Declaration of Emergency in Nigeria! Is it too little too late?

                In December of 2011 after the Christmas Day bombing, President Goodluck Jonathan missed the opportunity to address the Boko Haram issue head-on. Instead of resolving the terrorist problem the administration decided to zero in on taxing average and/or regular Nigerians with the Fuel Subsidy scheme on January 1st, 2012. Shock and Awe policies were rolled out to conflate the oil barons and marketers with ordinary Nigerians and the Islamic fundamentalism with oil subsidies.

                Those of us that stood up as Occupy Nigerian Movement protesters have been vindicated over and over again with the exposed corruption in the Petroleum sectors reaching up to the National Assembly membership and the explosion of terror in West Africa. Hopefully, with the eventual declaration of emergency against those that have perpetrated carnage on our homeland, other fights would emerge such as those again corruption, impunity, and unemployment. These scrutiny and measures of accountability should not be reversed for opponents of the regime.

Carnage in Northern Nigeria (article written in April 2011)

                Amnesty International, one of the premier human rights organizations characterized the incidents in the northern areas of the United Nations of Nigeria as riots and demonstrations. Thus equating the carnage to the demonstrations in Bahrain, Yemen and Syria where people are currently using peaceful and civil means to petition their governments. This mischaracterization is appalling because what took place in northern Nigeria was hundreds of bloodbaths, lynching, burning of innocent human beings, arson, and gross destruction of properties by Dictator Muhammadu Buhari’s supporters. With nearly 250people dead and close to 50,000 fellow Nigerians displaced, give it up to the perpetrators of inhumanity to remain indifferent. They have mastered the skills of committing mass murders while simultaneously cloaking in victim hood. Similar butchery was the primary reasons behind the Nigerian and Biafran genocidal wars.

                Contrary to revisionist historians after the 1966 coup, counter coup d'état, and extinction of some southeastern officers from the ranks of the Nigerian Army, our union was still standing. It was days of similar mass massacres like the world have just witnessed from April 17-18th 2011, that has continued sporadically from 1960’s until now, that forced the hands of the South-easterners to head back home to peace and safety. In the process they realized that their safety could not be protected in some parts of the Disunited Nations of Nigeria and were forced to declare independence in 1966. Unfortunately these shameless killings have continued unabated since then. The Nigerian and international press always report about these barbaric incidents as though they began after 1999 when the civilians took over from the military.

                However, Enough is Enough! How can northerners continue to preach “One Nigeria” only when they are holding on to the presidency? The sad reality is that they have controlled and/or occupied the said position for about 40years within our so-called 50years independence. In their time as rulers, the Northern Military Industrial Complex (NMIC) alias Army Arrangement have legitimatized corruption and mismanaged our national resources. The northern elites have set the country backwards about twenty-five years if not more with their incessant coups and dictatorships. This retardation in developments has been felt in every nook and cranny of the United Nations of Nigeria. With the marginalization of the Niger Delta and the assassination of Dr. Ken Saro Wiwa the veils were finally lifted off the eyes of the South-south. The south west including Awoist (who would like to focus on the prediction of Chief Awolowo that a Niger Delta man would become president someday) are beginning to understand that while the Southeasterners might allegedly play you wayo, some northerners are very willing to exterminate their fellow Nigerians.

                It is one thing to contest the votes/elections and the tabulations of the result but quite another to execute regional killing orgies. These ghastly acts were done to intimidate the masses who came out in droves to cast their votes all over the country. In the north, President Goodluck Jonathan got more than 25% (http://www.inecnigeria.org/results/states.php) of the votes in nearly a dozen states. So the vitriolic Congress for Progressive Change CPC) supported murdering quads wanted to silence the segment of the northern population that have realized that the Presidency is not the panacea to their problems. The CPC supporters wanted to terrorize the Independent National Election Commission (INEC) who conducted a commendable election. These killing thugs wanted to suppress the announcement of the election results. Why did CPC supporters not wait for the pronouncement of the outcome before going out to threaten and arrest our national security?

