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

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)