink at this final push for her freedom and existence.
It is important that we demand & express immediate relevance for National Sovereign Conference (NSC), we particularly take cognizance of the three (3) regional powers—Arewa- Nation, Igbo-Nation, Oodua-Nation, etc., and the need to convene NSC immediately. Pretentious continuity at One-Nigerianism while our populations perish is unacceptably criminal. We all know that majority of past and present military and civilian leaderships are compromised with their loots. We also acknowledge that co-existence of these three (3) nations-states and other nations-states inside British-Nigerian- State is a farce and unworkable as it stand. Copy-pasting pictorial documentations don't tell us anything new about these massive-looters, or corruption; this pictorialization seek publicity, but ignores and conceals deep rooted suspicion within and between rank-and-file of these regional-power- houses (Igbo, Hausa & Yoruba) inside British-Nigerian- Error. Federal Capital Territory—Abuja, criminally micro-managing our communities is counterproductive.
Total disintegration, or true-federalism or return to regionalism remains better option moving forward. J.J. Rawlings Revolution will fail in Nigeria—Great Son, Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzogwu & Crew exemplified it. Let Mohammed lead Mohammed and let Chika lead Chika, it is relevant that Dele lead Dele, etc. Anything else is counterproductive.
We must return to regionalism for there is no other clear, sincere and logical progressive alternative( s) except regionalism with its City-States. Military takeover that is dominated by Arab-nationalism cannot substitute privileged-interest s of other institutional nations-states inside British-Nigeria- Error. These Nations-States citizenry love their nations. And—there is an old saying—where your treasure is, is where your heart is.
Biafran-nationals love Biafran-State— we love and cherish the motherland, her Rising-Sun and all that it represents. QED! The sacrifices made by our ancestors both the living and the death will not be in vain.
At the end of the day, any Igbo-national, or Oodua-national and/or Arewa-national, et al, who portends Nigerian-Nationalis m, her elusive co-existence, exhibits such characterizations for selfish reasons not for Nigerian-nationalis m, exactly. Selfish individual ambitions at entity called British-Nigeria, seek individual pockets. Period! Group-cronyism and individual nationalism are intertwined. Said group-think hate true-federalism; in-so-far-as they loot and disparage her national treasuries. There is nothing greater or most exquisite than to be free.
The falsity at institutional- pulse called cease-fire of January 15, 1970 is reminiscent to broken promises at 3Rs, 40 years later. In summation, this generational oddity optimally invigorates clearly one standing Order—In Aburi-We-Stand!
Carlisle U.O. Umunnah
Is New York-Based Freelance Writer
Contact: ccu1_liberties@yahoo.com
All Copyrights Reserved………..@
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The Spraying of Money
The spraying of the Pound Sterling, Nigerian Pound, Dollar, Biafran Pound, and now the Naira, during Festivities, is a practice older than Nigeria itself, as an Independent nation.
Even in the United States, the same "defacing" of the Dollar goes on in such places as Go-Go dance clubs where women dance naked and are rewarded with notes attached at where the Patron wishes; River side Fish Markets where the Merchants rumple the Dollar anyhow; slaughter houses where people buy freshly slaughtered Cows for Meat purchases and, in turn pay the Merchants who accept monetary payments with cow blood-tainted palms - - "defacing" the same Dollar. Same effect at pay-day (in cash) construction sites, where the Laborers abuse the Dollar in several ways - - ranging from accepting, counting and recounting their pay with cement-coated palms before tying the same pay with several wands of rubber band and sometimes concealing same pay under their sweaty socks and even underwears. The same effect with Auto Mechanics with their greasy hands (makes you feel like not touching paper currencies any more, right?)
Knowing and accepting these abuses as inevitable in life, the US Minting houses routinely print replacement currency notes to keep the Dollar clean. That indeed is what the Nigerian Central
Bank should be doing, instead of asking the Mountain to go to Mohammed. By the way, why don't Yar'adua and Soludo order Nigerian Ranchers to have their Cows use the Loo before driving
them across Roads or down the same Roads to avoid same Cows passing their "manure" as they are walked. Asking Nigerians to quit the tradition of spraying the Naira, which will NEVER work,
is equivalent to asking Ranchers to "tame" their Herd in the manner so described.