                Where were these hooligans, their parents, and their sponsors when Dictator Sani Abacha took the whole nation hostage and ostracized Nigerians from the African and global communities of nations? We could not participate in the African Cup of Nations in South Africa and we were suspended from the Commonwealth of Nations not for resisting imperialism but due to authoritarianism. Where were these miscreants when Dictator Abdulsalami Abubakar handed the presidency to Dictator Olusegun Obasanjo in 1999? Why was there no protest when Mr. Obasanjo and his pal Professor Maurice Iwu gave the post to President Umaru Yar’Adua in 2007? But they have the audacity to slaughter law abiding Nigerians. These nonsense needs to stop right now, we have to break the cycle of massacres, we cannot compensate our way out of these man made tragedies.

                Notwithstanding the concerns of Amnesty International the Nigerian government has a responsibility to use adequate force to defend law abiding citizens. While the observance of peaceful protest should remain sacrosanct the carnage that we have just witnessed in Nigeria should be prevented and suppressed with commensurable force to safeguard the lives of innocent law abiding citizens. The union of the United Nations of Nigeria cannot remain sacrosanct for long when it is a death sentence in northern Nigeria to be suspected of southern ethnicities, an Ancestor worshipper, a Christian, and a Muslim who votes for a Christian. My own sister (a Christian, an Igbo and Ijaw) supported and campaigned for Dictator Muhammadu Buhari, so what would the murderers do in her case?

                Moreover the fact is that people like Mr. Buhari and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar had sown the seeds of violence before the elections. They purposely used languages like “lynching” and the “inevitability of violence” to ginger up their supporters in preparation of the Saturday April 16, 2011 elections. Hence, Buhari did not see the need to call off his supporters from the streets while the killings went on for more than twenty four hours. Alhaji Abubakar wants to pay lip service to the so-called revered indivisibility of our nation when the lives and property of southerners and fellow northerners who voted their conscience is not guaranteed in the United Nations of Nigeria. Our people are nonchalantly orphaned, our parents are rendered childless through brutality, and others are maimed. The sanctity, safety, and respect of lives should be our primary sacrosanct obligation and not nationhood/religion.   

                Moreover, the Nigerian federal and northern state governments need to bow their heads in shame because of their negligence. They knew that some in northern Nigeria would turn to their tried and true part time of using tyrannical savagery. The stakeholders should have prepared for the worst while hoping for the best which many of us knew was not likely given the antecedents of some northerners. Heads of the Nigerian security apparatus need to immediately tender their resignations. Hopefully, contrary to press reports, Captain Emmanuel Ihenacho the Minister of Interior was relieved of his position for the ineptitude in providing security for our young national service coopers and the general public in the north. The expectation is that he was not suspended due to internal political considerations from Imo State. It would be a betrayal of the highest order to the victims if no one takes accountability for this perennial mayhem.

            Never Again should people be victimized in such callous ways with impunity. President Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan and the authorities need to establish the Emergency Response Tactical Teams (ERT) in all northern states that have a past history of perpetrating this carnage. The ERTs should train and practice the needed skills to protect the general public and should never be deployed to disrupt non-violent protest. These teams should be able to be organized within 15minutes of any disturbances when the lives and properties of individuals from the United Nations of Nigeria are under attack. Our governments should mandate the ERT to protect our visitors too. We must protect the sanctity of the African lives.           

                                          Nnamdi F. Akwada MSW, BA is a Social Justice Activist     


 

 

 

 

President Jonathan the Lap Dog of Corruption- In the Era of Boko Haram

In the 1980’s Port-Harcourt (The Garden City) was a dynamic place with a characteristic tranquil and restive edge. I remember going to the Saint Mary’s Catholic Church with my siblings by a taxi on those weekends when my parents would drive to the Imo State country side en-route to my father’s village. After church we would cross Aggrey road near the Lagos bus stop, Town area and visit with our older cousins Amoni, Bright, and Ibinabo. My cousins, Amoni and Bright were gainfully employed secondary school graduates at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation NNPC. On most occasions when we trooped in to request for snacks and ice cream, one of my cousins whom we called uncle due to the age difference, would be on the oil rigs preoccupied in an honest day’s work. While my cousin Ibinabo was at the Rivers State University of Science and Technology, his brothers were working at the Eleme refinery and the oil rigs with their high school certificates. These days, university graduates are unemployed and constitute an ever increasing proportion of the underemployed in our so-called giant of Africa.

