Nigerian politicians politicize and weaponize Islam to hoodwink the ignorant

 By Eze Eluchie, Esq.

 

It was with astonishment that news that some State Governors in Nigeria, (Bala Mohammed of Bauchi, Nasir Idris of Kebbi, and Abba Kabir Yusuf of Kano) had in a most macabre move, opted to shut down schools in their states for the duration of the Muslim period of fasting – the month of Ramadan.

 

One wonders, how did these politicians arrive at this brain wave? Was anything found amiss with the status quo? What was wrong with the previous practice when schools, in some areas, where allowed to close an hour or two earlier than normal? This clearly dense act, which had never been tried in Nigeria, was clearly to elicit opposition from the generality of the public and position the governors in question as being ‘defenders of the Islamic faith’, and precipitate another ‘religious crisis’ in Nigeria.

 

Politicians, bereft of any real governance skills, and with no plans to alleviate their peoples’ sufferings or address their concerns, often resort to stoke primordial embers (ethnic, religious or otherwise) to sustain themselves in office and weave a cocoon of relevance. The politicization and weaponization of Islam to hoodwink the ignorant in their States, has become a regular pastime of some rulers from the Northern fringes of Nigeria, where the contraptions dubious and unreliable population figures presume a majority of people are of the Islamic faith.

 

When it is realized that in core Islamic States such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, etc. the governments don't close schools for Ramadan, but merely shorten the length of the school day, it becomes necessary to inquire into the motive of the political rulers who use Islam as a cover to exploit the population over whom they are supposed to govern. Why are these Nigerian pretenders being more Islamic than the owners of the faith, the Custodian of the Two Holy Temples?

 

What efforts are these religious pretenders in Nigeria making to ensure that the Islamic (Shari'a) penalties for corruption (a pastime of theirs) is implemented? No this wouldn't concern them as they would all have lost limbs in the process. These rulers would rather distort, destroy and rubbish the future of the children of the peoples of their states, ensuring the population is consigned to endemic ignorance, whilst their own children are shipped abroad to the choicest schools in Europe, the Americans and Arabia.

 

The inability of the Nigerian contraption to frontally address the bastardization of religion for political goals is the bane of the country and has ensured that Nigeria is consigned to the backwoods of civilization.

 

Efforts by some unscrupulous politicians to distort the enshrined secular status of Federal Republic of Nigeria will yet lead the territory to unsavory ends. The need for a holistic renegotiation and restructuring of Nigeria gets clearer to all.

 

Shame on religious charlatans

 

Picture: Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, one of those who have decreed the closure of schools during Ramadan

In Gaza, the World failed, and is failing, in its Responsibility to Protect (R2P) Palestinians

 

by Eze Eluchie

 

As bombs fell on private residences in the Balkans, slicing limbs off and splattering blood across neighborhoods, and as the Serbs congregated Bosniaks in Srebrenika for what would ultimately result in a massacre, the real time beaming of the revolting images into homes across the world spiked palpable revulsion at the inability of the international community to effectively and timeously intervene to stem the atrocities being televised. There later was some intervention – but only after thousands had been slaughtered.

 

Less than a decade later, the gory spectacle of whole families and villages being rounded up by machete wielding murderous mobs, who smashed skulls, slit throats and set fire to entire communities, actions which made many across continents cringe in horror, proved simply too much for many to comprehend and rationalize why the countries which bordered Rwanda, or the broader international community, could not simply move in and come to the assistance of the hapless victims of genocide. The world watched in consternation as over 800,000 people were killed in an orgy of ethnic violence within 100 days – a killing spree that when one factors in the reality that the world watched it evolve and did nothing to stop it, questioned the commonality of our humanity.

