Another Bloody Encounter Between Shiites and the Army in Zaria

                                            Army Officers Trying to Calm the Crowd

A week ago, there was a bloody encounter involving Shi'a adherents who blocked a road through which the Nigerian Army Chief was supposed to pass for official assignment. Although the country has witnessed clashes between Sunni and Shi'a Muslims in the past, in recent years the army has been increasingly goaded into unnecessary bloody encounters. The recent clash was predictable and the accompanying video shows that the Muslims were not ready to back down. In fact, you can hear some of them say in the Hausa language; they don't care being shot at because they are used to it. As the minutes passed, high ranking officers of the Nigerian Army who accompanied their Chief could be heard trying to calm the crowd by reasoning with the leaders and restraining their subordinates from shooting at the irate protesters. The reason for the restraint is probably the fact that a similar scenario occurred last year, not too far from the where the latest encounter took place with loss of lives. During that encounter, the sons of Ibrahim El-Zakyzaky and other Shi'a Muslims were reportedly killed. 

The problem of Muslim lawlessness in Nigeria is nothing new since the early eighties to the present. For the past several years the Shi'a in Zaria, where their leader is headquartered have engaged in unauthorized processions and arbitrarily shutting down major roads without warning or security clearance. The cause of last year's crisis is similar to the present one, when the same sect decided to block another road while soldiers were trying to make their way through.

The government needs to wake up to its responsibility of maintaining law and order. No one should be above the law and no one has the right to block common streets or roads used by all. The latest encounter between soldiers and Ibrahim El-Zakyzaky's followers is a sad reminder of what can happen when there is deliberate acceptance or disinterestedness in maintaining the rule of law. There appears to be worldwide condemnation of the army for using excessive force but the Kaduna State government is giving the army benefit of doubt. And yet again, in 2015, the death toll from a religious themed crisis is totally unacceptable. The most agonizing thing was watching the corpses being robbed of valuables.

In the chequered history of religious crisis in Nigeria, the government has been reluctant to act with any modicum of precision or decisiveness. After the clashes, expensive fact-finding missions are instituted, but this has not solved the perennial occurrence of religious riots because their recommendations are never implemented. 

Africa and Africans must learn that whether it is Sunni or Shi'a extremism, the well-being of the people of the continent is more important than killing or  dying for a god unable or unwilling to fight for himself.

 
         Dead Shi'a Adherents After the Carnage
                 [viewer discretion is advised] 

Car Theft Racket in Toronto Linked to Nigerian Cult?

It is not often that you hear of established rackets based in Nigeria and other parts of Africa doing things that belong in Mafia epics. 

Obviously there is a problem of missing vehicles making their way from the Greater Toronto Area, through the coastal shipping lines of Canada and ending up on the shores of West Africa - Quite ingenious! But for the wrong reasons.

 

Members of shadowy group called the Black Axe [a cult born in a Nigerian University in the mid seventies] have been linked to an established, methodical car theft ring that involve workers at Service Ontario, car dealership hands, and international shippers.

Biafra II: Putting the Cart before the Horse

BIAFRA AGITATORS MARCHING

 

Biafra in its second inception is making the same mistakes that made the first effort a crass failure. The first Biafra in its death throes predictably gave rise to the current northern political/military hegemony in Nigeria with its attendant assault on citizenship and nationhood. Biafra II is just as misguided, cheaply emotional, unprepared and downright comical as the first one.

Biafra as a concept of self-determination and emancipation from perceived oppression is noble and there is nothing wrong with people seeking to govern themselves the way they deem fit. But before there can be self-determination there must be a 'self' itching for an existential birth. Because the definition of what constitutes Biafra II is so nebulous, an otherwise prima facie sane movement has been reduced to the blabbing of half-illiterates who invoke a rather unconcerned Chukwu Okike Abiama as their guide.

Part of what destroyed the first Biafra secession bid under Ojukwu was his somewhat selfish exploitation of the raw emotions unleashed by the pogroms on Igbos in the north after the first military coup in Nigeria. It is true that the Igbos were deliberately targeted and vilified because of their perceived complicity in the planning, execution and trivialization of the loss of the northern political and military elites during the coup. But the anger generated should have been channelled towards a quite build-up of resources, goodwill and economic consolidation of the southeastern part of the country. Ojukwu should have forged a solid framework for the development of his region instead of leading the people through an emotional roller coaster that ended in mass graves.  With a solid southeast and deliberate cultivation of regional and international alliances, the demand for autonomy could have stood a better chance than what eventually happened. Aba, Onitsha, Nnewi and other hubs of trade should have been turned into world-class industrial hubs when they had the chance. Unfortunately, these cities are now symbols of lost possibilities despite the ingenious achievements of the Igbo people during the civil war.

If you listen to the IPOB broadcasts, you begin to wonder what some of the contributors are thinking or drinking. The contributors, egged on by their 'Director' or 'Deputy Director' assume contrived names for places like Port Harcourt [Igwocha] and assume that Niger Delta, parts of Benue and Kogi would go with Biafra II when the chips are down. They declare that any tribe whose women tie two-piece wrapper must be Biafra leaning! The question is; what has IPOB done in any of those areas as a movement? Come to think of it, what has MASSOB or Ohaneze Indigbo done other than collecting dues, seeking government appointments, creating nuisance by issuing illegal license plates and reminding everyone of the UN charter on self-determination? Where are the hospitals, schools, trade institutes and agricultural communes that could lead to self-sufficiency? Autonomy no be for mouth o. A movement this important must not be left to just propagandizing because there are real problems here and real people.