            Interestingly, those days when my younger ones and I took the cab (a drop) once or twice a month to the Catholic Church soon came to an end, after I discovered the corruption and hypocrisy within organized religion. Thankfully, I did not have to wait for contemporary times to discern the multilayered ongoing worldwide scandals in the church. As a teenager, I opted for the Pentecostal and evangelical churches that unbeknownst to me came out of the so-called Bible belt in the United States otherwise known as the Deep South. Most present day Nigerians and Africans are still ignorant of the fact that some of the same folks from the West that want them to be born-again have placed policies and structures to impede African American development through mass incarceration, structural inequality, and disenfranchisement in the United States. Indeed the hypocrisy in the church is not unlike what we experience in other religions and politics. Nigerian superstar Majek Fashek informed us back in the day that Religion is Politics.

            Subsequently we have an emission of religion, ethnic intolerance, nepotism, and corruption in today’s’ political dispensation that threatens to untangle the United Nations of Nigeria. On the right corner we have President Goodluck Jonathan and his corrupt lieutenants who sold Nigerians the mannequin bill of transformation. The President and the likes of Okonjo-Iweala, Sanusi, Madueke, Aganga, and Onwuliri do not remember or just do not care that close to 1000 fellow Nigerians gave their lives for the introduction and realization of a new political democratic era. In Jonathan, we thought we saw an individual from the academy that could rise above the dictates of the Northern Military Industrial Complex NMIC. We were under the impression that he could resist the trappings of authoritarianism and corruption of former government officials. But our aspirations (luck) is been tarnished as this administration goes about desecrating the memories and labours of our contemporary heroes of democracy. The young men and women of the National Youth Service Corp NYSC who were murdered during and after the elections are treated as though they died in vain.

Meanwhile President Jonathan has becomes a lap dog of corruption for international and national syndicates. President Christine Largade of the International Monetary Fund IMF, who wants to use discredited neo-liberalism economic theories to increase the number of poor individuals on the African continent, is an example of such corrupt international principles. She visited Nigeria to reinforce the inside lobbying efforts of Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala the Nigerian Finance minister and former vice president of the World Bank. After meeting Ms. Largade on December 19th, 2011 and notwithstanding the horrendous Christmas day church bombing that killed nearly 50 people; the call for religious and ethnic repatriations; the call to arms by the various tribes; massive displacement and hysteria, we received the New Year’s gift from President Jonathan that increased petroleum prices by more than 100%. These were the rude awakening that became a catalyst for the Occupy Nigeria Movement in our country and in the Diaspora.   

 Rather than focusing on the cabal of Nigerian petroleum importers and bunkery organizers the government decided to punish the same regular and poor people who elected them. Under the guise of deregulation and privatization the previous military and civilian administrations had conveniently lined up their cronies as venture capitalist in the petroleum sectors to the disadvantage of the less privileged people. In a classical example of double speak these fat cats increase the cost of petroleum production in the nation through various direct federal government sanctioned subsidies/fleecing of the treasury.

Instead of competition, efficiency, and price decrease we became saddled with monopolies and wastes in the highest levels. As a result there emerged millionaires and billionaires who could careless about the wellbeing of other Nigerians. According to Dictator Babangida some of those folks took record time to criminally amass the wealth that he painstakingly took 8years to steal. They became more interested in maintaining the status quo and placed some of their ill gotten loots as hedges towards the realization of the peoples backed Jonathan’s presidency. The names of these culprits were miraculously released by representatives of our National Assembly of disrepute and pimps. Our so-called representatives wanted to shift the criticism from the public on account of the earth shaking salaries, allowances, bonuses they steal for doing next to nothing.    

