Islam and Global Peace.

by Eze Eluchie

To a writer who is interested in getting feedback from society, the social media, particularly Facebook and online Blogs, remains one veritable medium from which one could elicit responses to issues from segments of society one may ordinarily not be opportune to interact with.

An issue which is increasingly becoming a source of concern to all well-meaning people is the explosion of violence across the Middle East and North Africa – areas with predominant Muslim populations. In addition to populist revolutions which led to the exit of totalitarian regimes in the wake of the Arab Spring, wars have been raging near endlessly across that region in the course of the past three decades. From the Iran–Iraq wars to the present bloodbath in Syria and in the unending conflagrations in post-Saddam Iraq, the region and its people seem to epitomize anger and violence.

The violence in the region has been exported all over the world in the guise of inter religious conflicts. It’s either Muslims attacking Christians in Nigeria, Egypt or wheresoever or Muslims taking on Hindu’s in India. In Burma, it is the Muslims and the Buddhists, whilst the Muslims make out time to engage those engaged in indigenous religious beliefs in Darfur and several entities where such practices florishes. In the countries of the Middle East and North Africa, strife between Islamic sects dating back several centuries, remain at the root of irreconcilable and never ending battles between the Sunni and Shi’a sects of Islam. 

Islam seems at war with itself and  rest of the world.

Remarkably, with the exception of Muslims, other religious groups seem to cohabit in relative peace, one with the other, without much altercations or violent conflicts.

It was thus with a view to understanding more about the Islamic faith that I posed an innocuous question on my page on Facebook, to wit: “Is Islam compatible with Democracy?”

After a few days of silence on my wall, I got a rather terse response from a Facebook 'friend': “The question should be ‘is Democracy compatible with Islam?’”

Hmmmmm

As I reflected on the response, I felt a cold chill trickle down my spine. Embedded in the response, as I later discovered upon more discourse with the author of the response was the question: ‘Was the world compatible with Islam?’ and not 'if Islam was compatible with the world!'

Considering that Islam claims allegiance from close to a billion people, it was only rational to seek to understand the faith more by delving into its sacred books, particularly the Qur'an, a book Muslims believe was a revelation from Allah (the creator) through Angel Gabriel to Prophet Mohammed (sallallahu alayhi wasallam – peace be upon him).

The sense of worry did not abate. The emphasis on violence, subjugating and or conquering 'non-believers' until they are subdued/converted/killed which flows through the literature was rather unsettling and questions the veracity of assertions by those commonly referred to as ‘moderate’ Muslims that the extremists and those who rely on terror and violence in the name of Islam are not reflective of the faith.

Is it rational to divorce those who bomb, kill and maim adherents of other faiths (such as the unfortunate victims of the suicidal attacks/bombings in Malali, Zaria, Suleja, Abuja, Kaduna, {Nigeria}, Beslan School-North Ossetia, Moscow Metro {Russia}, '9-11' New York, Boston marathon {USA}, Mumbai, Kashmir {India}, Woolwich, London transportation {UK}, US Embassy buildings in Nairobi {Kenya} and Dar-es-Salam {Tanzania} and all over) under the guise that they are 'extremists' or 'terrorists' whilst the Quran seemingly enjoins all adherents of the faith to do likewise? Could there be other meanings to what the Holy Quran provides its Chapter 9:29 – 31 and in various portions?

As our Muslim brothers and sisters prepare for the Holy month of Ramadan (which commences on the 8th of July 2013), one can only join them in prayer and expectation that they are able to meet the rest of the world halfway as we expect deeper reflection into the faith and a call to all adherents to sheath the sword?

Adherents of the Islamic faith should be able to cohabit in peace with the rest of the world?



Picture: Muslims praying

Picture: Muslims praying

Most Unfortunate Murder of Security Personnel

by Eze Eluchie

To any discerning mind, the news that not 10, not 20, not 40 but over 100 security personnel, inclusive of over 80 specially trained police men, and officers of the State Security Service and Civil Defense operatives were killed in a single operation by a little known rag-tag rural cult group comprised of an admixture of subsistence farmers, fishermen and their apprentices, sounds preposterous, incredulous, like the stuff tales are made of. Not so when you factor in that this is Nigeria. After all, we are the country where the preposterous acquires reason and the incredulous becomes credible.

