The Orchestrated Distortion Of Recent Commentaries Of General Muhammadu Buhari

Press Release

By Congress for Progressive Change (CPC)

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Our attention has been drawn to the recent call by Pastor Ayodele Oritsejafor, President of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN ), for the arrest of General Muhammadu Buhari (GMB) – the national leader of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) – on account of his recent commentaries on national issues. We are aware that this is a rehash of the stance of Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor to a previous piece of mendacious writing by Dr Reuben Abati in his Guardian Newspaper column, wherein he alluded to GMB as being responsible for post-election violence in some parts of the North in April, 2011. The subsequent libel suit instituted by GMB revealed that Abati had no shred of evidence for his reckless surmising. Meanwhile, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor had used the platform of CAN to impetuously seek the arrest of GMB based on fiction and orchestrated literary violence by the PDP-led Federal Government. The subsequent appointment of Dr. Reuben Abati as the Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on media and Publicity revealed the fitting reward for that hatchet job. We have also noted the physical presence of President Good-luck Jonathan at the ceremony where Pastor Ayo  Oritsejafor was presented a gift of Bombardier Jet on 10th November, 2012.

The kernel of the latest orchestrated distortion of GMB’s recent commentaries was done to blacken him as supporting the insurgency of Boko Haram in Nigeria. In fact, Pastor Oritsejafor impudently asserted:

“He is, therefore, the prime leader of this religious and blood thirsty sect called Boko Haram, a movement that is based on a warped interpretation of a strict adherence to force people of other religions into Islam. This kind of fundamentalism is the driving force behind his failure of each election in the country.”

It is our view that this statement is utterly tendentious and unsupportable by incontrovertible facts. We are aware that, as it was before and after the 2011 elections, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor is keen on helping the electoral fortunes of his friend, President Good-luck Jonathan. We are therefore compelled to re-tell GMB’s uncompromising stand on Boko Haram.

In a recent interview in June 2012, this is what GMB said on Boko Haram:

“When we knew who was Maitatsine, wasn’t he arrested, killed and his corpse shown to everybody? But this Boko Haram, if you could recall somebody recommended me to represent Boko Haram. I told them the honest truth that I didn’t know who their leadership was and I still don’t know who their leaders are. I don’t know their philosophy because no religion advocates hurting the innocent. So, all those people giving it a religious meaning are wrong. You can’t kill a person and say Allahu Akbar (God is great). It is either you don’t know what you are saying or you don’t believe in it. It is one of the two.”

On 25th December, 2012 (Christmas day), bombings took place at the St. Theresa’s Catholic Church, Madalla, Niger State; Jos, Plateau State; and Damaturu, Yobe State. This is what GMB said:

“Bombing other human beings to death at any time is callous. It becomes much more reprehensible on a Christmas day and all lovers of peace must condemn these gruesome acts and demand that the perpetrators be fished out and brought to book.”

The amiable General and our National leader continued:

“How on earth would the Vatican and the British authorities speak before the Nigerian government on attacks within Nigeria that have led to the deaths of our citizens? This is clearly a failure of leadership at a time the government needs to assure the people of the capacity to guarantee the safety of lives and property. You can devote the entire budget to security and there won’t be any result if there is no competence in leadership to know what to do at the right time.”

We leave discerning Nigerians to judge and see the incongruity in Pastor Oritsejafor’s reckless call and GMB’s unwavering patriotic stand on Nigeria’s insecurity. Again, Pastor Oritsejafor has proven to be, a willing implement for destabilization in the hands of the Presidency, in the orchestrated heckling of GMB ahead of the 2015 elections.

As we shall prove shortly, the moral rectitude, personal discipline and patriotic love for Nigeria by GMB is head and shoulder above what the current leaders of the Nation possess. GMB is not in the mould of leaders that do not match their words with deeds. In the run to the 2011 election, Dr. Good-luck Jonathan told an unsuspecting Nation: “My ambition is not worth the blood of anybody.” But truly, his electioneering campaign was trailed by blood, tears and woes! As a ruling President, Dr Good-luck Jonathan has caused more destabilization of the polity through his capricious politics than any of his predecessors in office. Under his watch, the Nation state is tottering and statecraft in peril, but he prefers to use negative propaganda against those he perceives as interested in contesting for the Nation’s presidency, to actually evincing enviable leadership of the country.

There are certain incongruities in the Nation state under President Jonathan that GMB has continued to sensitize Nigerians about, and for which the government has continued to distort with its divisive weapon of preying on the ethno-religious fault lines in the Country.

•    In 2009, Mohammed Yussuff, the leader of Boko Haram, was arrested by the military and handed over to the Nigeria Police. He was paraded with hand-cuff before Journalists. Barely twenty four hours’ later, Yussuff’s lifeless body was shown to Journalists and still in hand-cuff! In a related development, persons suspected to be Boko Haram members or sympathizers were shot by the Police at point-blank range. The video footage of the incident posted by al-Jazeera showed some of the people on crutches and made to lay face-down before a police man bent over and summarily executed them all. This act of cruel injustice, coupled with the official acquiescence of the PDP-led Federal Government of President Good-luck Jonathan was what GMB said to be the genesis of the bloody insurgency of Boko haram.

•  In Baga, a fishing community in Borno State, a Nigerian Soldier was killed. The ensuing reprisal attack by the Military left in excess of 185 persons dead – mostly children and women – and many houses destroyed.

•  The previous prosecution of the war on terror in northern Nigeria had been done with such unprofessional ferocity that left tales of human rights abuses and extra-judicial murders. The United States of America (USA) had pilloried the Nigerian military for this. It is on this background that GMB expressed his scepticism about the current declaration of state of emergency in three northern states. With the communication black-out over these states, are we not to expect more abuses in the name of enforcing security?

