Why is Russia’s “Special Military Operation” still ongoing?

By Eze Eluchie, Esq.

 

As Ukraine gets more audacious in its attacks deep inside Russia, hitting facilities in the eastern flank of Russia, as far east as the city of Bashkortostan, thousands of kilometers away from the frontlines of its 5-year long conflict with Russia, the wonder in some circles has been: ‘why has Russia allowed the “Special Military Operation” to linger for so long?’

 

Some may argue that the question raised above evidences obvious bias in favor of Russia, and overlooks the fact that Russia has itself been pummeling locations deep inside Ukraine – attacking the western Ukrainian cities of Odessa, Lviv and others since the inception of the conflict. Asserting that by its attacks deep in Russian territory, Ukraine is merely retaliating for what it had suffered in the hands of the Russia’s’ military.

 

Those who allege bias as indicated in the paragraph above are more likely to be same folks who claim that Russia is the aggressor in this conflict citing the incursion into Ukrainian territory by the Russian Army in February 2022 – conveniently omitting the events which commenced with the pact entered between US President Ronald Reagan and USSR leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, soon after the fall of the Berlin Wall, that North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) would not advance an inch eastwards; and was further exacerbated by the externally-orchestrated Orange Revolution of 2004, amongst other events that reveal a deeper schism.

 

The reality is that there is no, and ought not be any, comparison between the military capacity and capabilities of Russia on the one hand, and Ukraine on the other. Ukraine is only able to resist the Russian onslaught because it is being used as a proxy by NATO to stretch and hopefully degrade Russia militarily, and ultimately subdue the Russian state.

 

Whilst Russia has the largest stockpile of nuclear bombs, Ukraine is not a nuclear power; the personnel size of the Russian military far surpasses that of Ukraine, the latter being largely populated by forcefully conscripted youngsters; Russia’s land mass and population dwarfs that of Ukraine by a wide margin. A combination of the above prevailing factors shows there is simply no cause of comparison of the strength of Russia and that of Ukraine.

 

Without the massive infusion of NATO military hardware, expertise and personnel, Ukraine would have long capitulated to Russia’s superior firepower and numerical strength. Whilst some had opted for the hashtag ‘#RussiaUkraineWar’ to describe the conflict, it has always been more practical to refer to the conflict as ‘#RussiaUkraineNATOWar’

 

With Ukraine now indiscriminately hitting targets in Moscow, Crimea, and as they claim, ‘taking the war to ordinary Russians’, an ideal query becomes: why has Russia not tried to abruptly end this conflict by deploying tactical nukes? Would the only other super nuclear power state, the United States, with similar weaponry have tolerated existential threats against her from a direction it can easily extinguish? In 1945, an attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, led the United States to unleash two Atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan immediately capitulated to superior firepower, saving itself and her population what might have been slow and painful extermination. The unnecessary prolongation of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is leading to unquantifiable destructions of property and lives, mostly Ukrainian.

 

It appears Russia is taking into consideration its filial connections with the peoples in the territory referred to as Ukraine and the fact that three former leaders of the former Soviet Union, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, and Gorbachev, had roots in Ukraine.

 

Considering the willingness of some European countries and the EU bureaucracy, to goad Ukraine on in what is clearly very dangerous acts of brinksmanship and gambling on the continuing Russian self-restraint from using tactical nuclear weapons, which attack from Ukraine will break the proverbial camel’s back, and force Russia to use more decisive tactics? A mass-murder of Russian School children? A direct attack on the Kremlin? A hit on Russian leader, Putin? What really? Clearly, sooner than later, something will give, and there may be resort to a catastrophic end for a war that ought never have been.

 

Having already exhausted their possibilities of economic, cultural and social warfare against Russia, would NATO risk direct military conflict with Russia, in the event that Russia abruptly ends the conflict with Ukraine? Such conflict would be a mutually destructive and mutually annihilating World War ‘WWIII’ fought with nuclear weapons. The answer would be a resounding ‘No’.  Why has the Russian leadership then refrained from abruptly ending this conflict?

 

So why is the Ukrainian dictator, Zelensky, who has decreed away virtually all democratic rights and privileges of the Ukrainian people, including the rights to choose their leaders and freedoms of religion, not willing to take up the various peace overtures offered by the United States, and end this debilitating conflict which is diminishing the people of Ukraine?