Additionally, these developments have not slowly down our race to the bottom and the corruption in Abuja. Nigerians have become tennis balls in the hands of the 1% uber rich on the left corner, who insist on draining us until the last blood and/or oil. At the national level corruption is manifested in the economic and security purviews, while President Jonathan continues in the lap dog status. Boko Haram suspects are disappearing from law enforcement custody as fast as dollars and naira are milked from our coffers. In the likes of Inspector General of Police Hafiz Ringim we see a level of malfeasances and coalition with the elements that are killing innocent law enforcement officers, Christians, and Muslims, whereas the Northern elites who promised us these mayhem are protected in their posh mansions with a combination of their private security details and the national security apparatus.

Coincidentally Mrs. Diezani Allison-Madueke wants Nigerians that cannot afford three balanced meals, lack stable electricity, and basic healthcare to sacrifice for the nation when her children are frolicking worldwide. She appeared in front of the Nigerian National Assembly and did not know how much oil is produced and/or consumed in the country. The Minister of Petroleum Mrs. Madueke does not know the whereabouts of nearly $2billion petroleum funds. In the National Assembly hearing Mrs. Madueke pointed the finger at the Minister of Finance Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala who reciprocated the gesture. Despite these systematic fraudulent anomalies, both ministers are not in danger of loosing their jobs. We have the emergence of a Southern Delta Industrial Complex SDIC, with all the surviving ex-governors of Rivers State and Bayelsa State residing in Abuja.

Despondently, the similarities between the SDIC and the NMIC Northern Military have not gone unnoticed by the masses. The SDIC political authority and economic realignment is devoid of pursuing policies for the betterment of the Nigerian people. This is reflected in the combined difficulties of increasing fuel prices on people and the ineptitude in combating the constant Boko Haram massacres. Our so-called officials in positions of trust do not exude confidence in the general public. This was exemplified by the reports of Ms. Vera Ezimora about the outing of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Professor Viola Onwuliri in the Washington DC and Maryland area. Her callous remarks were “We have one hundred and sixty million people. If 2million are on the streets, then that means one hundred and fifty-eight million are in their homes.” Professor Onwuliri could not reckon the significance of 2million people on the streets of Nigeria who were demanding for a new discourse and the rescinding of the fuel taxation on the poor. These were the same people that President Goodluck Jonathan shamefully intimidated with the deployment of the Nigerian Army, ironically when northern Nigeria is awash with Boko Haram operatives.   

Consequently, this incompetence has quickening an unexpected awakening in the Nigerian people who have yearned for a transparent and just government since the evolution of the fourth democratic republic. Nigerians are now asking about the much acclaimed transformational governance which is nowhere in site. Some of us in the Diaspora have made a resolution to standup from the sidelines, and others have recommitted their energies to the actualization of peoples’ influenced changes in Nigeria. We plan to convene a civil society; social and economic justice led Sovereign National Conference in the United States. We are eventually going to bring this conference back to the African shores for forward consultations to seek a way forward, that is absent of tribalism, religious intolerance, injustice, and corruption. Our objectives include the implementation of paradigms to ensure accountability and job creation. The goals will also involve the use of national resources to provide livable employment and healthcare opportunities for Nigerians. We are going to strive for a society where 99% of the population can survive with an honest wage.

             Nnamdi Frank Akwada MSW, BA is a Social Justice Activist

Executive Director African Diaspora Institute and US African Cultural Festival

http://www.usafricanculturalfestival.com/

Member- Occupy Nigeria Movement Washington DC

http://nnamdiakwada.blogspot.com/

Washington DC Coordinator: Let There Be Light In Nigeria- Nigeria Million March

www.nigerianmillionmarch.com     

Reference:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjeUJt_tunU

http://saharareporters.com/article/my-meeting-professor-viola-onwuliri-minister-foreign-affairs

Occupy Nigeria Movement Washington DC- Call to Action

On January 1st 2012, the Nigerian people at home and in the Diaspora awoke to the unitary imposition of Petroleum Taxes on the citizens of the United Nations of Nigeria. This precipitous decision by President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration occurred on the same week that Nigerians were slaughtered in Niger State during a Christmas Day service by the regional northern Nigerian organization Boko Haram. In evoking the memories of the Nigerian and Biafra genocidal war the erstwhile organization also called on all Christians in the north to head back to the south irrespective of their years of residency and ethnic affiliations. Boko Haram statements also encouraged northerners in the south to come back to the north. However President Jonathan and his officials decided to apply shock doctrine tactics on regular and poor Nigerians with the so-called removal of fuel subsidy in the height of these unresolved national chaos. These nonchalant actions have precipitated a people’s popular movement against the actions of the government which the labour unions came around to join and against the continued pogrom of Boko Haram.