•  In May, 2013, about 60 security men (consisting of police and State security operatives) were allegedly gruesomely murdered in Nasarawa by the Ombatse cult group. In a bizarre twist of the events, the Director-General of Directorate of State Security (DSS), Mr. Ita Ekpeyong, said he had forgiven the killers of the service men and left them to God’s judgment. GMB, in his characteristic candour, lambasted the head of Nigeria’s spy agency for this perfidious statement. These are his exact words:  “However, the Nasarawa attack is a cult that infiltrated the police itself. The latest I learnt from you the press is that the number of security personnel killed is 56. The cult group slaughtered 56 security men. The SSS boss or whoever that said he has left everything to God has no right to do that. Constitutionally, Nigerians can practice any religion they want or they can be atheists or anything they want to be, that is constitutional. But nobody should hurt a citizen of Nigeria and then get away with it, not to talk of slaughtering 56 law enforcement agents and then somebody coming out from the system to say such a thing. It is either that person doesn’t know what he was talking about or he shouldn’t even be there.”

In many jurisdictions, notably the advanced democracies, any murderous violence on the service men is viewed with uncompromising severity. In the same vein, there is also a concomitant punishment of the service men for any breach of service codes or rules of engagement. Last March, Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, a veteran of four US combat tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, ran amok and killed sixteen persons in Kandahar province of Afghanistan, while also burning their houses and villages. The United States (US) authority did not go the way of Nigeria. The offending service man was arraigned before the Court by military prosecutors. From latest developments on the case, Bales stands the risk of life imprisonment or death sentence. We have stated this example to show the utter irresponsibility and ineptitude currently pervading the business of governance in the Nigerian state. The Federal Government, under President Good-luck Jonathan, had shown complicity in the exacerbation of security concerns in Nigeria.

As a Party, we know that the Federal Government of President Good-Luck Jonathan, like the previous PDP administration, seems too intimidated by GMB’s sterling qualities and previous meritorious service to Nigeria that no effort is spared to depreciate his status through deliberate distortions and misrepresentation of his statements. We sincerely sympathise with them! For the avoidance of doubt and within the ambit of space/time constraints, we hereby avail discerning Nigerians some aspects of the stellar public service performance of General Muhammadu Buhari (GMB):

In August 1975, as a Lt. Colonel, GMB was appointed military governor of North-Eastern State, an area now comprising the six states of the North East geo-political zone. He governed with such acuity and urbanity that was undoubtedly the basis for the future development of the area.

As Federal Commissioner for Petroleum resources (March 1976-July 1978), two of the Nation’s four refineries, that is, warri and Kaduna, were built. Also, thousands of kms of fuel pipelines and depots were constructed!

In 1983, the patriotic fervour of GMB was rudely put to test when the Chadians, in a mindless expansionist adventure, invaded and occupied 19 Islands in Lake Chad within Nigerian territory. As the General Officer Commanding (GOC) the 3rd Armoured corps, GMB successfully carried out a blockade, forcing the return of the territories -and thereafter pursued the Chadians as far as 50kms into Chadian territory; a feat loudly applauded as forward defence strategy at its best!

As the incoming Head of State on December 31st, 1983, he aroused the Nigerian people into a new wave of Patriotism with his often-quoted statement: “This generation of Nigerians, and indeed future generations, have no country other than Nigeria. We shall remain and salvage it together.” This aptly captured what later defined the conduct of the Buhari administration. The 20-month era of strong leadership espoused what later became known as ‘Buharinomics’, which simply put, is an admixture of frugality, probity, respect for contractual agreements, expunction of all  covert or overt attempts at subjugating the Nigerian economy to world powers and above all, the economic policy with Nigeria as the centre-piece. It is therefore without any whiff of equivocation to state that the boldest attempt, in the last thirty years, at alleviating the pains of the teeming masses was during the enactment of Buharinomics. It was not surprising that inflation rate inherited from the ruinous and immediate past civilian regime was lowered by more than 18 points, from 23.2% in 1983 to 5.5% in 1985! The Buhari regime rebuffed all entreaties by IMF and World Bank to devalue the naira, remove subsidies on services and increase pump price on fuel; not even a special envoy from President Ronald Reagan was sufficient to make him rescind his decision!

As Executive Chairman of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF), hundreds of kms of roads were constructed to hitherto unreached rural communities. He ensured the supply of drugs to the health centres of Educational institutions. The infrastructural development of the Country was massive with his inimitable management of the funds released for PTF operations. It is no wonder that the subsequent scrutiny of the financial dealings of the PTF showed an excellent work done by the agency.

It is against this back-drop that we understand the frustrations of the current leaders and their sympathizers in the heckling expeditions of GMB. As things stand, he poses the greatest challenge to the continued existence of the indignity and incongruity that the Jonathan administration represents. The tottering edifice of the weather-beaten umbrella of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is aptly captured by the well-reasoned words of Othman Dan Fodio: “a kingdom can endure with unbelief but it cannot endure with injustice”.

As GMB once posited, “the battle for social justice is not just for me, or the opposition, but a challenge to all Nigerians. Each and everyone of us has a duty to stand up and speak for justice. The first principle of justice in a democracy is the right of the citizens to freely choose their leaders. This can only happen if elections are free and fair, not according to INEC or a bare majority of the Supreme Court. They must be free and fair by all counts and in all senses.”

In the run to the April 2011elections, GMB saw through the entire gamut of deception of the Jonathan regime and wept. Many jeered, some excoriated him but the discerning ones were also inconsolable. Unfortunately, his tears are drying up but the teeming Nigerian people are now made to weep. Every act of the Jonathan regime is a scripted venture in ruinous adventure. There is confusion in the engine room and the statecraft is on auto-pilot. We are sure that though the situation is sordid, help is on the way! The merger of the opposition parties shall provide the fulcrum for springing the Nation back to life.

Indeed, to wrestle Nigeria from the vice-grip of the current unpatriotic leaders is a task that must be done. Eternal vigilance is still the price for our liberty.

God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

SOURCE: LEADERSHIP

Chike Nwasike And "Mind Games": The Interview

By Ambrose Ehirim

 

Chike Nwasike is a technology enterpreneur, a software executive and founder of several technology ventures. Hooking up with Chike in this exclusive interview, we spoke on a whole lot of interesting issues, and in particular, his debut novel "Mind Games: Mazi And The Far Side." We talked about what got him into writing the novel and how he created the characters, his in-depth research on US intelligence and how he developed his interest, the Nigeria-Biafra War and what he sees as the future of African fiction, and lots more.

