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Random Musings
By Dele Agekameh
Newsdiaryonline Wed
Nov 23,2011
Mr Agekameh
We have a few days to go into the last month of the year 2011,
the month of my birth many years ago. It is the month people
take stock of what they have achieved or could not achieve in
the year. As a Nigerian, I am both sad and worried. The
indicators are not encouraging at all. As a country, I think the
year 2011 has been one of the most traumatic years in the
nation’s history.
The political horizon is foggy and holds no assurance of a
better tomorrow. The economic indices are frightening as the
naira continues to be on a steady slide in spite of measures put
in place to firm it up. Besides, most of the industries have
crumbled. The Education sector is in shambles. On the social
front, there is hardly anything to cheer. Public infrastructures
and utilities are all lying in either waste or outright ruin.
The roads have become a place where citizens get one-way ticket
to the great beyond even without asking for it. The hospitals
are still glorified consulting clinics as painted by late
General Sani Abacha in his coup-day broadcast of December 31,
1983. Since then, things have gone from bad to worse and are
still deteriorating.
As if all these burdens are not enough, the whole country has
been put under the crushing weight of terrorism unleashed
mercilessly by the Boko
Haram sect. The sect’s ambitions are growing and its
attacks, deadly as ever, are becoming even more sophisticated.
They plan, execute and hit their targets with measured precision
while inflicting maximum damage.
In June, a car bomb was successfully detonated at the car park
inside the police headquarters in Abuja, and almost all the cars
parked at the premises went up in flames. Two months later, the
sect made international news headlines when it rammed a
bomb-laden car into the United Nations headquarters, also in
Abuja, destroyed part of the building and killed at least 24
people.
After the August blast, the sect concentrated its attacks on the
north-east of the country with occasional forays into security
agents’ sanctuaries and fortresses which they attempt to bring
down each time. Also, selective assassination of perceived
enemies by the sect has become too rampant for comfort. Even a
television journalist was not spared, including a relation of
Muhammed Yusuf, the leader of the sect, who ventured to meet
former President Olusegun Obasanjo in Maiduguri on a proposed
peace meeting He was summarily ‘executed’, as it were, barely a
few days later.
Again, the sect caused uproar early this month when it attacked
targets in Yobe State. A female youth corps member also became a
victim, adding to the lengthening list of National Youth Service
Corps’ casualties in the northern part of the country in recent
time.
However, while Boko Haram
is killing and maiming, the police too are not sparing anyone.
On a daily basis, in national dailies, we read of one victim of
police brutality or another. Nigerians, in their prime, are
being sent to their early graves by lawless policemen who have
constituted themselves into killer squads. At the least
prompting, the bullet is let go. Many families are today
struggling hard to come to terms with the reality of the sudden
loss of their loved ones and/or breadwinners through police’s
extra-judicial killings. Yet many of the culprits are often
shielded by their superiors for reasons other than national
interest. The scourge has assumed the toga of an epidemic.
Remember, it was one of those senseless killings that bred ‘Boko
Haram’ insurgency that is threatening the foundation of the
country at the moment.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
‘Where is Rueben Abati? I am afraid there is the possibility
that he may have been sucked in by the system. Hello, hello
Abati... It seems there is permanent network failure! God help
us’
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But how did we get to this sorry pass? A combination of factors
is responsible. But by far the greatest one is the fact that, as
a nation, we have either lost focus or have had no focus all
along. From the ordinary man on the street to the highly placed
person, our focus seems to have been narrowed down to money
making. While the ordinary man daily looks around for any
loophole to make money and make ends meet, the highly placed
person or privileged person looks for ways to make more money to
spend even on frivolities as if money is running out of
circulation.
Yet a society determines how it is run or administered. We all
complain about the political class. We have forgotten that the
people there are Nigerians. Politics in Nigeria is the ‘art’ of
making money, plenty money and that is all about it. If you talk
about selfless service, unless in a few exceptional cases, you
can as well tell that to the marines. Yet, it is the nation and
its people that suffer. And this suffering seems to be endless.
Nigeria is moving on like a rudderless ship heading for
disaster.
Look at the drama that is playing itself out in Bayelsa State.
Such inanities can only happen in Nigeria or let me say Africa,
where might is right. The state is under siege. People say Sylva
has not lived up to expectations; his handlers say the story is
not correct. No matter who is right or wrong, there are
civilized ways to do things. Bayelsa is an unfortunate state.
With all the big names on its roll-call, the state has not been
blessed with good governance.
When the 2012 governorship issue became a tussle among the
contending groups, I knew it was going to be a
roforofo fight.
Roforofo was used by
the late Afrobeat king, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, to describe an
untidy, messy conflict in which everything and practically
everything could become a handy missile. I was amused at the
point when all the so-called aspirants started singing “I have
been endorsed by the President” or “the President has given me
the nod.” How can? What
is the President’s own in this matter? That he comes from
the state does not confer on him the prerogative to anoint
anybody as governor. I think he has a bigger cross weighing down
his shoulders at the moment. All this confusion could have been
avoided. The President cannot afford a ‘civil war’ in his own
state.
As it is, Sylva is going for broke. He has been emboldened by
some members of the cult-like Governors’ Forum who are afraid of
the possibility of a re-enactment of the ugly scenario in their
states in the nearest future. They have a point, but Sylva
cannot hold out for too long. There is also no way the President
can absolve himself of the lingering imbroglio and the likely
catastrophic consequence that may arise.
And of course, that reminds me of the President’s 21-man
Constitution Review Committee. Yes, everybody can vouch for
Justice Alfa Belgore and a few other members. But the committee
is tainted with some people who have no business in constitution
making. I am sure the
President does not have any deep knowledge of the
antecedents of some of them or their public ratings. In any
case, the issue of constitution formulation or amendment is
beyond what one person can sit down and decide on how to go
about it. There are many issues confronting the various
nationalities in the Nigerian federation which must be properly
addressed. Those issues are beyond any 21-member committee. Let
us be serious for once Mr. President. Time is no longer on our
side.
By the way, where is Rueben Abati? I am afraid there is the
possibility that he may have been sucked in by the system.
Hello, hello Abati... It seems there is permanent network
failure! God help us.
*Send
reactions to: 08058354382 (sms only)
Th
This is the document referred to in the Witness
Statement on Oath of Clifford O. Kokogho as
“Exhibit
COK.2”
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