While the CBN struggles to wake up - - hopefully soon- - from this wild, wild dream, let Nkwa and Owambe continue. However, let's keep the Streets open.
With due regards,
Collins Ezebuihe
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Is the Civil War Over?
OPINION
By Obi Nwakanma
LAST week in Lagos, at the auditorium of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, in an event organized by Aka-Ikenga, the association of the Igbo elite in Lagos, Governor Ikedi Ohakim of Imo State declared that the civil war was over.
Let me refresh the mind of those who may either have forgotten that a war was fought, or who may never know because they were not born, and the civil war is not taught in Nigerian history classes; that is if Nigeria has any programme of history at all in its schools: the Nigerian civil war also known as the Biafran war commenced on July 6, 1967 when Federal forces launched an attack on the Biafrans from Garkem and from Nsukka.
There were two countries. The old federation of Nigeria had passed away, foreclosed by two momentous and terrible events: the January 15, 1966 coup of the "Five Majors," led by Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna (some erroneously say by Nzeogwu) which had toppled the parliament and therefore, the government of Prime minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa.
The picture that emerged had one eerie significance: it seemed, by the lopsided pattern of executions, that this was an Igbo coup, since most of the officers who were at the epicentre of the coup were young Igbo officers in the Army.
And so indeed, there was legitimate anguish and even justified anger by the interests wounded in that coup, which saw it in their own terms as an Igbo coup to "dominate Nigeria," especially with the emergence of General JTU Ironsi as the supreme commander and first military head of state of Nigeria.
The talk of "Igbo domination" was nothing new even then. It was a talk that had began in the 1940s, when the Igbo began to fully and forcefully establish prominence and authority over national life, and were set to play a modernizing and central role in the new republic, when Independence came.
And the Igbo had some of the most prominent and vociferous leaders of the anti-colonial nationalist movement, so much so that in some archive of papers by some of British colonial servants, they referred to the Nationalist movement in their writings, quite remarkably as "the Igbo movement."
The fact was that the Nigerian narrative of heroic resistance up till 1960 was emblematized by that eponymous figure of the 20th century called Nnamdi Azikiwe - the Great Zik. Zikism was the message of political freedom, of economic determinism, of spiritual balance, of the autonomy that inspired the "can-do" spirit of enterprise and invention, and Nigerians heard Zik and listened for at least two generations, particularly through his chain of newspapers that "imagined" Nigeria as an organic nation for the first time. Nigeria was a nation of possibilities.
The great future lay in its great unity; its nationalist enterprise; a Nigerianess without borders; a Nigeria of great dreams and heroic possibilities; a Nigeria where we could build the refuge for the black man in the world, and a great power that would shield it from a long history of vulnerability.
It was a place to build - a new frontier. Many Nigerians listened to Zik, but the Igbo, his kinsmen listen even more closely, and set out, to build a modern nation.
They fanned out from the Igbo heartland, and set out to build a new nation in their own image - of individual freedom, a disdain for hierarchies of monarchical authority; a curiosity for novelty and knowledge; a love of ingenuity and invention; a desire to "catch up with the white man" and to establish a domain of prosperity; and of course a capacity for unnerving competitiveness.
They Igbo brought their great gifts and their great flaws into the mix of their new neighborhoods, and into their upsurge, created eternal rivalries and fears among those with whom they made contact, by this hunger for transcendence. The centrality of the Igbo presence in Nigeria, in both the private and the public spheres of national experience doomed them.
By the early 1960s, people like Ayo Rosiji in Western Nigeria were making the subject of "Igbo domination" a campaign issue. Indeed, the 1963 Hansard of the Northern House of Assembly reports the debate about the Igbo presence in the North, with Bashari Umaru, representing Birnin-Kudu saying "The solution to the (Igbo) problem is to take over all the houses belonging to the Ibos (sic) and revoke all their certificates of occupancy," to which the Northern minister for lands, Alhaji Ibrahim Musa Dagash responded, "Mr Chairman, Sir, I do not like to take much of the time of this House in making explanation.