Excerpts:

Let's start from who you are. Tell me a little bit about yourself.

I was born in Nigeria and grew up in Enugu. Enugu in the sixties was probably the best place a young child could grow up. My Dad ran the coal mining corporation which at the time was probably the major energy company of Nigeria, so I would say that I come from an engineering family to be precise and I had the idea early on to be involved in science or technology of some sort. I attended a primary school which was probably the very best school anywhere in the world. I am not joking. Looking back, I think the teachers took a lot of care to pass on to the kids a thirst for knowledge and creativity which for me has endured. I founded a software consulting firm and another software development firm both in Los Angeles with an R&D Division in India. Today, I am focused on new technology start-ups in Energy as well as in venture capital.

I read "Mind Games: Mazi And The Far Side." It is fascinating, thorough in its plot, capturing the true essence of "war, conspiracy and love" as you put it. What had engineered this compelling story?

The primary reason is simply to entertain my readers. I  had always wanted to write a war story but I wanted it to be forward looking, a feat that was a little contradictory since the civil war ended 43 years ago. I also wanted to show how Nigeria is a real part of the world not just some outpost somewhere out there. It is the abundant land albeit with lots of imperfect people.  The book is nevertheless said to be optimistic while recognizing the tragedy of life in the last 50 years or so. I also wanted to show just how our traditions paint a rich tapestry. something to be desired by many. While we bemoan our political predicaments, the world is envious of our rich resources and energetic entrepreneurial citizenry. I hope that my readers will do a comparison between American life and Nigerian life. People are basically the same.

At what point did you conclude you must write this story ?

Some of the leaders on both sides of the civil war had passed on and many had no idea what life was like. The events from 1966 to 1970 are getting somewhat dim to many people especially the young who were not yet born. Thirty percent of the book is based on direct experience of the war but the effects of the war, the dislocation and enduring collateral damage continued for many years and is reflected in the peculiarities of  the town Umu Achonam.

In your remarkable tales, I could visualize what combat is like. The Ali-Jacomah-Josiah Adeogun episode was in fact intriguing. For instance, the quest to kill all male "old enough to carry a weapon." Were you recalling your own experiences or adapting what had happened in the "Asaba Massacre" we had known?

Yes, the massacre at Asaba stands as an indictment of the Federal policy and how they executed the war. No it was not my experience, I was 11 years old when the war began and 14 when it ended, but this was not just the experience in Asaba, it was quite common. I tried to stay faithful to the actual public events such as the battle of Abagana, the fears of the ordinary people  and the conflicts among Nigerian soldiers many of whom were not necessarily enthused about the wholesale vendetta against the Igbos. I think it is rather silly to brand many Nigerian soldiers as war criminals. We would like to hear from many such honorable men who refused to obey illegal orders or who aided the innocent at the risk of their own safety. There has to be many who were conflicted, many were humane decent people. All men are imperfect and all men fail, but many are redeemed, many are forgiven and a few go to perdition. One of my editors remarked that no one in the book is a totally good person. Some of the corrupt people do good things when the occasion arises, some fail.

Growing up after the war and while in your academic pursuit, did you envision penning down such experiences by way of storytelling?

I did. I distinctly remember that when I left college many moons ago,  I expected that I would write something about the war. I just did not know what the angle would be nor could I afford the time. I began to think more seriously about it after I discovered James Michener. No one can tell an epic tale like he did. Then I got involved in designing complex systems and I discovered that humans are the most complex of all systems out there. What's better to write about than those kinds of systems?

Why did it take you that long to write this novel?

Life happens. We all get super busy and hardly have enough time to do some of the things we might enjoy doing. Writing is laborious and time consuming for me, especially if you build a plot and you restrict it by historical events. Everything has to fit in four dimensions, if you will. Every character has to react to type, so when, for example,  a General is implicated in a coup, there has to be a long setup that makes it credible.

Let's talk about the major character Jacob Makolisa in the novel. Was his ordeal throughout the novel the kind that you were familiar with or it just happened to be part of your thoughts with regards to the novel?

He's the ordinary guy who suddenly discovers an extraordinary gift, but he goes through extraordinary sufferings too. Does his gift save him or does it not save him? That would be left to the reader to decide. I can't say where that came from, but I work with people who go through a valley to come to a mountain. Makolisa is the worst case data point of every man and the best case data point of every success.

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"Mind Games..." takes us into the South Central Los Angeles Riots of 1965 and here we are with Juanita Brown who as the story goes finds herself at the US Embassy in Lagos as Consular Officer. What were you trying to relate here?

Makolisa and Juanita have more in common than either one knows but  I won't ruin the story for any potential reader as this is part of the plot. The American life in the book is interspersed with the Nigerian life. People are remarkably similar

Samson Uwamaka was a typical Nigerian immigrant story when he had encountered Jacob Makolisa in the United States after the POW years during the war. Why was this important in the novel?

When you end a war, the victors get a parade. The Romans knew how to do this. They parade the booty of war and slaves captured in war to the din of a crowd. The vanquished get to mourn their loss and bury their dead. There is catharsis. In Nigeria we swept the war under a carpet and pretended that it did not happen. I believe there are many war wounds and many of the participants suffered in many ways. Uwamaka's tragedy is there to show the devastation and collateral damage of war which can last for a generation or more. I think it was US General Patton who said that it was a good thing that war was so devastating else men would love it so.

On the war, many folks who had their education cut short when the war erupted and could not continue their education after the war on grounds of circumstances beyond their control. Today, the ones still alive feel abandoned by the Igbo leadership not recognizing their commitment to the cause. What's your take on that?

We lost our innocence. History will judge us harshly concerning how we forgot the veteran, his children and his widow. What is equally bad is that we have not focused on growing the private sector which has the effect of creating lots of jobs for both the educated as well as the less educated amongst us. There is such a jostling for state funds for one project or the other and it just won't do to improve the lives of everyone who needs gainful employment. If all you do is trade, you may make a lot of money, but you won't be hiring lots of people. If you owned a plant or a factory, you could hire the entire village.

