Nigeria: Enough is Enough! March

The gathering

Tomorrow morning, the youth of Nigeria will gather at the National Assembly in protest about current issues affecting the governing and progress of Nigeria.

Courtesy of the http://whereisyaradua.com website [1]

I would believe that the collective noun of youth probably pertains to everyone who is 35 years of age and below which from certain statistics represents the majority of the Nigerian population.

I am pleased that they have gathered together to provide a significant and noticeable constituency to the leadership of the country and hope that their demands are met with some form of positive response.

When I wrote [2] about the impending protest last week, I felt their demands were hardly visionary nor bold, they have somehow fine-tuned those demands but they are hardly earth-shaking as to convince me of their readiness to seize the initiative on the leadership of the country.

Answers not easy questions

For a long time, we have known that our politicians are not given to providing answers to questions no matter how easy they are; rather they can only be out-flanked by answers that trump the ready excuses that belittle the intelligence and ability of the young and vibrant.

Much as I support this protest in spite of the difficulties of gathering the kind of support that allows them to be a noticeable voice of reason with Nigeria, I do hope their next attempt of garnering support reaches beyond détente and the comfortable to the challenging, exemplary and future-looking.

As a first step, indeed – Enough is really Enough.

Sources

[1] Enough is Enough Nigeria! Logo/graphic courtesy of the http://whereisyaradua.com website

[2] Nigeria: Enough is Enough [akin.blog-city.com]

Nigeria: A dereliction dressed as an amnesty

Relearning the meaning of amnesty

I had to check the meaning of the word amnesty again because I was afraid its common usage was losing it primary context.

The Chambers 21^st Century Dictionary defines amnesty thus:

amnesty [1] noun (amnesties) 1 a general pardon, especially for people convicted or accused of political crimes. 2 a period of time when people can admit to crimes, hand in weapons, etc in the knowledge that they will not be prosecuted.

ETYMOLOGY: 16c: from Greek amnestia oblivion.

President offers amnesty

One should quote the Nigerian President verbatim [2] on this matter “We will grant amnesty to all those who are ready to lay down their arms. It will also include rehabilitating and integrating them into the system.” he said at a meeting of leaders of his political party.

The definition of amnesty suggests a number of considerations in the matter of militancy in the Niger Delta [3], the possibility that the brigands of lawlessness are also a political movement who are ready to admit to crimes and lay down their arms.

Well, it would appear the President has not read the situation well enough to appreciate what needs to be done.

The Genesis of the problem in the Niger Delta stems from the fact that the wealth of the nation derived from the lands, swamps and waters of that region has not benefited the indigenous people.

The leaders of an earlier political movement that included Ken Saro-Wiwa [4] agitated for recognition and compensation were murdered by the military regime of that time and since then the other groups that have supplanted that movement have menaced the region with militancy.

The problem still exists glaringly

The Federal Government has strong-armed and offered false hopes but failed to address the core issues either by engaging the oil companies constructively in corporate social responsibility or by taking away the premise that the militancy has of representing the people by offering the infrastructure and economic emancipation the people require.

The militants have a lucrative existence within that region, being able to trade arms, launch attacks that impact adversely on the oil producing infrastructure and engage in kidnapping for ransoms – the law enforcement and military authorities have ceded control writ large in the area.

Bereft of ideas and at the risk of one seeing every action of the government through the eyes of the inane rebranding Nigeria campaign the President is offering a well ensconced militancy an amnesty.

The idea of rehabilitating and integrating them into the system, whatever system means would have been plausible but there is no example of any of the indigenous people having been taken out of the quagmire of their suffering.

Offering pirates on the high seas paper boats in bowls of water is hardly a winning strategy, neither is compensating or appeasing militancy when the underlying grievances continue to exist, because other militants would rise to replace the ones that have been subsumed until the causative issues are properly tackled.

No confidence in the President

The main militant organisation has pooh-poohed the whole idea by first demanding the “demilitarisation of the delta, basic services for local communities, the release of jailed activists and compensation for oil pollution.”

Then in what shows as a complete lack of confidence or trust in what is supposed to be the legally constituted authority in Nigeria, they said that the context of amnesty, “will only be considered under a well co-ordinated peace arrangement, under the supervision of a respected international mediator.”