Consequently Nigerians at home and abroad have been on the streets since January 9th in protest against said tax hikes. At the Washington DC Occupy Nigeria Movement the current developments in Nigeria on January 16, 2012 have not weakening our convictions to keep fighting for less privileged Nigerians. President Jonathan has pegged the taxes at 97 naira per liter and simultaneously ordered the Nigerian Army into the streets of Lagos to intimidate peaceful protesters. On the other hand the NLC and TUC have betrayed the Nigerian people that started the peaceful protest. The labour unions have conducted Nicodemus style negotiations with government officials who seem devoid of conscience and should have reduced their own bonuses, allowances, and salaries by 50% before inflicting more hardships on ordinary people. These so-called negotiations were missing members of the social and economic justice activism communities in Nigeria.

After throughout consultations and deliberations the Occupy Nigerian Movement in Washington DC calls on President Jonathan to immediately redeploy our troops from the streets of Lagos and into those enclaves of Boko Haram. The Lagos State governor Mr. Babatunde Fashola should immediately assign the police in Lagos to protect peaceful protesters and properties instead of offering non-denials. Nigerians have the right to assembly and petition their government and those inalienable rights should not be infringed upon. We call on fellow compatriots to go back to the streets in demonstrations against the fuel taxes and the Boko Haram menace.

Nigerians need to get back on the streets to force our government to actually rescind the price of fuel back to 65 naira per liter, stop the carnage of Boko Haram, and address officially sanctioned corruption. Nigerians in the Diaspora understand that the quandary for President Goodluck Jonathan is if he should support the people who voted for him or the people that sponsored his elections. We realize that the clever by a dime so-called elites and fund hedgers have also activated their trump card of Boko Haram to place our president on a tight leash just in case he has any cute ideas. These strategies can be juxtaposed against those of the Republicans and Wall Street executives in the United States. After the so-called change elections and knowing that President Barack Obama might comply with the people’s desire for change, the conservatives came up with their game plan. Wall Street had funded our Community Organizer's election but also knew that their financial crimes (mortgage fraud, credit swaps, hedging, derivatives etc.) were enormous. So that decided to cooperate with the Conservatives, the free market guys that provide subsidies to themselves and their business partners. They joined forces to use Astroturf groups to attack Mr. Obama. President Jonathan occupies a similar dilemma and needs to decide what constituencies to serve.

Thus, the Occupy Nigeria Movement Washington DC will be protesting at the Nigerian Embassy in Washington DC, from 12pm -2pm on Wednesday January 18, 2012. We pray on fellow Nigerians at home and in the Diaspora to continue their peaceful protest until we eventually get a transformational and representative government that listens to the aspirations of the people with regards to fuel taxation on the poor, corruption, and effectively deals with the Boko Haram situation. We also call on protesters to remain peaceful and orderly during these demonstrations.

Date: Wednesday January 16th, 2012

Location: 3519 International Court NW Washington DC

Arrival Time: 11:30am

Rally Time: 12:00pm

Dispersal Time: 2:00pm

For More Information Contact:

Estella Ogbonna DC Activist

ms.estella@estellacouture.com,  www.estellacouture.com,  www.fashionforthenations.org