 

Events which assault our common humanity

Reeling from the seeming helplessness with which the world observed mass atrocities which were televised live, via international broadcast channels, into homes across the continents, there was a convergence of opinions that there simply must be a mechanism through which the international community can intervene in conflicts wheresoever it was felt that our collective sense of humanity was being violated. It was also taken as a given that the doctrine of sovereignty of States cannot serve to prevent other States from intervening to protect victims of egregious crimes, when the State which has that primary duty is of protection of its population is incapable of according such and or is the perpetrator

 

The concern of humanity regarding sovereignty questions raised against international interventions where a State is incapable of protecting its residents from serious crimes, was aptly captured in Year 2000 Millennium Report of former United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, presented to the UN where he asserted: “If humanitarian intervention is, indeed, an unacceptable assault on sovereignty, how should we respond to a Rwanda, to a Srebrenica, to gross and systematic violation of human rights that offend every precept of our common humanity?”.

 

In response to Kofi Annan’s query, diverse ideas were enunciated by diverse think-tanks across the globe, but the response that quickly gained acceptance across divides was contained in the report of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS) set up by the Canadian Government which postulated that there ought to be a shift in responsibility to the broader international community in instances where a State fails to protect its people either due to a lack of willingness or ability. The broader international community at that stage, assumes a Responsibility to Protect (R2P) the peoples whose State lacks the ability or is unwilling to protect.

 

After fine-tuning the submissions of the Canadian ICISS by various High Level Panels within the UN system, the R2P was finally adopted by the Heads of States and Government at the 2005 World Summit, and had three ‘pillars’, to wit:

a.      * Every State had a responsibility to protect all peoples within its borders;

b.     * The broader international community should help States attain their responsibility in (a) above; and

c.      * The broader international community has a responsibility to use diplomacy, peaceful means or force to protect peoples where their State is incapable or unwilling to accord such protection

The third ‘pillar’, which authorizes foreign interventions in the affairs of a State which has failed, or is incapable of protecting its own peoples, has proved the most contentions. 

 

Recourse to R2R

The first and second pillars of R2P has been cited in addressing domestic violence in diverse African countries, such as Sierra Leone, Cote D’Ivoire, Liberia, Guinea and Kenya. The third pillar, which allows the use of force to protect citizens where their State is incapable or unwilling to offer such protection was approved for use in the case of Libya in 2011, following the deployment of very brutal means by the Muammar Ghadaffi regime to suppress opposition elements. The surreptitious conversion of the UN Security Council (UNSC) approval for foreign troops deployment to attain humanitarian outcomes, by NATO member States to attain a regime-change mandate caused alarm and regrets in some quarters as to the use of the R2P doctrine.

 

Quite clearly, the misuse of R2P in the case of Libya, adversely affected the possibility of unanimity of purpose by the UNSC in subsequent episodes when such unanimous actions by the UNSC would have served to bolster R2P and perhaps elevate the principle to the status of international law. Efforts to deploy the principle to protect the Rohinghya peoples from genocide-grade attacks by the Myanmar regime, proved to be a primary consequence of the misuse of R2P in Libya.

 

The R2P principle was also unsuccessfully invoked to urge Turkiye to come to the aide of Kurds in the city of Kobani, Syria, as the people of that city, for weeks, expected to be overrun by Islamic State terrorists. It had been hoped that Turkiye troops who were just across basically unmarked borders, would have stepped in to prevent the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity by the approaching ISIS terrorists – the Turks, simply, probably on account of their age-old schisms with the Kurds, simply failed to step in. What followed was unfortunate decimation of civilian population of Kobani by ruthless terrorists. https://ezeluchie.blogspot.com/2014/10/a-justiciable-responsibility-to-prevent.html 

 

Gaza

In the course of the past 60 days, the world has looked on in horror, as hellish nightmares become the norm of the Palestinians in Gaza, as the occupying authority over their territory, the State of Israel, has unleashed brutal, debilitating and vicious attacks seemingly geared towards obliterating any semblance of life and development in the Gaza strip. The attacks commenced with a total blockade of Gaza, cutting off all food, water and electricity from the strip, actions that in itself, constitute war crimes. Over 40,000 tons of bombs, over three times the quantity of bomb dropped on Hiroshima, killing, thus far, over 17,000 residents of Gaza, with over 7,000 children and several thousand women.