 

Image: Russia's TU-160 nuclear bomber:

 

Our forgetfulness, our bane: An ex-dictator, Olusegun Obasanjo, is the least qualified to Chair the Annual Congress of Lawyers

 By Eze Eluchie, Esq.

 

Without doubt, one of the banes of the Nigerian society which makes the federation appear to perpetually slide backwards whilst the rest of the globe inches forward is our collective amnesia. As a people we tend to easily forget humongous failings that transpired in the past, are ever willing to gloss over pitfalls that retarded efforts at progress, celebrate mediocrity, punish innovation, honor the dishonorable, and allowed some of our very worst to preside over the most esteemed offices in the land.

 

This tragedy of forgetfulness is institutionalized and made part of our national ethos by the incredulous exclusion of History as a subject from our primary school curricular – we have generations walking around without a slight iota of knowledge of why we are where we are: a sure recipe to repeat wrongs of the past.

 

The vice of ahistoricism in Nigeria is not restricted to the unlettered and or unschooled, but has permeated to those who ought to know better, to know far better. Nigeria has under this seeming perennial cloak of ignorance allowed kakistocracy to become our unwritten system of government. From characters notorious for ethnoreligious bigotry, to others with lengthy track record in diverse criminal endeavors, our worst have always snuck their ways to rule over Nigeria with expected devastating outcomes.  

 

When it was first announced that an ex-dictator who was drafted in a Machiavellian manner to become an ‘elected democratic president’, would be invited to preside, as Chairman, over the annual congress of the Nigerian Bar Association, the professional body of all legal practitioners in Nigeria, it was clear that the lack of understanding and appreciation of the historical context and trajectory had crept all the way into how even the leadership of the Bar decide who they will accord honor at the apex convocation of Nigerian Attorneys.

 

When the choice of an Obasanjo as the Chair of the NBA-AGC was being considered, were the following antecedents of the retired Army General, some of the most heinous crimes and attacks against democracy ever perpetuated, considered?

1.      The obliteration of and massacre of residents of the then second largest city in Bayelsa State, Odi, and vanquishing by federal troops of Zaki Biam town in Benue State.

2.      The establishment of and deployment of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as a gestapo-like outfit to terrorize political opponents of the President.

3.      The disappearance of over US$16 billion earmarked towards improving the power sector, with virtually not an additional kilowatt added to the national grid to show for the expenditures.

4.      The desecration of the Nigerian constitution by allowing some northern states to adopt Islam as state religions

5.      The desperate effort at tenure-elongation to achieve a 3^rd term as President in clear violation of Constitutional provisions.

6.      The kidnap of a sitting State Governor (Anambra’s Ngige) by private citizen with access to more Police protection, and the attempted assassination of an opposition State Governor (Benue’s Akume).

7.      Commandeering public funds for private gain – such as the Obasanjo Library project.  

8.      Introduction of large-scale bribery of National Assembly legislators and using extra-judicial means to desecrate the office of the then Vice President of the Federal Republic (Atiku Abubakar).

9.      The litany of gross misdeeds is near-endless.

 

Obasanjo’s misdeeds were not restricted to domestic issues. Personal greed, aggrandizement and falsely believing that he could get away at the international level with the malfeasance Nigerians stomach led to egregious blunders which served to blight Nigeria’s position in the comity of nations.

 

In one instance of foolhardiness, after offering then Liberian President, Charles Taylor, asylum, protection, safe passage and retirement in Nigeria. Charles Taylor never knew he was sucked-in and would be betrayed in a life wrenching manner.

 

Shortly after taking up Obasanjo's offer, Obasanjo arrested Taylor and handed the Liberian leader to the Special Court for Sierra Leone. Taylor was prosecuted and convicted, and now wastes away in a British prison - where he'll likely die.

 

Obasanjo's act of betrayal diminished Nigeria in the comity of nations. Till date, Nigeria, which prior to that betrayal, was a favored arbitrator in disputes between African countries, is now a pariah in arbitration issues, and viewed as a contraption which cannot keep its promises.

 

In retirement, Obasanjo has taken on the past time of pontificating over matters he could have, but did not address when he was opportune as military dictator and ‘civilian’ president, in lofty self-adulating 'Open Letters'.