But I would like to assure members that having heard their demands about Ibos holding land in northern Nigeria, my ministry will do all it can to see that the demands of members are met. How to do this, when to do this should not be disclosed now. In due course you will see what will happen."
This statement would prove ominous, and serves merely as a background, to what happened later, in what has been called the "retaliation coup" of July 1966, led by Gowon, Murtala Muhammed, Theophilus Danjuma and Martin Adamu.
They not only killed the head of state General Ironsi who was on an official visit to Ibadan, they killed his host Fajuyi; and began a systematic massacre of Igbo and Eastern Nigerian military officers in all the military formations. This was followed by a pogrom - the organized and systematic massacre of the Igbo across Nigeria, particularly in the north.
The Igbo fled Nigeria, went home, organized themselves hurriedly, and declared an independent state of Biafra, seceding, first to protect themselves, and secondly to establish the nation to which they would commit their talents and dream of creating "a great Black super power." Biafra was attacked, a painful civil war was fought for three years, in which Igbo land was devastated by warfare.
The war ended in 1970. But the Igbo have not survived the peace. The Igbo returned to Nigeria in 1970, committed themselves to rebuilding the nation, and to renewing the spirit of the land. But it was not long for them to find out that what was won was a fragile peace from Nigeria. Igbo land, and much of the former Eastern Nigeria was now war booty.
The oil was the issue. The very strategic attempts by the "winners" of the war, to appropriate the resources of the East, as their own pay check for fighting the war, has been the basis of corruption in Nigeria.
The alienation which the Igbo have suffered, particularly with deliberate policies that have closed them off in federal employment, education and professional opportunities; the gerrymandering of their population and votes; their group existence at the margins of nation since 1970 remains part of the effects of deliberate federal policies on the Igbo since the war.
The very policy to subdue Igbo energy and enterprise, so it does not rise and threaten Nigeria anymore is central to this policy. So Nigeria's postwar domestic economic and social policies have been mostly framed to reduce Igbo energy, and framed on a fear of Igbo resurgence.
Sam Ogbemudia gave the one example in his memoir, of how he tried to get the Gowon government to bring together the Igbo war scientists to form the backbone of Nigeria's post war industrial program in 1970. His colleagues in the council of state quickly shot this down.
The many deliberate discriminations against the Igbo have also meant that vital creative energy has been lost to the efforts to build Nigeria, and the Igbo really now, do not give a damn. So, it is remarkable that Ikedi Ohakim declared this week that the war is over.
Perhaps indeed, the war has ended. One cannot but note the irony of General Ike Nwachukwu who fought on the Nigerian side of the conflict, and Admiral Allison Madueke, who fought on the Biafran side, sitting side by side of Ohakim, while he made this statement. But there is a lot of Igbo skepticism to contend with. Many Igbo are saying, when did this war end?
We want it to end. But the signs are not there yet. Besides, the Igbo thought the war ended in 1970. But most Nigerians did not think so. If the war were over, perhaps, the discriminations would stop. The broken infrastructure in Igbo land would be rebuilt.
The structural containment of the Igbo would be lifted by the state. But then, an even greater civil war is raging now, and it is not with Nigeria. It's the internal civil war raging in Igbo land: the kidnappings, the high crime, the dismantling of communities. The aftershocks of the war. The war ends when the trauma is healed. Source: Vanguard, 18th May 2008.
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COMMUNIQUÉ - Conference of Ethnic Nationalities of Niger Delta
Author: Prof. Kimise Okoko
Tuesday, 30 December 2008 15:24
COMMUNIQUÉ
The meeting of the Steering Committee of the Conference of Ethnic Nationalities of Niger Delta (CENND) held today Wednesday, December 17, 2008 in Uzere, Delta State. The Apex body of the Conference deliberated extensively on the Report of the Technical Committee on the Niger Delta and some other issues of national importance and issued this Communiqué.