Let's talk about post-war career in real terms. Some of the folks who fought in the war have been remarkably successful maybe because of their determination, ambition, and hard work learning from their military experiences that was positive. Some never recovered. Why isn't there a connection between the two by way of help or otherwise as can obviously be seen at Oji River with the war veterans on the motorways panhandling?

We can do better for the veterans and their widows and their families. It has been forty some years now but it is not too late. It is a crying shame that our governments have not done something far more credible to take care of them. Men who fight together become brothers and you would think that successful veterans would reach out to their brothers. This is the responsibility of all Igbos for whom these men presented themselves to serve and protect. We ought to stand with them.

From the theme of "Mind Games: Mazi On The Far Side" why hasn't there been a Biafran Museum to date with hands-on-displays, photo galleries of the most blood soaked event, weapons, uniforms, equipment, other artifacts, plus oral and written memoirs of eye witness accounts? What explains that?

I think it is the same old "covering up" of our recent history. The government may feel it would be divisive. This is nonsense of course. I meet a lot of young people who have no idea of the travails of our country in the first decade after independence. It was a missed opportunity to weld a more perfect union after the spilling of so much blood. You know that in the US, before the US civil war, if you met an American in Europe, they would introduce themselves to you as a Virginian or a New Yorker. After the civil war, they all became Americans. I wonder if our ongoing crisies of nationhood coukd have turned out differently if we had been honest about our past.

Who are your favorite writers?

Good question, they are many. I have to say Chinua Achebe, God rest his soul. I make sure I read one of his books at least once a year. A good book keeps on giving and I get a lot from his books every time I read it. I just re-read Arrow of God , easily the best , in my view. Also, I've been a fan of Michael Crichton. I like everything he's written. He has the knack of writing interesting stories with a scientific tenor and making it easy to understand even for the most technophobic among us. The third great writer would be James Michener. Reading a Michener epic tale is like taking a stereophonic history class.

Reading Mind Games, you get the impression that some of the events actually happened. How much of it is real and how much is fiction?

The public events are real. The private events are fiction.

Okay, let me ask it a different way. Are the private events real but the names have been changed?

The private events are fiction. Nice try sir.

What kind of research did you do to write so well about US intelligence?

There's a lot of great material in the public domain and a lot of fine material about the culture of intelligence operatives to draw from. The rest, you have to use your imagination.

You deal with brain science and intelligence and computers in Mind Games, is this something you had experience in or did you know anyone who had this experience?

I have always been interested in medicine and artificial intelligence. As an eighteen year old I had admissions to the medical schools in Manchester and Ibadan as well as Engineering school at UCLA. I had a difficult time making the choice not to go to medical school but my interest never waned. However I have kept track of  current thinking in neuro research. The brain is a very efficient and complex processor with the capacity to store every single bit of information it is exposed to. As a software engineer for many years I have found that quite compatible with how engineers teach computers to store, organize and process information.

There's are a lot of Nigerian and African  writers making waves globally. What do you see as the future of African fiction?

That is  not surprising from the country that gave us a Soyinka and an Achebe. Africa is filled with legion of talented creative people and the world wants to hear their stories. I think the future will be filled with a diverse group of writers coming from non traditional backgrounds and this will open up new fiction, new themes. Mind Games is an Adventure Action genre and there is going to be other types and I believe it will be refreshing to the world because we will be following the words of the Prophet Chinua Achebe. Africa will be telling it's own story for a long, long time.

Thank you for your time and the privilege, Chike, and all the best!

My pleasure and thank you, Ambrose, for the opportunity.

Jonathan's "Doctrine of Extraordinary Measures" and Nigeria's Political Future

BY AMBROSE EHIRIM

President Goodluck Jonathan presents his administration's midterm report during Democracy Day in Abuja May 29, 2013. Image: Afolabi Sotunde


In what had haunted the nation for some four years now by the terrorists Boko Haram in its operations of deadly encounters churches had been razed to the ground, innocent citizens going about their routine businesses beheaded, thousands of people killed in the most brutal way, untold traumatized country-folks in staggering counts from the effects of the terrorists activities in the north-eastern region of the country where President Goodluck Jonathan had declared a state of emergency ordering the JTF, the Joint Task Force, of the Nigerian military and civil police to go after the culprits that had engaged their base, home of the insurgents, in total warfare, annihilating law abiding citizens and what had been their anger with the rest of the nation, and in particular, Jonathan's administration reluctance in paying heed to what had concerned them, and as a result, an eruption of all sorts of civil disobedience - anarchy, plundering and demolition of structures of the Christian faith, and other beliefs that declined to their movements, including attacks on government establishments, and complete breakdown of law and order; Jonathan certainly made a good call May 14, 2013, announcing "Extraordinary Measures" be taken for national interest, with the backing and support of numerous union heads and the people in general, to use his executive privileges, ordering troops to use their right sense of judgement to end an insurgency that had threatened the security and sovereignty of the nation..

There's much justification on the president's decision to seek resolve giving the military permission to secure the towns and settlements of the region in question from Boko Haram terrorists.

In The New York Times Op-Ed Thursday, June 6, 2013, by Adam Nossiter, "Nigerian foreign partners, including the United States," wrote Nossiter, had been concerned and worried from its observations and series of reports what they had suspected to be human rights abuses on reported cases of civilians as casualties regarding the Nigerian forces' "rules of engagement's" air and strategic mobilization of forces and campaigns to neutralize the firepower of Boko Haram insurgents coupled with dismantling their cells.

US Secretary of State, John Kerry, in what he had described as "credible allegations," according to Nossiter's citing in The New York Times on Kerry's warning to Nigeria to look into said allegations about Nigeria's military abuses of human rights in the "Extraordinary Measures" operation to sack Boko Haram and bring the culprits to book, and hold them responsible for what had amounted to a four year run of insurgency in the north-east, on the bankroll of what Jonathan had initially told the nation, that some members of his cabinet have played major roles in sustaining the logistics of Boko Haram's operations, the funding that has kept the terrorist organization afloat since its operation began.