The pristine, evergreen luscious landscape of Alakyo community in Nasarawa State (north-central Nigeria) in the night of Tuesday 7th May 2013, became the latest waterloo of Nigeria’s (in)security agencies . Over 100 fully armed officers and men from various security outfits, had stormed Alakyo under what had been planned as a clandestine operation to ostensibly arrest a feeble old man who serves as head of an indigenous cult group (Ombatse) – as it turned out, some persons who were suspicious and adverse to security agency operations in the area got wind of the ‘clandestine’ operation, and confronted the huge security convoy of more than 10-truck loads of personnel, resulting in the huge wastage of human lives and destruction of security apparatus.

Media failure

by Eze Eluchie

Like every other institution of the Nigerian contraption, our media is failing us.

If the issue had been to get journalists who will tag along with a Presidential or Ministerial or other governmental delegation on an international trip, there would have been no shortage of journalists willing to join the entourage.

Now that a segment of the Nigerian State has been cordoned off and being ruled under ‘Emergency Rule’, there is near total blanket of information on happenings in Bornu, Yobe and Adamawa States. There is simply no information coming out, save for the terse briefings from the Military High Command, on what the military wants us to know.

At last, he's awake!

by Eze Eluchie

A close scrutiny of the powers vested in the President of Nigeria will reveal that the occupant of that office is by a wide margin, the most powerful ‘elected’ political office holder on earth. Barack Obama, Putin, Cameron and other elected political leaders can only dream of the powers Nigerian laws vests in the Nigerian President – short of an ability to declare a man as a woman and vice versa, there is scarcely anything that the Nigerian President is unable to do (within Nigeria) once he sets his mind to it.

Such powers, in the hands of a morally bankrupt personality can be turned into a tool for victimization, retrogression and monumental fraud and evil – as experienced during Nigeria’s ‘reign of evil’ (May 29^th 1999 – May 28^th 2007). On the converse side, if the same powers are handled by a person with his country at heart, the positive results could be beyond all known indices for measuring national development.

The Fraud Called Nigeria (1) Population Figures

by Eze Eluchie

From the numbers churned out by authorities of the Nigerian contraption as population figures, Nigeria is the only country on planet Earth where the more you depart the coastal regions and areas of rich vegetation and move hinterland towards arid desert regions, the more ‘people’ you will see!

Demographers and population scientists will readily inform that historically, human habitation and settlements tend to gravitate, above all else, towards one fundamental source of human existence, water. People ordinarily tend to congregate towards those locations where they will have access to water. This remains the situation throughout the African continent.

Across the globe, from the United States to China, Russia to Brazil, Sweden to Australia, New Zealand to Iceland to Mali, to wheresoever, populations tend to congregate more densely towards the coast. More people live on the coastal regions than in the arid hinterland – Nigeria, and only our good old Nigeria, records a reversal of this global fact.

In Nigeria however, the reverse, going by the fraud of population figures, is the case. The fraud in the Nigerian census figures is exposed by the fact that in all other countries along the West African coast (Benin, Togo, Ghana, Cote D’Ivoire, Senegal and Guinea et al), which share similar geographical diversity and multi-ethnic composition with Nigeria, their population figures rhyme with reality and tally with the expectations of science and demography. All other West African countries, with the exception of Nigeria, have a majority of their population residing in the coastal regions!  

An analysis of population census figures in Nigeria, dating from colonial periods, reveal historical fraud of monumental proportions geared towards achieving the intendments of the colonial overlords - intendments which served to ensure, at the departure of the colonialists, skewed representation and enthronement of mediocrity in governance, which in turn assured the departing colonialists continued control over the affairs of Nigeria long after ‘independence’.

The benefits derivable from inflated population figures in a country like Nigeria are overwhelming. Whereas benefits accrue based on falsified figures, no responsibilities are attached as a result of such fraud. The peculiarities of the Nigerian situation, where what is commonly referred to as the ‘national cake’ (billions of US Dollars accruing to the Federation from crude oil sales and whatsoever) and virtually all benefits accruable to citizens are distributed to the various States based on ‘population figures’, makes it ‘profitable’ for populations to be manufactured where non exists in reality.