1. The Conference deeply regrets the loss of two outstanding and committed members in the persons of:
- Ukai (Sir) Fred Essien – Ibiobio Leader
- Chief Chris Ghomorai – Vice President, Ijaw National Congress (INC)
The two leaders died in the struggle to actualize the desires of the Ethnic Nationalities of the Niger Delta. Conference prays that their souls and those of all the departed rest in peace.
2. The Report submitted to Government by the Technical Committee on the Niger Delta failed to meet the aspiration of the Ethnic Nationalities of the Niger Delta.
3. It is manifestly clear that the final outcome has been programmed to become another ploy to ensure that business continues as usual and to encourage the perpetuation of social upheavals in the region such as bunkering, vandalisation of pipelines, etc. In such a situation, the region continues to remain poor, backward and insecure as has been the case since 1958.
4. It is to achieve the design that government was careful to nominate persons that would do its bidding with the usual expectation that the new set of Niger Deltans so negatively selected and manipulated and thereafter exposed to the criticism of our people would be further driven into the unfortunate situation of lackeys of government and enemies of their people. The forty-seven (47) members of the Technical Committee of which over thirty (30) are Niger Deltans selected have therefore been manipulated to produce a report that was intended to provoke the Ethnic Nationalities of the Niger Delta.
5. Our people however, have learnt from the Ogoni experience when the Ogoni four were set up against the Ogoni nine and in one fell swoop the leadership of Ogoni was decapitated. We will not fall for the trick. All we want to say to our fellow Niger Deltans who were invited in the past and are likely to be invited in future is that the yoke of colonialism cannot be lifted by begging those who always adopt the strategy of inviting selected persons amongst those they colonize to 'come and eat,' the cake baked in the Niger Delta.
6. As we are opposed to violence, we propose that the case of the Niger Delta must be understood by Niger Deltans and Nigeria and this can be done by courageously presenting our case so that no Niger Deltan should in future succumb to buy offs or the offer of "come and eat" by the internal colonizers.
7. It is however unfortunate that the forty-seven men and women of the Technical Committee over thirty of whom are from the Niger Delta, pretend not to know that the Ethnic Nationalities of the Niger Delta are not only struggling for development but also for basic rights such as the right to choose their own leaders as all civilized people around the world do and control of their resources, when they made themselves available for the unpatroitic assignment.
8. The Conference of Ethnic Nationalities of the Niger Delta [CENND] wishes to intimate our people that there is no distinction between neocolonialism and internal colonialism except that the former is controlled from the outside, such as Nigeria was until 1960 by the British, while the latter comes from within, which is the case at the moment.
9. Since 1958, notwithstanding various Commissions, Committees and Panels, the internal colonizers of the Niger Delta have maintained a policy whereby the Niger Delta would produce the wealth for the benefit of Nigeria except the Niger Delta. This is exploitation.
10. The various federal governments, military or civilian, have pursued the same colonizers' principles of divide and rule and CENND is aware that a lot of manpower and resources are spent to ensure that the Ethnic Nationalities of the Niger Delta do not unite. In the same vein, any effort that is seen as seeking to foster the unity of Niger Deltans is discouraged, targeted and destroyed.
11. Government, we are convinced, is in no doubt fully aware that the Conference of the Ethnic Nationalities of the Niger Delta [CENND] was at the fore front of the rejection of Gambari and the so-called Niger Delta Conference. It is therefore not surprising that in selecting members of the Technical Committee, Government ensured that no member identified with CENND was appointed for obvious reasons so that its original designs of shortchanging the Ethnic Nationalities of the Niger Delta would still be realized.
12. The Technical Report in many regards is in effect therefore, a setback for our people who after the Obasanjo ill-fated Conference resolved that nothing short of allowing them to control their resources and in turn pay appropriate taxes to the Federal Government will assuage their desire.
13. This is the situation which Niger Delta past heroes including Isaac Boro, Ken Saro Wiwa Alfred Rewane and many others tried to promote but ended up by paying the supreme price. It is this position that our youths retired into trenches to demand and after a lot of blood was spilled and other harrowing and dehumanizing methods were employed the internal colonizers could not break their will. It is regrettable that a Committee of persons who are all from the south could therefore allow themselves to be manipulated into a situation whereby they could, as individuals, work against the interest of their people and Nigeria.