The problem, however, had been Jonathan himself not having a clue probably of how to tackle Boko Haram and its related off-shoots, and the high rollers in his cabinet who called the shots, recruiting the almajiris, the lowest class in their cast, and a bunch dependent on the caliphates, the capitalist gang that had been on Jonathan's roll call, with no desire and love for democratic ideals except an Islamic state they had cherished, and had wanted imposed on the citizenry, inspiring their tool, the vulnerable almajiris, the poorest and uneducated group, on sponsored errands for acts of terrorism against the state.

Nigerians from around the time a bedridden Umaru Yar'Adua's questionable and legitimate standings to run the affairs of state no longer was a secret, which paved the way for a Jonathan succeeding presidency, out of good luck, and an eventual clear victory as president-elect, Jonathan's capabilities to issue out orders as commander-in-chief of the armed forces was also in doubt and questioned because of the very nature of how he got there; his upbringing of haven't been of the grassroots.

But nevertheless, Jonathan did what had been expected of him as a leader, irrespective of what the opponents, by way of politics, were saying. He did what he needed to do even though he did it too late.

On the other hand, there are more problems stocked around the surroundings of Jonathan's presidency which also poses serious threat to his government, and which also demands attention just like Boko Haram, the Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati, the Arabic and meaning "People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet's Teachings and Jihad."

As it had happened, critics of Jonathan's decision to launch an all out attack on the insurgents at the corners of the country's north-east, are saying Jonathan had taken the wrong steps and had avoided or exempted the capitalist class, the foundations that fund the insurgents, and the only seen alternative to have stopped Boko Haram terrorist activities.

Reading the editorial of the Workers Alternative Editorial Board of Nigeria published at the "In Defense of Marxism" website Friday, June 7, 2013, it's interesting to note and arguing on workers right rather than supporting the government on its decision to place emergency rule on the three states of the north-east, the socialist union news outlet thus wrote;

"It is unfortunate that the leadership of Labor instead of opposing the emergency rule and independently mobilizing workers and youth against Boko Haram and the atrocities of the Nigerian state, have opted for the seemingly easy way out by supporting the government."

The socialist link also indicated what it termed "Jonathan's regime" sending its message of political errands and the gearing up toward 2015, asserting what the general public would be looking at, a Jonathan who'd come from a "clueless president to a decisive and wise war leader capable of leading the nation," being the strong and powerful message the president intends to convey in order to gain public confidence in his government and a sure bet for the president's 2015 campaigns and reelections.

As we may also have known with Jonathan and the partial victory, for now, to have sent Boko Haram members packing, fleeing to unknown destinations and while Jonathan pats himself, it should be borne in mind that there are much more problems ahead, and the buck doesn't stop there, as it becomes patently clear that different kinds of problems have been seen in other states; problems really grand and alarming by its nature. Disturbing cases of kidnapping, oil theft and vandalism, gang related cults and deadly fraternities widespread in southern parts of the country should be given immediate attention by Jonathan's government as part of the problem solving techniques to return the country to normal, and free from the internal strife seemed to have overwhelmed the entire nation from various pressing issues seen to have been halting the progress of the nation's polity.

But as one would measure the extent of what appears to be dragging the nation's well-being backwards and much reliance on a centered federal government, it is noteworthy to point out a post I had made on my Facebook page Thursday, June 6, highlighted with images by Jon Gambrell of Associated Press, on Gambrell's reportage from the north-east, and the JTF invitation of local and foreign journalists for a clear view of the missions by the JTF, and its accomplishments to date, with sigh of euphoria by the military commanders and the eventual defeat of Boko Haram terrorists, following responses on the subject matter by Fubara David-West, Chike Nwasike, Eze Ojinkeya and others.

David West had made a salient point insisting the states should take the responsibility of addressing the concerns of their respective states in which the dispensation of democracy could hold ground, from testing the abilities of its democratic fabrics on the local, municipal and state levels of authority, with an ongoing practice to "keep working at perfecting their institutions," like the Boko Haram insurgency, which surfaced four years ago and had to be worked on until there is a resolve.

Nobody was really sure what message Boko Haram terrorists were sending in the north-eastern states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe since its devotion to blowing up its own stuff - their kinsmen and government structures; for instance, the assassination of the civil war general Muhammed Shuwa, who became their target on grounds of the general doing what was contrary to their ideals.

Obviously, they made known their message. That they have a motive. That they are a strong and powerful force to draw the government's attention. That they have a compelling package and should be taken seriously. That Nigeria must heed to their call for an Islamic state; and that they are well-organized to set up their projected agenda into motion. And that nobody can stop them from reaching their desired goal, period.

Before the terrorists took their grievances to their home-depot in the north-east, they had carried out series of bombings in different parts of  the north, including the FCT, the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, with the This Day Newspapers' complex and United Nations' building as part of their bombing runs in Abuja and its surroundings. Jonathan's-led government and a confused National Assembly members had been a jumbled and bellicose bunch, having no clue where to begin and how to end the nightmare called Boko Haram.

Regardless, a decision was reached at last, with Jonathan's "Doctrine of Extraordinary Measures," and the manhunt for the insurgents, including its leader Abubakar Shekau. Meanwhile, Boko Haram, for now, is not yet done and may be rethinking its strategies to strike again for the fact that the capitalist class, the bunch with the cash that keeps the operation of the terrorists alive still have the influence and resources to train and arm the insurgents. It's not over yet, and with a US bounty of $7 million on information and leads to the arrest of Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, who has been described as part mafiasco, and part intellectual, and with a Nigeria that is very complex and full of uncertainties, the total demolition of the process and prize on Shekau could amount to more casualties and a conflict far from over.

Journalists look at arms and ammunition which military commanders say they previously seized from Islamic fighters in Maiduguri, Borno, Nigeria. The military flew foreign and local journalists from Nigeria's capital, Abuja, to Maiduguri in Borno state as part of a tour of one battleground area. Image: Jon Gambrell/AP

Islamic Extremists Hiding Weapons Inside Coffin Kill 13 People In Northeast Nigeria

By Haruna Umar

Associated Press, Saturday, June 8, 2013

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria - Suspected Islamic extremists who hid their assault rifles inside a coffin launched an attack against vigilantes in a northeast Nigeria city at the heart of the country's bloody insurgency, killing 13 people before being shot by security forces, witnesses said Saturday.