 

 

…and this is the man the leadership of the Bar opted to invite to chair a conference themed “Stand out, Stand tall”?

 

 

 

NB: More on the rule of Nigeria by Olusegun Obasanjo published in the book, “Reign of Evil” https://rhbooks.com.ng/product/reign-of-evil-may-29th-1999-may-28th-2007/

 

 

Picture: General Obasanjo and one of his victims, Charles Taylor

Addressing Africa’s Food Insecurity Issues: Thus far, barking up the wrong tree.

 By Eze Eluchie, Esq.

 

In a strange and laughable turn of events following the enlargement of military operations by Russia in its so-called ‘special military operations’ against Ukraine to include attacks on the Port city of Odessa which crippled Ukraine’s ability to export its stock pile of grains, a dubious clarion call on the need to ‘preserve global access to Ukraine’s grain stockpiles for the benefit of all humanity, particularly for most of Africa and other aid-dependent territories’, was highlighted and promoted.

 

In furtherance of this ‘clarion call’, a group of African rulers under the auspices of the African Union (AU), headed by the then Chairperson of the AU, Senegalese President, Macky Sall, devoid of any iota of shame, took the unusual step to travel to Russia to meet with Vladimir Putin to plead for cessation of hostilities between Russia and Ukraine, so that Ukraine’s precious grains will be able to find its way to various African countries and the warehouses of the donor agencies.

 

It’s instructive to note that at the time the AU delegation made this trip to Russia, the following dire situations which ought to have attracted the attention of the AU were afoot: (a) the war in Democratic Republic of Congo (where this country got the ‘democratic republic’ tag from still remains a mystery) was attaining new heights with the M23 rebel group recording increased military successes against the Congolese army; (b) the Sudanese crisis was tipping over to full scale war; and (c) attacks by Islamist jihadist elements across Africa which was threatening the stability of several countries in the West Africa sub-region. Despite all these continental challenges, the leadership of AU opted to prioritize frolicking all the way to Sochi, Russia, to plead for a cessation of hostilities so that food aid can continue to flow to Africa? Goosh!

 

One doesn’t need to be a genius to appreciate the scorn with which the Russian leadership would have viewed the Sally-led AU delegation - a bunch of stooges who rather than work towards finding domestic solutions to the food insecurity problems besetting Africa, were rather okay with being sent on a frolic to plead for food handouts.

 

Though so much hullabaloo had been made about the type of soil in Ukraine being conducive for cultivation of wheat, one must also appreciate that of the 53 member states of the AU, 20 have land masses larger in size than Ukraine. Agreed some of these 20 countries have huge swaths of arid desert regions, some African countries which have land areas greater than the size of Ukraine, such as South Africa, Nigeria, Tanzania, Mozambique to list a few, and other countries of lesser land mass such as Zimbabwe, Kenya, Zambia and all the countries along the Atlantic coast of West Africa, are actually blessed with sizable fertile soil which if adequately developed and adapted to crop production, can easily transform some African countries to the food basket of the world.

 

Yet, rather than look inwards to address Africa’s food insecurity crisis and or expend resources trying to address intricate conflict situations which are rife across the African continent, the then AU Chairperson, opted to embark on degrading journey, at the behest of foreign neocolonialists, to plead for a cessation of hostilities in Europe.

 

The folly exhibited by the AU under Macky Sall’s leadership is more of a continuum in the African continent. A clear example of repeat of such density by rulers across Africa, is the present tacit approval by authorities in Nigeria of the strangulation of domestic agricultural activities by Islamist jihadist elements who are allowed free and near-unfettered rein to kill, plunder and destabilize farming communities in the agriculturally rich Middle Belt region of Nigeria, only for same Nigerian government to seek World Bank loans to be able to procure and distribute foods/palliatives to mullions pauperized and rendered destitute by lack of food and basic amenities.

 

Already viewed with ignominy by the rest of civilization, rulers across Africa have to rise up, put on thinking caps and look inwards for solutions to own problems, or risk being consigned to the trash bin by their own populations.

 

 

My sub-3 minute podcast on Africa’s food insecurity

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZpoWu5KuQM

 

Picture: Small-scale mixed-crop farm in Nigeria