Chinua Achebe once said the problem of Nigeria was that of leadership. True. There is a painful lack of leadership in Igboland and the south generally. The governors, senators, priests and many of the so-called leaders of thought [-lessness] from the southeast are in it to feather their nests. There is no unified front to fight common problems affecting the people; and as it was before 1967, so it is now. The result is that the common people, whom I totally support, cling to whatever would ease their pain, hence the Nnamdi Kanu phenomenon. But Kanu and his comrades need not shout their intentions or go online and on camera to solicit for arms to fight the Nigerian state at a gathering in the US! Na which kind freedom fighter be dis wey all in strategy dey exposed like the private parts of a goat? 

The real revolution that Biafra II needs should be based on subtle but deliberate grass root mobilization for economic stability, security, social consciousness and societal rebirth. This mobilization, if carried out honestly [with serious emphasis on honesty], would not produce parasitic governors, commissioners or senators but accountable public officials. Chukwu Okike Abiama has already given the natural ability to achieve this to the Igbo, so why call on Him to fight using carnal weapons. The southeast/south-south axes have all the human and natural resources to create a viable state. But the fear is that without stabilizing structures and establishment of trust, achieving Biafra II would lay the groundwork for Biafra III within the separate state! 

If Biafra II does its homework, it would not need to solicit anyone to join its movement because the effects of the movement would be felt all over Nigeria without firing a single shot. It is this position of strength that should be sought first, and not prematurely engaging in the comical vituperation plaguing cyberspace and forced protests leading to unfortunate killing and maiming of innocent lives.

Nigeria: Our Ministers No Get Time For Book O! 

Buhari with Nigeria's new cabinet Minsters

Successive governments in Nigeria actively engage in fads, ideas or gimmicks in order to define their miserable tenures. The online attempt at encouraging Nigeria's Federal Ministers to read by suggesting reading lists is nonsensical.  On the face of it, reading challenges the individual by opening possibilities, maturing the mind and generally creating an educated and informed person that is capable of adapting and contributing to the progress of his or her environment. The ideas gained from books must be adapted to local conditions in order for the society to benefit from erudition. For the Nigerian elite, their reading list should not consist of books but a forced immersion into the Nigerian condition.

The Federal Ministers should carry out their daily duties in darkness [glorified with lanterns and candles] like most Nigerians, on a daily basis, so they can 'read' about electrical power. Keke NAPEP should be their official means of transportation so they can 'read' the bad roads and maddening traffic. When they are sick, the best thing is to take their miserable persons to the village community clinics so they can 'read' about healthcare in the country. All their children should undergo education from kindergarten to secondary level in selected villages [contact me for details] across the nation so they can 'read' the educational system. All ministers should subsist on the country's minimum wage monthly, so they can 'read' what minimum wage is worth. All security personnel and official cars attached to them and their families should be withdrawn so they can 'read' about fuel scarcity and security challenges facing the common man. 

Our problem is not about a 'book-culture' deficient governance because we tend to have 'cultured and learned' men and women in government; the fact is that governance in Nigeria brims with parasitic, conniving, thieving and most importantly, unaccountable people with democratic pretensions.  They quote western democratic pedigrees and laws when they seek advantages, or to justify their kleptomania but are eerily silent when it comes to their responsibilities - at which point, their philosophical pretension dies and their assumed wisdom withers at its roots. 

The intellectualization of ideas from books is quite different from intellectualizing the Nigerian condition or the willingness to do something about it. Federal Ministers know that there is poverty in the land and they understand the Nigerian condition. Long before becoming ministers, they felt what the common man felt and understood his pains because they lived and had to interact with real Nigerians every day. But being in government and in power in Nigeria comes with the advantage of having your ruffled feathers smoothed out; your needs are met, and all you have to swear to, is maintaining the status quo. Things don't look so desperate when you are in government with a retinue of aids that are ready to kill on your behalf.

A former aid to the Jonathan administration recently averred that the president was interested in making his cabinet an informed one. Jonathan, according to the aid, encouraged the provision of books from foreign and Nigerian authors and cabinet meetings sometimes were opportunities for book reviews! That was fantastic, but a total waste of time. How government-induced reading clubs directly solve the problem of infrastructure, health, education and security in the country is anyone's guess - a government that shared trillions [see Dasukigate] of dollars to political vampires in order to get re-elected. It is better to have a president and a cabinet that understands the urgency of provision of roads and electricity as a right instead of those revelling in their grasp of Schopenhauer, Hume, Kant or Achebe. Schopenhauer ko, sopono ni - wetin concern monkey with flyover? 

There is a total disconnection between the grasp of the world's intellectual corpus and its application in solving Nigeria's problems. This is because as a nation, we have not come to terms with what it means to be a Nigerian; what the rulers owe citizens and what citizenship rights are inalienable.

Recently, a governor said, “In the last two years, I have been busy with opposition, new political party and elections. I used to read a book a week when I was less busy. But now, I just read files and documents and so on. My advice to anyone that thinks being Governor is nice, don’t try it. You don’t get to read; you don’t have a life.”

If the rulers don't 'have a life,' it means they are mostly on autopilot when discharging the affairs of state. Without time for reflection and study, the mind of rulers, become numb to entreaties from less paranoid minds. 

When the Nigerian political system is all about seeking, stealing, and holding unto power, instead of service to the people, desperation becomes the norm and desperate men eventually eat themselves, and unfortunately the nation.