The attack happened Friday in Maiduguri, the spiritual home of the extremist network Boko Haram that's now targeted as part of a regional military offensive against extremists in the West African nation. Meanwhile, soldiers shot dead another eight suspected Boko Haram fighters in the city Thursday, leaving their bodies in a ditch in the restive city.

Friday's attack targeted members of a new youth vigilante group that's sprung up in Maiduguri comprised of men who point out suspected Boko Haram members to the military. The gunmen hid their Kalashnikov assault rifles inside a coffin draped in white cloth as if being prepared for a burial, allowing them to drive through the city's numerous military checkpoints without being searched, witness Sheriff Aji said. When they approached the vigilantes in a van, they pulled the rifles out from the coffin and opened fire, killing the civilians, Aji said.

"They continued shooting until they ran out of ammunition, then some courageous youth rounded them up and handed them over to the soldiers, who shot them dead as they attempted to escape," Aji told The Associated Press. Aji said he counted eight dead suspected Boko Haram gunmen after the shooting.

Lt. Col. Sagir Musa, a military spokesman in the city, could not be reached for comment Saturday as security forces have shut down mobile phone networks throughout the northeast as part of the offensive.

The shooting comes after President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency May 14 in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states — a territory of around 155,000 square kilometres (60,000 square miles) of the Sahel bordering Cameroon, Chad and Niger. In a nationally televised speech, Jonathan admitted the nation had lost control of some villages and towns to extremist fighters already responsible for more than 1,600 killings since 2010 alone, according to an AP count.

In the time since, the military claims it has killed and arrested suspected extremists. However, military officials who spoke to journalists on a recent trip through the northeast acknowledged many fighters likely fled with heavy weaponry including anti-aircraft guns and still remain a major threat to Africa's most populous nation.

Friday's attack likely was retaliation for vigilantes pointing out eight Boko Haram fighters to soldiers on Thursday. A security official told the AP that soldiers shot dead eight of the suspected Boko Haram members on Thursday night. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to journalists.

On Saturday, an AP reporter saw the corpses of the eight men killed Thursday. They lay tangled together in a ditch in Maiduguri, beginning to bloat under the hot sun of this arid region. Soldiers largely have stopped carrying corpses of suspected insurgents to local hospitals, instead allowing them to rot as a morbid warning to others.

Specifics Elusive In Nigeria's Extremist Fight

By John Gambrell

Associated Press, Thursday, June 6, 2013

Peoeple watch as a soldier walks by before a meeting with military commanders in the village of Kerinowa, Nigeria, on Wednesday, June 5, 2013. Just as quickly as Islamist extremists rose out of the desert scrub several months ago, however, they recently disappeared as Nigeria's military regained control of this area as part of a new offensive. As attack helicopters hovered overhead and tanks hid among the scrawny trees, military commanders told journalists touring the region Wednesday that they had struck a decisive blow against radicals who want to impose strict Islamic law over this multiethnic nation of more than 160 million people. Photo: Jon Gambrell

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) — Military commanders promised a tour of this northeast Nigeria city, the birthplace of the nation's Islamic extremist insurgency, to show the busy streets and people selling fruits from wheelbarrows pressed right up against the road.

But the scars of the almost three-year insurgency still could be seen from shops burnt by soldiers, a major hotel firebombed and the sandbagged embankments hiding soldiers pointing heavy machine guns at passing traffic.

These two visions of Maiduguri, a bustling state capital by day and an eerie ghost town of barking stray dogs and empty streets by 8 p.m., represents the difficulty of knowing what exactly is happening as Nigeria's military continues its offensive against the extremists.

While the military presents an optimistic view about the gains they've made, they continually refuse to offer any specifics about the ongoing fighting. But with mobile phone networks shut down in the region, it is only their word that gets publicized by the nation's newspapers and broadcasters in this shadow war.

"The operation is still on and the information is being collated," Brig. Gen. Chris Olukolade, the military's top spokesman, said Thursday when pressed by journalists for any specifics on civilian or military casualties. "In many locations, we are still mopping up and until we finish mopping up, it is wrong to give you any inaccurate figure."

Foreign and local journalists who accompanied soldiers on a two-day trip into the northeast to see the offensive heard the same thing repeatedly from military commanders.

The offensive comes after President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency May 14 in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states — a territory of around 155,000 square kilometers (60,000 square miles) of the Sahel bordering Cameroon, Chad and Niger. In a nationally televised speech, Jonathan admitted the nation had lost control of some villages and towns to extremist fighters already responsible for more than 1,600 killings since 2010 alone, according to an Associated Press count.

While displaying seized arms and showing journalists an abandoned extremist camp near Marte, about 95 kilometers (60 miles) away from Maiduguri, commanders contradicted themselves on details of fighting. They declined to take journalists to the areas believed to have been targeted by aerial bombing raids. Meanwhile, some acknowledged under questioning that insurgents, including those from the extremist network Boko Haram, likely escaped with heavy weaponry like anti-aircraft guns and remain a serious danger to the region.

In Maiduguri itself Thursday, the military-led convoy journalists took drove past the city's main hospital, where security forces have dumped bodies and fought with doctors. They also drove past the scene of a retaliatory attack by soldiers in October that saw troops kill more than 30 civilians and burn down blocks of shops and homes, witnesses said. Also never mentioned was the April attack in the fish village of Baga, where witnesses and human rights organizations say soldiers burned neighborhoods and killed at least 187 people.

The military's suspicion of journalists — especially foreign media — remains a hangover from decades of military rule in a country where simply taking a photograph on the street can still get one detained by police. A journalist with the state-run Nigerian Television Authority at one point asked Olukolade to rate the media's coverage of the fighting.

"Some (in the media) have negative mindsets — mindsets that there must be some abuses that (have) not been verified," the brigadier general said. "Particularly from the local media, we've got good cooperation."

That local media cooperation comes in the form of newspapers and broadcasters in Nigeria that largely reprint statements verbatim from military officials. In one case, newspapers provided panting coverage of the discovery of condom wrappers at the extremist camp near Marte. The source: A military news release the day before with the headline "CONDOM EVERYWHERE" that called it a sign of the "dirty sides of the insurgents' lifestyle."