14. The Conference of Ethnic Nationalities of the Niger Delta is convinced that the Federal Government is not sincere with our people as is clearly demonstrated by the provision for the Niger Delta in the 2009 Budget before the National Assembly. The sum of Eighty Billion (80 billion) Naira is voted for both the proposed Ministry of the Niger Delta and NDDC.
15. We recall that the Federal Government voted the same amount in this year's (2008) budget for NDDC alone. In effect, nothing has changed except the concomitant waste that would arise in running the two separate agencies and consequential reduction in the actual funds that would accrue to the region.
16. It is also instructive to recall and note that the sum of N400 billion was voted for security alone for the Niger Delta in this year's budget while no provision for this purpose is made for the 2009 budget. It is our belief that the security vote or a substantial part of it should at least have been added to the allocation for the Niger Delta.
17. We discover with a lot of regret that the Technical Committee on the Niger Delta only concerned itself with economic concerns of the Niger Delta albeit dishonestly and displayed an abysmal lack of courage to deal with political issues that leave the region in the sorry state it unfortunately finds itself. We consider this as deliberate and consequently a betrayal of trust by our people in the Technical Committee.
18. CENND further strongly rejects any attempt to redefine the content and nature of our region (Niger Delta Region) and affirm that the Niger Delta for us are the six states of Edo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Cross River. The nine states now being craftily designated the Niger Delta therefore do not belong to the terrain of Ethnic Nationalities of the Niger Delta. In this regard, Government intervention agencies like the defunct OMPADEC and the NDDC cannot in any way be taken to represent the Niger Delta region which the Conference of Ethnic Nationalities of the Niger Delta represents.
19. All the Ethnic Nationalities of the Niger Delta demanded the minimum of 50% derivation in the first instance and full control of their resources thereafter by the people who own the wealth. It amounts to a disservice to our people therefore for the Technical Committee on its own to recommend 25% and offer such excuses as would annoy any true patriot of the Niger Delta.
20. We note amongst other factors that the Technical Committee deliberately avoided specific dates for the Federal Government to implement the increase in allocation to the Niger Delta in their so-called COMPACT and instead preferred the non-committal use of "progressive" increase. The Technical Committee also failed to correctly identify the status of existing agencies as demonstrated on page 79 of the report.
21. In the circumstance, the Conference of Ethnic Nationalities of the Niger Delta [CENND] states therefore that:
a. persons, men and women including religious and traditional leaders of the Ethnic Nationalities of the Niger Delta must realize that the destiny of the Niger Delta is in their hands, and this cannot be realized when they create favourable atmosphere for internal colonialism in the region;
b. its demand for a National Conference or the establishment of a Constituent Assembly for the purpose of writing a new Constitution is inevitable because the National Assembly Committee established to review the 1999 Constitution, and the Electoral Reform Committee are mere designs to reduce pressure on government because government knows fully well that the National Assembly cannot review the Constitution which effort started in 1999. The pressure however subsists and would progressively get worse as these ploys only succeed in postponing the evil day.
PREAMBLE
The Ethnic Nationalities of the Niger Delta under the aegis of the Conference of the Ethnic Nationalities of the Niger Delta [CENND] in agreement with a vast majority of other Nigerians agree that the 1999 Constitution cannot be amended because it was not derived from the people as it was foisted on them by the military. They also agreed that the National Assembly does not have the constitutional power to review the Constitution as it is presently, as only a Constituent Assembly of all Ethnic Nationalities where the Ethnic Nationalities themselves nominate their representatives can prepare a new Constitution.
22. We find it most pertinent with the prevailing situation to restate our position as contained in our Position Paper that was submitted to the Presidency, National Assembly, state Governors of the Niger Delta and the Technical Committee on the Niger Delta which include the following:
The Ethnic Nationalities of the Niger Delta therefore in realisation of the need to aggregate their common desires held a series of meetings and after diverse consultations among them, agreed on a common position as follows:
(1) Support for continued existence of Nigeria as a country but one that is fair, just and stable.