 

As the world looked on, a classic example of a situation where the R2P ought to be applied unfolded before everyone. All hospitals and medical facilities in Gaza were targeted and bombed to ruins; medical personnel and journalists were specifically targeted with hundreds of them and their families being killed in the process; forced deportation of Gaza residents was ordered by the perpetrator, the Netanyahu regime; roads, water pipes and other infrastructure were targeted and destroyed; buildings dedicated to Educational, Religious, Science and Art were likewise targeted and destroyed. Gaza was effectively bombed back into the middle ages, as carts and donkeys soon replaced vehicles, wood and furniture were used for heating and cooking, life and living was scuttled.

 

The genocidal intents of the scorched earth policies the Netanyahu-led regime is implementing over Gaza is never in doubt and was brazenly audaciously broadcast, inclusive of biblical references by the Israeli Prime Minister to episodes of genocidal atrocities in Amalek, a suggestion by a serving Israeli cabinet Minister that a nuclear bomb could be dropped in Gaza, and sundry acts to reveal intent to commit crimes against humanity.

 

Yet, the world continues to fail in its responsibility to protect Palestinians, resulting in the commission of heart rendering mass atrocities, and this continuing failure serves to diminish our shared humanity and questions the fundamentals of global order. The continuing failure of humanity to abide by our collective responsibility to protect the victims of an ongoing genocide directly questions the utility of the United Nations Organization and semblance of global order that might have existed.

 

Questions that now agitate minds across the world include: Can a similar episode of mass atrocities be visited on another group and the world fail to act in protection of the victim group? Can another powerful country decide to wipe out a less endowed people knowing that there would be no consequences and world would remain docile? In failing in its R2P responsibilities to the Palestinians, the World has failed itself and humanity collectively diminished.

 

Has time run out? No.

The atrocities thus far committed has no doubt widened gaps and gulfs between peoples and might have foisted and deepened transgenerational hatred in the Middle East region, and strengthened suspicion that the existing international order is hypocritical and rooted in bias.  The Veto against the Special UNGS Resolution brought sequel to Article 99 of the UN Charter on Friday, 8^th December, 2023, , which sought an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, served as a particularly pungent jab at the R2P principle. An immediate humanitarian ceasefire will prove that indeed there is still hope in humanity and a general common revulsion of atrocities.  

 

 

Necessary addendum

Origin of Gaza Genocide

This piece will be incomplete in the view of some if mention is not made of the events which precipitated the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Can anything justify the bestiality, carnage, destructions of lives and properties being collectively visited on Palestinians in Gaza? Certainly not! It is however, important, that the topic of the immediate origins be addressed. Reference is often made to the horrific terrorist attacks by the terrorist group Hamas, on Israel on the 10^th of October, 2023, during which over 1,200 people, mainly citizens of Israel were killed, in attacks lasting over two days, with over 100 people abducted and taken into Gaza, by Hamas.  

 

The dastardly attacks by Hamas on the 7^th October are condemned in its entirety. Hamas, its officials and processes should be targeted and made to bear the full consequences of its vile actions. Under no circumstances, however, should inflicting collective punishment on all Palestinians (in Gaza and the West Bank) be condoned or deemed as acceptable – in fact, collective punishment in itself, constitutes war crimes and a crime against humanity.