A military news release Wednesday highlighted the journalists' trip, as soldiers shot many photographs and filmed the foreign journalists.

After largely avoiding questions, journalists on the trip cornered Olukolade on Thursday. He said the military "substantially achieved" having no civilian casualties, while also implying soldiers would fire at will when suspicious.

"Anyone that was killed in a camp cannot call himself a civilian. Most of the camps are populated definitely by terrorists," Olukolade said. "All the forests are being combed. In the course of combing, anyone that we stumble upon (in what) looks like a camp will be destroyed."

Pressed again about how many extremists the military held in custody, Olukolade said "hundreds" before saying: "I cannot give you specific details."

The lieutenant colonel over his shoulder waved the interview closed and added: "Gentleman, thank you."

___

Jon Gambrell can be reached at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.

MAIDEN AFRICAN PRIZE FOR LITERATURE LAUNCHED BY ETISALAT

Etisalat, the major telecommunication company of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), on Wednesday, June 5, 2013 announced the launch of the Etisalat Prize for Literature aimed at recognizing and celebrating writers and other members of the literary community across Africa. 

The Etisalat Prize for Literature is the first ever pan-African prize to encourage first time writers of published fiction novels. The prize will bring together high profile writers, book critics and academics from across the continent and beyond to identify new writers of African descent. 

"The Etisalat Prize for Literature is our way of sharing in the passions and aspirations of young and upcoming writers as well as breathing new life to the literary society," Steven Evans, the chief executive officer of Etisalat Nigeria, told reporters in Lagos.

Entries will be accepted for two categories, namely: Full length English fiction novels and Flash Fiction Short Stories, to be launched toward the end of the year and driven entirely via social media.

All entries will be scrutinized by a panel of four preselected judges chaired by Pumla Gqola, associate professor in the Department of African Literature at the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa) and one of South Africa's most celebrated intellectuals. Other judges are Zaks Mda, Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Ohio and winner of the Commonwealth Prize, Billy Kahora, Managing Editor of Kwani Trust, of the literary Journal Kwani and Sarah Ladipo Manyika, writer and academic.

These judges will work together to select the longlist as well as a shortlist of three novels and finally the winner who will be announced in February 2014.

2 Nigerians, 1 Ghanaian and a Colombian Named on Charges of Conspiracy

USDEA:AP file photo of Bags of confiscated cocaine are shown at the office of the Guinean Drug Enforcement Agency in Conakry, Guinea, on March 11, 2009. Two Nigerians Frank Muodun and Celestine Ofor Ojinweke, a Ghanaian Solomon Adelaquaeye and Colombian Samuel Antonio Pinedo-Rueda were named Wednesday, June 5, 2013, by the US Drug Enforcement administration on charges of conspiring to import heroin from West Africa to the United States by paying off an airport insider. Adelaquaeye, Muodun and Ojinweke were arrested in New York on May 9. Pinedo-Rueda was apprehended in Colombia on May 16 and awaiting extradition. US District Judge Ronnie Adams has been assigned the case.

Cabdriver [Solomon Okoroh] Dies After Pre-Dawn Shooting In Adams Morgan

By Justin Jouvenal
Washington Post, June 4, 2013

An outage cut the lights on Ontario Road NW in Adams Morgan early Tuesday, and then the shots began to ring out in the blackness — pep, pep, pep — as many as 20 in all.

Before the power came back on, a father of five who drove a cab at night so he could take his children to school lay dying on the street, a gun battle erupted between police and two men, and a family cowered as the gunmen came crashing through their door.

Both were captured, and one was charged with first-degree murder.

The chaos just around the corner from 18th Street NW’s busy stretch of bars and restaurants claimed the life of Solomon J. Okoroh, 57, of Glenarden and shocked longtime residents, who had thought such violence was part of the past in a neighborhood that has become one of the city’s most popular night-life destinations.

Witnesses said the events unfolded in seconds.

“It was terrifying,” Valerie Velazco said. “I heard screeching tires, glass shatter, and then I looked out my window and saw someone lying next to the cab in the street. Then the gunfire started.”

D.C. police said the incident began about 3:15 a.m., when officers in a robbery unit patrolling the 2400 block of Ontario Road saw a taxi drive by and heard a gunshot.
The cab crashed into a parking meter and a street sign, and the men — 32-year-old Ercell Overton of Northwest and 24-year-old Joshua King of Hyattsville — fled south on foot toward Kalorama Road, police said. Shortly after, a neighbor saw Okoroh, covered in blood, lying next to his cab.

Co-workers remembered Okoroh as a “proud father.”

Evelyn Ruiz, the owner of Classic Cab, said Okoroh had been a driver for her company for 15 years and had immigrated to the United States from Nigeria. One of Okoroh’s sons, Prince, is a guard on the Howard University basketball team and won a scholarship to attend the school.

Ruiz said one of Okoroh’s daughters had gone to a school prom in recent weeks at the Grand Hyatt Washington. Ruiz said that Okoroh regularly drove his fares to the hotel but that he had never been inside.

Okoroh rented a black car for the event and chauffeured his daughter. Ruiz said one of Okoroh’s thrills was finally stepping inside the hotel he had visited so many times when dropping off passengers.

A person who answered the door at Okoroh’s home said his family was too distraught to comment.

Ruiz said Okoroh picked up every fare. She hopes it didn’t get him killed.

“He always said he was here to make money, so it didn’t matter what race or nationality a customer was,” Ruiz said. “He wouldn’t pass up anyone.”

The brown-and-cream Classic Cab taxi remains where it crashed, with a shattered rear passenger window and an unclaimed receipt hanging from the meter.

Police chased the shooters down the block, and one fired shots at the officers, who then returned fire, authorities said.

Ten bullet holes dotted a painted fence next to the home of John and Jen Wilcox, who live at Kalorama and Ontario with their 12-year-old son.

The gunmen ran around the fence and either shot or kicked in the door to the Wilcoxes’ basement apartment, they said.