If President Yar 'Adua is able to rise this kind of challenge to both his authority and negotiating ability is left to be seen but I would contend that the issues in the Niger Delta would continue to hurt Nigeria until a visionary and pragmatic approach is adopted to alleviating the suffering of the people in whose name the militancy fights.

Honestly, I doubt the President has a clue and I would have to reluctantly concur with the militants, “MEND[5] will not lay down its arms because of a mere verbal statement from Mr Yar 'Adua.” It would appear Mr Yar 'Adua is not negotiating from a position of strength.

Sources

[1] Chambers Search Chambers

[2] Al Jazeera English - Africa - Nigeria offers delta rebels amnesty

[3] Conflict in the Niger Delta - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[4] Ken Saro-Wiwa - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[5] Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nigeria: Removing influence from selecting the cabinet

The President and his cabinet

This is where President Yar’Adua needs to begin to assert authority as the executive President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, that he has the final say about how he runs his cabinet and who he invites into that fold.

It is understandable that we have had to bear the cross of the rottenness of federal character that ensures representation at the federal level is evenly distributed across all states regardless of size, representation or population – in my view it is becoming a nightmare.

One of the problems there is, we end up with space-filling jobbers rather than the best qualified Nigerians for jobs that require competence, initiative, vision, discipline, principles and hopefully, less politics.

Too many pools very few talent pools

In fact, I would rather we had the original 12 States such that the pool of talent can be better gathered, but the tendency to tribalism and unidentifiable clans would almost always get in the way, because there are still some that believe that a job is best filled with sycophants and through nepotism rather than by merit.

Certain thugs who think they are leaders want to be able control the bodies they have put in these posts such that they can exact undue pressure and obtain favours in gratitude for endorsing under-qualified people who by rights should never be in those positions and they, the appointees know it.

But mostly there is this chauvinistic, Barbarian tendency for the power-brokers to wield political influence – there has to be chest-beating that ends with the ultimate putdown – I put you in your position you must respect me. It is a completely corrupt enterprise.

Now, it appears at the beginning of the second year of President Yar’Adua’s tenure, he has the opportunity to reshuffle his cabinet, boot out non-performers, reassign the talents and bring in fresh faces. We might expect a Government of all Talents (GOATs to be unkind).

The political system we have in Nigeria means that selection for ministerial posts would mostly go to card carrying members of the ruling party and a few stellar Nigerians we cannot afford to ignore as state quotas are filled up.

Busybody state governors

I am not surprised that state governors in some ways would want to have some say in the selection but really what they should be doing is offering a list of names and allowing the President to make his choices – they should not be promoting particular affiliations or associations – in fact, my fear is that they might have promised to guarantee posts for representatives of their state – that kind of attitude has to stop.

The cabinet is the President’s means of ensuring that his vision and the programmes of his party are executed by people he can trust, who have the competence to carry through their brief and excel in delivering results for the people of Nigeria without guile or dissimulation.

I cannot understand how the performance of a minister can be measured by the pork that has been delivered to their home states rather than what has been done for Nigeria as a whole.

Delivering pork is the work of the legislature, they are the direct representatives of their states and constituencies – ministers have a broader brief and state representation is the least significant of those.

The President’s prerogative

In fact, I do not see why the state governors should have to get on with the ministers from their states, the relationship should be benign and of no influence if any – state governors have enough on their plates to govern their states and bring results closer to the people with their commissioners than to be nosing around in the federal cabinet.

It should be the exclusive remit of the President and his advisers to determine which minister has not held their brief with competence or not performed, regardless of the state the minister represents or the concerns of the nosily idle governors.

He should put his foot down on this matter and the governors that feel so slighted because they cannot get their way should get busy with their day jobs, else the rule of law and the protection of the essence of our federalism should be the book thrown at them and the matter.

We have greater matters to deal with about Nigeria and we have to begin to accept that not every kinsman is the best qualified to perform if we are to build Nigeria into the great nation we all believe that it is.

Reference

Nigerian Tribune – The cabinet reshuffle rumours