The dubious population figures which have been used for everything, from the allotment of seats in the National Legislative houses in Nigeria, to entry into the military and security agencies, to appointment of Federal Ministers, to admission into High School and other academic institutions and the creation of ‘States’ and ‘Local Government Areas’, has led to the institutionalization of fraud in the polity. Phantom population figures lead to phantom economic projections, which in turn generate phantom developmental agenda and ultimately a phantom country.

Whilst other countries will seize the opportunity of national census to know as much as possible about their populations, the makeup, the diversity and peculiarities, the most recent national census in Nigeria, held in 2006, was unique in the sense that virtually all other indices which would have revealed the horrendous fraud which had been perpetuated over the decades was deliberately omitted – the 2006 national census ended up producing numbers which were vehemently contested by virtually all segments of the Nigerian contraption.

To begin to adequately appreciate what our problems are and be able to address it effectively, we need to know how many we truly are.

The call for renegotiation and restructuring of the Nigerian contraption embodies the need for realistic and factual census figures.

Links: Population density across West Africa (note the geographical disparity between the purported population of Nigeria and that of the other countries) :

http://www.bestcountryreports.com/Population_Map_Nigeria.php (Nigeria)

http://www.bestcountryreports.com/Population_Map_Cote%20d'Ivoire.php  (Cote D’Ivoire)

http://www.bestcountryreports.com/Population_Map_Niger.php (Niger)

http://www.bestcountryreports.com/Population_Map_Chad.php (Chad)

http://www.bestcountryreports.com/Population_Map_Benin.php (Benin)

http://www.bestcountryreports.com/Population_Map_Ghana.php (Ghana)

http://www.bestcountryreports.com/Population_Map_Togo.php (Togo)

http://www.bestcountryreports.com/Population_Map_Guinea.php (Guinea)

http://www.bestcountryreports.com/Population_Map_Cameroon.php (Cameroon)

http://www.bestcountryreports.com/Population_Map_Senegal.php (Senegal)

http://www.bestcountryreports.com/Population_Map_Egypt.php (Egypt)

http://www.bestcountryreports.com/Population_Map_Libya.php (Libya)

http://www.bestcountryreports.com/Population_Map_Morocco.php (Morocco)

http://www.bestcountryreports.com/Population_Map_Kenya.php  (Kenya)

http://www.bestcountryreports.com/Population_Map_South%20Africa.php (South Africa)

Picture: Population density in Africa based on Nigerian figures

Help, our ship is rudderless!

by Eze Eluchie

I wonder who Goodluck Jonathan thought he was fooling by ‘aborting’ his visit to South Africa and Namibia under the pretext of the’ increased violence in Nigeria’. The spike in violence in Nigeria has been a continuum and the only thing Mr. Jonathan ever does, and will ever do in response thereto, when any of the various acts of violence occurs, is to issue a nonsensical mundane ‘press release’ through his press secretary, a chameleonic pretender to the pen profession, urging all to go about their normal duties and that the ‘government would destroy Boko Haram shortly’. – Balloons!

For all it was worth, Jonathan could as well have continued with his frolick from South Africa to Namibia and extend same to any of the several offshore Islands which serve as ultimate destinations of loot from Nigeria and remain there for as long as he can – his coming back to Nigeria is essentially useless to solving the security crisis Nigeria is facing presently.

The worrisome dimension of emergence of erstwhile unknown terror groups, such as the ‘Ombatse Militia’ of the Eggon tribal group in Nasarawa State which recently engaged security agencies in a battle which claimed the lives of over 90 people (including over 30 Police Officers, 15 Civil Defense operatives and other security personnel); the growing effrontery of the Boko Haram terror group in the north attacks and overwhelms military and police formations and headquarter complexes; and the recent incredulous  boasts of a militant leader, based in Nigeria’s capital city, Abuja, who dared the security operatives to arrest him for provocatively treasonable comments and risk Nigeria being consumed in violence, are all indicative of the fact that an implosion of gigantean proportions has moved from the realm of if to when!