The Wilcoxes’ roommate, who declined to be named, said he was awakened by the crash of the taxi and fled through a back entrance of the basement apartment when he heard the gunfire. He said he made it out just seconds before the shooters spilled inside. In the darkness of the outage, he said, police confused him for one of the men.

“About 10 cops tackled me to the ground on Kalorama. . . . I was scared as hell,” the man said.

The Wilcoxes said they were in a second-floor office when police approached on the sidewalk below and told them, through a window, to stay put as officers searched the home for suspects. The family bolted the door and waited; the suspects were taken into custody in the home a short time later. They were not injured during the gun battle, and a gun was recovered, police said.

“Somewhere in the midst of all this craziness the lights came on,” Jen Wilcox said.
A Pepco spokeswoman said a power outage struck about 2,500 customers in Adams Morgan about 1 a.m. and was linked to an underground equipment failure. Power was restored by 6 a.m.

Okoroh was taken to a hospital, where he was declared dead.

Police said they are investigating whether Okoroh was shot as part of a robbery, a dispute or something else. Overton has been charged with first-degree murder, felony assault on a police officer and burglary. King has been charged with an unrelated probation violation.
Court records show that Overton has faced legal troubles, including guilty pleas for possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, attempted threats to do bodily harm and attempted possession of a controlled substance. Court records were not available for King, other than the alleged probation violation.

Violent crime has dropped dramatically in Adams Morgan in recent years, as it has across the city. According to police statistics, homicides dropped in the 3rd Police District from 20 in 2007 to 11 in 2011. Robberies fell less dramatically, from nearly 1,000 in 2007 to 829 in 2011.

Maggie Fazeli Fard and Jennifer Jenkins contributed to this report.

 

How Africa Can Feed The World

OTTAWA, June 4, 2013 /CNW/ - Neglect of agriculture has been a defining feature of Africa's economic policy over the last four decades. The future is more promising. Today Africa has become a major destination of agricultural foreign direct investment.

For example, Grow Africa, a consortium of foreign firms, has pledged to invest $3.5 billion in eight African countries. Grow Africa, seeded at the World Economic Forum, operates under the political guidance of the African Union with the technical support of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) agency.

Fostering sustainable agriculture in Africa will require significant investment in infrastructure, technical training(especially for women, creation of regional markets and the use of new technologies.

New challenges such as climate change and diversification of food sources demand the use of available technologies. New farm methods such as genetic modification, however, continue to generate considerable debate.

When GM crops were first commercially released in 1996, critics argued that they would only benefit industrialized countries. In 2012 emerging economies overtook industrialized countries as the main adopters of GM crops.

According to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications, from 1996 to 2011 transgenic crops added $98.2-billion to the value of global agricultural output, over 50 per cent of which accrued to emerging economies.

The use of transgenic crops has resuced the use of active pesticide ingredients by nearly 473 million kg. It also reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 23.1 billion kilograms, the equivalent of taking 10.2 million cars off the road.

Without transgenic crops, the world would have needed another 108.7 million hectares of land for the same level of output. The benefits to biological diversity from this technology have therefore been invaluable. On the economic front, nearly 15 million farmers and their families, estimated at 50 million people, have benefited from the adoption of transgenic crops.

But not all the regions of the world are reaping the full benefits of agricultural biotechnology. Of the 28 countries growing transgenic crops, only four (South Africa, Burkina Faso, Egypt, and Sudan) are in Africa.

Despite the initial slow pace of biotechnology adoption, the leapfrogging that occurred in mobile phones is on the verge of repeating itself in agricultural biotechnology. This is a result of the increasing capacity among African countries to absorb existing biotechnologies and use them to solve local problems.

Two examples underscore this point. In Nigeria scientists have developed a pest-resistant variety of the blackeyed pea, a subspecies of the cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), to control the insect Maruca vitrata. The pest destroys nearly$300-million worth of the crop annually. Pesticides worth $500-million are imported annually to control the pest. Africagrows 96 per cent of the 5.4 million tonnes consumed worldwide annually.

To solve the problem, scientists at the Institute for Agricultural Research at Nigeria's Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria have developed a transgenic blackeyed pea variety using insecticide genes from the Bacillus thuringiensis bacterium.

Another example is the spread of Xanthomonas wilt, a bacterial disease that attacks bananas. It is estimated that the disease costs the Great Lakes Region about $500-million annually, predominantly in Uganda. Ugandan researchers are working on a transgenic banana using genes extracted from sweet pepper (Capsicum annuum) to controlXanthomonas. Ugandan scientists have also developed Golden Bananas with enhanced Vitamin A content.

By Calestous Juma

Such new technologies are not silver bullets and need to be integrated into wider socio-economic systems. Their adoption, however, is currently hampered by restrictive regulations and inefficiencies in Africa's agricultural innovation systems. Much of the teaching in Africa is done in universities that do little research. At the same time, research in carried out in agricultural stations that do not do teaching. The two activities are hardly linked to farmers.

Improving the system will require bringing research, teaching and farm outreach under one roof. A way to achieve this is to create a new generation of agricultural research universities. Such universities need to be part of a wider system of innovation that includes improving interactions between academia, government, business and farmers.

There are two possible ways to help foster agricultural innovation. One is to add research functions to existing agricultural universities and strengthen their linkages to farming communities directly.

The second is to add academic programs to the research activities of the existing national agricultural research institutions (NARIs). Connecting NARIs to farmers in the private sector through extension services and commercialization projects would result in agricultural entrepreneurship.

Creating such institutions will also help maximize the support from new international partnerships seeking to scale up agricultural innovation.

Examples of such partnerships include collaborative efforts of the International Development Research Centre, theCanadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and McGill University to help promote the wider adoption of existing technologies.

Addressing the world's agricultural challenges requires us to rely more on evidence and foresight. As John F. Kennedy noted: "Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." We must think ahead.

Calestous Juma is Professor of the Practice of International Development and Faculty Chair of Innovation for Economic Development Program at Harvard Kennedy School. Follow him on Twitter at @calestous.

This editorial by Harvard University professor Calestous Juma is available for posting and publication free of charge. It originally ran on the Globe and Mail website on Monday, June 3, 2013.http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/how-africa-can-feed-the-world/article12305300/

SOURCE: International Development Research Centre