 

It must be realized that the Hamas attacks of 7/10 was not a stand-alone event. There have been perennial bouts of violence between the peoples of Palestinians and the State of Israel. Of crucial importance also is the reality that for over 50 weeks prior to the Hamas attacks, Israel had been embroiled in weekly protests against efforts by the Netanyahu regime to force through Judicial sector reforms which will greatly subject Judges to political interference from the political stakeholders. The protests were approaching a crescendo, when the Hamas attacks occurred - attacks that easily breached highly fortified security fortifications and continued for hours before any meaningful response from the ordinarily highly effective Israeli Defense Forces. The combination of the fact that the attacks served to ‘unify’ the population of Israel against external threats, the reality that security forces deployed to protect the border with Gaza were surreptitiously withdrawn some days prior to the attack itself, and the fact that some stock traders seemed to have foreknowledge of the attacks of 7/10, raises the likelihood that perhaps the 7/10 attacks might have been perfectly orchestrated to actualize long planned atrocities against the peoples of Palestine.

 

Need to guarantee Israel’s security

Considering that it is surrounded by people who seemingly have vested in her ultimate destruction, effective and verifiable guarantees must be institutionalized which will guarantee Israel’s right to peaceful and sustainable existence as a prerequisite to any resolutions to the conflict in that region.

 

 

Picture: Aerial view of parts of destroyed Gaza (@Reuters)

Mediterranean Migrant Shipwrecks: Accident or Mass-Murders

 

By Eze Eluchie,

 

Exactly 10 years ago today, early in the mornings of October 3^rd 2013, the world woke to the gut wrenching news that a ship with over 500 migrants aboard, which had taken off from the Libyan coast city of Misrata, headed for Italian port city of Lampedusa, had capsized, with majority of the passengers feared drowned. As dawn broke and the day got brighter, the magnitude of the disaster became evident to the ships that had hearkened to the distress calls, and soon enough the shock waves went global.

 

The migrant ship had totally sunk, 155 survivors had been rescued, and hundreds of corpses who had been ‘passengers’ on the now wrecked migrant ship, littered the Mediterranean (the Med). As the search and rescue operation gradually became a corpse recovery operation, it was discovered that hundreds of victims who had been in the hull of the ship, had gone down with the vessel. The total death count was officially stated to be ‘over 360’.

 

Barely eight days later, on the 11^th of October 2013, whilst the world was reeling from the shock of the 3^rd October 2013 shipwreck, yet another mass causality shipwreck occurred in the Med, within the territorial waters of Malta, leading to the death of over 130 migrants.

 

More in response to public concern at the horrific images of mass deaths that the media was projecting sequel to the twin sinking’s in the Med, the European Union adopted what can be described as a knee-jerk response, which was focused at preventing and discouraging migrants from embarking on the journey to Europe. The EU hurriedly raised budgets with which it supported the Navies and Coast Guards in the main take-off points of the migrants in their journey to Europe with speed boats and weapons (Tunisia and Libya) – essentially, facilities to forcefully stop emigration and or kill the intending migrants. The EU approach also included advocacy visits to the home countries from whence the migrants commenced their fatalistic journey’s to Europe, mainly in Sub-Sahara Africa and parts of the Asian subcontinent. In addition, the EU looked the other way whilst EU member States bordering the Med enacted vile and despicable laws which criminalized search and rescue efforts and assisting persons in distress at sea! Not even amongst animals who, as humans, we consider beneath our status, have such beastly evil as punishing saving lives been criminalized.   

 

Having equipped the border security officials in the North African countries of Libya and Tunisia, who are ordinarily vicious, intolerant and uncouth towards migrants, it was only expected that with such ‘greenlight’ and cooperation from supposedly democratic EU countries, an open cheque for mass atrocities had been issued, with an unspoken guarantee that the normal ‘human rights scrutiny’ expected from the major organizations who are ordinarily vociferous on matters of infringement on human rights.

 

Ever since, virtually no fortnight has passed without reports of the sinking, wreckage or disappearance of a migrant ship in the Mediterranean. In one dizzying spell of 5 days in the first week of August 2023, there was an astonishing officially recorded four migrant boat wrecks in the Med, on the Tunisia to Italy route, with 131 lives lost! Official figures in the range of 3,000 to 5,000 deaths on the Med per annum are touted only by those who, like the ostrich, opt to bury their heads in the sands. Estimated figures of fatalities are in the tens of thousands per annum. The idyllic Mediterranean which for centuries spawned countless visions of amity, trade and prosperity, has for many migrants and the families they left behind, turned into a graveyard of dreams for generations.   