(2) Nigeria to be a Federal Union.
(3) The Ethnic Nationalities to be the Federating Units where any member of contiguous Ethnic Nationalities can merge to form such federating units if they so desire.
(4) Each of the federating units to devise and operate its constitution in addition to the Union Constitution.
(5) The Union Government to be broad-based to reflect the diversity of the federating units
(6) The Union shall have a Legislature i.e. a House of States with each federating unit sending an equal number of representatives to the House.
(7) The country shall operate a parliamentary system of government to avoid among others the excessive cost implications of the Presidential System.
(8) There shall be a Union Supreme Court side by side with the Supreme Courts of the Federating units with the latter organised to reflect the peculiarities of the respective Federating units.
(9) The political system shall make provisions for multi-party system and Independent Candidacy.
(10) The Federating Electoral bodies are to conduct all elections within their Units. The Union Electoral body therefore should collate results for Union elections from the results obtained from the Federating Electoral Bodies.
(11) All election petition matters to be concluded before the swearing-in of elected officers from a particular election.
(12) Federating Units shall contribute troops to the Union Army organised in line with the new federal structure.
(13) There shall be Union police and Federating unit police with the Union police having powers over trans-border crimes only. The Federating Units police shall handle internal security within their units.
(14) Ethnic Nationalities to own and control their resources and pay appropriate taxes to the Union Government.
(15) Nigeria being a secular state should not promote any religion as, for example, the sponsoring of pilgrims to holy lands.
(16) Decisions at the House of States i.e. the Union Legislature to be by majority of Ethnic Nationalities.
(17) There should be compulsory military training/service for all Nigerians between the ages of 21 and 30 years.
(18) Laws to check and control environmental pollution such as oil spillage, gas flaring sand and rock excavation etc to be enforced in the states.
(19) In the interim a Marshal Plan to facilitate the rapid transformation of the Niger Delta be initiated and implemented without any further delay by the Federal Government as a public show of good faith.
Our position also outlines the responsibilities of tiers of governments and with respect to Union Government and their functions include:
a. Defence
b. Foreign affairs
c. Customs
d. Currency, coinage and legal tender
e. Immigration
f. Citizenship
g. Banking, bills of exchange and promissory notes
h. Aviation policy and regulations
i. Formulation and regulation of standards in tertiary Educational Institutions
j. Nuclear energy
We listed the following 19 Obnoxious Laws that should be repealed.
(1) Oil Terminal Drill Act
(2) Oil Terminal Act
(3) Associated Gas Re-injection Act 1978
(4) Exclusive Economic Zone Act 1978
(5) Territorial Waters Act (Cap 116) 1990
(6) National Inland Waterways Authority Act 13, 1993
(7) Offshore Oil Revenue 1971
(8) Petroleum Act 1999
(9) Land Use Act 1978
(10) Oil Pipeline and Lands (Title Vesting etc) Act 2, 1993
(11) Land (Title Vesting etc) Act CAP 17 LFN 2004
(12) Minerals and Mining Act CAP M13 LFN 2004
(13) Exclusive Economic Zone Act CAP E17 2004
(14) Territorial Waters Act CAP TS LFN 2004
(15) Oil Pipelines Act CAP 07 LFN 2004
(16) Associated Gas Re-injection Act CAP A2 LFN 2004
(17) National Inland Water Ways Authority Act CAP N4 LFN 2004
(18) Section 44 (3) of the Constitution Act CAP 123 LFN 2004
(19) Oil Terminal Dues Act CAP 08 LFN 2004
We need to add however that before a National Conference can be convened and a new Constitution brought into being, the Federal Government should complete all ongoing projects including the East-West Road. The increase of Revenue Allocation from 13% to 50% if government is sincere can also be accomplished by the Revenue Mobilization and Fiscal Commission. The repeal of the 19 obnoxious laws do not also require constitutional amendment. The Electoral Laws should immediately be amended by National Assembly so that this would provide for free, fair and credible elections.
SIGNED BY:
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