Harrison “Harry Baba” Nwozo, Executive Director, TribeX International

Tribex2000@yahoo.com

Emilia Jones Esq. Activist

Akpabot92@gmail.com

Ifeanyi Nwoko, DMV Activist

okeanyi@gmail.com

Nkeiru Ogbuokiri-Ojo, Washington DC Activist

nkiru@live.com

Seun Akinsanya, Activist

seun@theseunakinsanyaproject.com, www.theseunakinsanyaproject.com

Vera Ezimora, Writer, Blogger, Host

vera@verastic.com, www.verastic.com,

William Bikia Idoniboye

djbixx@hotmail.com,  www.djbixx.com

Oby Nwaogbe, Director, Producer

Oby234@gmail.com, www.oboneproductions.com

Chika Uwazie, Youth Activist

Chikaodinaka@gmail.com

Nnamdi F. Akwada, Social Justice Activist

Executive Director, US African Cultural Festival/ African Diaspora Institute

Washington DC Coordinator: Let There Be Light In Nigeria- Nigerian Million March

nakwa001@gmail.com,  www.nigerianmillionmarch,  www.usafricanculturalfestival.com

Let There Be Light In Nigeria- Nigerian Million March and African Diaspora Institute Press Release- On the Pseudo Fuel Subsidy Removal

The Let There Be Light In Nigeria- Nigerian Million March and the African Diaspora Institute members in the Diaspora and in Nigeria declare our solidarity and fraternity with all peace loving Nigerians that have occupied the Nigerian streets from Lagos to Port-Harcourt, Ilorin to Kebbi, Abuja to Kano, and Bauchi to Warri, to say no to the removal of the pseudo fuel subsidies. We support the actions of social activists, human rights organizations, labour unions, students, and other regular Nigerians who have asserted their rights to peacefully assemble and petition their government. Law enforcement officers should resist all commands to intimidate, punish, and assault their fellow compatriots. The death of the heroic fuel hike protester Mr. Muyideen Mustapha in Illorin Kwara state should be immediately investigated and the culprits brought to justice.  

The African Diaspora Institute and the Let There Be Light In Nigeria organizations also rebuke the President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration for introducing shock doctrine strategies on the Nigerian people. It is unseemly, unconscionable, and sadistic that few days after the Christmas Day Boko Haram bombings in Niger state, the massacres in Ebonyi state, and other civil upheavals including regional religious and ethnic inspired displacements, that our government would hastily implement fuel hikes to inflame the masses and subjugate us to further economic hardships. We call on the administration to desist from subsidizing corruption on the backs and accounts of regular Nigerians.

Instead Dr. Jonathan, Vice President Namadi Sambo and the rest of their economic team should go after the petroleum cabals that have frustrated our efforts to refine oil at home and have reliable electricity. Why is this administration hell bent on rubbishing the constituents that voted for them less than a year ago? They ought to realize that the days of passivity and apathy when they could remain invincible to the yearnings of the United Nations of Nigeria citizens are over. We urge the government to listen to the demands of our people and not the so-called experts from the International Monetary Fund IMF and World Bank, which have been monetizing European governments and banks for close to 24months.

            Consequently we demand the immediate rescinding of the fuel and energy taxes. The cabal-like individuals and families that are hamstringing the government should be confronted soonest and our policies should be structured for the betterment of the regular Nigerian. We insist that the President Jonathan’s administration should tackle corruption, insecurity, impunity, injustice, unemployment while increasing transparency and accountability. Members of our organizations ask the Trade Union Congress TUC, Nigeria Labour Congress NLC, and Nigerians in general to press on with the credible ultimatum. The Let There Be Light In Nigeria-Nigerian Million March and the African Diaspora Institute organizations also calls for the resignation of Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke the Minister of Petroleum Resources. Mallam Lamido Sanusi and Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s resignations should also be gladly received by the president if they are adamant about this wrongheaded fuel hike policies.

            Nigerians in the Diaspora intend to consolidate our energies with the Occupy Nigeria Movement by holding support rallies in the United States and around the world. We know that if the current administration is serious they will tackle the subsidies and monopolies that the oil barons enjoy from manipulating the petroleum production chains rather than taxing regular and poor Nigerians. What about the fight against terrorism, insecurity, and unemployment?        

Signed by

Nnamdi F. Akwada   

Executive Director African Diaspora Institute

http://www.usafricanculturalfestival.com/

nakwa001@gmail.com

Washington DC Coordinator- Let There Be Light In Nigeria

Doyin Olagbeji

Founder and Convener Let There Be Light In Nigeria- Nigerian Million March

www.nigerianmillionmarch.com

mmmproject@nigerianmillionmarch.com