 

Questions began to be raised as to what could be responsible for the increase in fatalities whilst crossing the Med. Some blamed it on the greed of the human traffickers who were willing to take greater risks for more profits, others attributed it to more turbulence in the Med due to climate change, yet others suggested that perhaps there now existed a new ‘Bermuda Triangle’ in the Med which was sucking in migrant boats. Plausible, but were those the reason? Are the waves in the Med now more violent than waves elsewhere? Did human traffickers suddenly become suicidal and no longer interested in raking in profits? Or were the EU efforts at preventing the arrival of migrants on mainland Europe now becoming more successful by virtue preventing and discouraging the arrivals of such migrants on EU soil – even if it meant torpedoing their vessels at sea and killing migrants in their thousands whilst also feigning to rescue them?

 

As more dead bodies of migrants begun to wash up on the shores of Libya, Tunisia and the southern shorelines of Europe, and reports of delayed or aborted rescue efforts of passengers aboard sinking vessels became normalized, it was clear that it would only be a matter of time before hard irrefutable evidence of some of the untoward practices in the Med would come to light.

 

Despite its repeated feeble, unsubstantiated denials, the role the Greek Coast Guard played in the sinking of the trawler which was transporting several hundred migrants (mostly of Pakistani extraction), from Libya to Italy proved to be a smoking gun episode. When the lies and denials by the Greeks couldn’t stand the science, evidence and testimonies of the survivors, silence enveloped prior efforts at denial. With just 104 survivors from this 14^th June 2023 shipwreck and over 500 migrants missing, the Greek Coast Guards had been caught pants down as main culprits in a mass atrocity that dwarfed the Lampedusa tragedy.

 

The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, the various mechanisms for addressing mass atrocities in Europe and even the Security Council of the United Nations, have acted as though the mass murder of 14^th June 2023 off the coast of Greece never occurred.

 

If any was in doubt as to State complicity in deaths in the Med, the migrant boat wreck off the coast of Libya sometime in the last week of September, 2023, cleared any such doubts. The video released by Sea-Watch International which showed Libyan Coast Guard vessel in a most brazen manner and despite warnings and being aware that observers were watching, crash into and torpedoed a migrant boat with several migrants on board. Soon thereafter, as can be seen on the video, another Libyan coast guard patrol vehicle, hypocritically, showed up and threw life vests at the migrants who could swim. Were it not for the heroic and expository video by Sea-Watch International, this despicable attempt at mass murder (using equipment supplied and staff trained by the EU), would have been passed off as a ‘heroic rescue of migrants’ by equipment supplied by the EU. Could this be how the other several instance of rescues by Navies and Coast Guards have played out?

 

How many of these mass murders have taken place in the past one week, or one month or over the years? How many migrants were killed when their boats were wrecked by navies or coast guards who were striving to uphold the EU policy to prevent and suppress migrants from getting to the coast of Europe, in keeping with EU policies? One cannot but help if a similar crime was what transpired on the coast of Lampedusa in 2013, and several other such episodes.

 

Has the world kept silent in the face of mass atrocities of genocidal proportions?

 

Are the crimes of mass murders of identifiable segments of populations not within the purview of the International Criminal Court to prosecute under the Rome Statues?

 

Is the Prosecutor of the ICC unaware of the crimes against humanity being perpetuated in the Mediterranean?

 

Should the EU not take responsibility for the consequences of some of her actions which has directly led to the commission of mass atrocities?

 

Are there better ways to address the migrant crisis?

 

….the answers to the above questions will be addressed here shortly.

 

 

 

Picture: The coffins of victims of the Lampedusa migrant ship disaster, 2013.