The implications of an implosion in Nigeria will be very dire, not only for the entire West African sub region, but also with possibility of serious consequences for the Central African sub-region. The prospect of over 50 million Nigerian refugees swarming through such countries as Benin, Togo, Ghana and Cameroon (which will be the locations of first contact for Nigerian refugees in the event of full blown conflagrations), is nightmarish to say the least. It will itself be a miracle if the Governments and economies of these countries survive the influx and ‘expertise’ of Nigerians.

Add that scenario to the inroads al-Qeida in the Maghreb (Tanzīm al-Qā‘idah fī Bilād al-Maghrib al-Islāmī) is making in the region and the prognosis becomes particularly horrific.

The logistics required to contain the exodus, will be on a scale that will make nonsense of the combined resources and capacities of Red Cross, Medicine san Frontiers and their colleagues in the ‘humanitarian’ industry.

The call for a ‘restructuring and renegotiation’ of the Nigerian contraption has gone on for quite a while, unheeded by the kleptocrats who benefit profusely and shamelessly from the continuing existence of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as presently structured. The insensitivity of our home-grown kleptocrats, who have obviated all efforts at a renegotiation and restructuring of the Nigerian contraption, has attained murderous and self-destructive proportions.  As unfolding events are beginning to manifest, it is apparent that it has become pertinent for preventive measures to be applied as a matter of utmost urgency, to prevent an Armageddon.

It now behoves on Lovers of humanity, persons and entities opposed to wanton bloodshed to congregate efforts and ensure sufficient pressure is brought to bear to facilitate an expedient and peaceful renegotiation and restructuring of the Nigerian contraption.

Darkness beckons.

http://leadership.ng/news/090513/bloodbath-nasarawa-90-killed-militiamen-ambush-policemen

Picture: Goodluck Jonathan. A huge pity - working hard at becoming the last President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria!

Profiting from mayhem

by Eze Eluchie

In an earlier post on this blog (Friday 12th April 2013: “Amnesty for terror”), I had advised against efforts by the Goodluck Jonathan administration in Nigeria to grant ‘amnesty’ to a group that clearly had neither asked for amnesty nor expressed any remorse for their actions.

I had clearly enunciated that the empanelling of an ‘Amnesty Committee’ by Goodluck Jonathan would merely be an additional route to fleece Nigeria and had advised that if the members of any such ‘Amnesty Committee’ had any iota of belief in the rationality of their existence, they should not hide behind huge desks in air-conditioned offices in Nigeria’s capital city (Abuja) but go into action by operating from and or visiting the terror groups in Kano, Maidugri, Damaturu or other cities where the Boko Haram groups are in effective control.

Alas, after 14 days of the empanelling of the ‘Amnesty Committee’, a Committee to which 2 wise and discerning appointees had rightly declined to serve, the millions of dollars appropriated to the ‘Amnesty Committee’ has not only disappeared, but also served, as predicted, to further infuriate the terror group - the 'committee has remained hole-up in the comfort of Abuja whilst thousands of Nigerians are having their lives unfortunately terminated by the Boko Haram group

If Mr. President dies, what happens?

by Eze Eluchie

The Igbo nation of present day south-eastern Nigeria have an ancient adage which states: ‘onwu si, ekwumela uka, aghakwalaya’ which translates to: ‘death says, in any discussions, do not neglect it'. This adage expresses the transient nature of life. Life is but like a lit candle in the wind – it can be snuffed out at the slightest flicker.

The awareness of the ultimate end of life becomes a proof of maturity and helps shape mans relationship with his environment. It imbues a realization of mortality and, for some, a reason to do the best they can whilst they still have the breath in them.

For others, who remain glued to primordial fantasies, death is a taboo subject which is never discussed in the public realm and only mentioned in hushed tones in the wee hours of the night – lest death itself, hearing its name mentioned, will creep into the conversation and consume whosoever mentioned its name. The failure to appreciate the eventuality and finality of death exposes some to gluttonous cravings and irrational mannerisms.

It is to the later group discussed above, that the certainty of death causes the most harm. For the former, whensoever death comes, there is in place a foolproof plan to confront it.

Even as I write this piece, I realize that if I suddenly had a tweak in my heart, and being all alone in the office presently, no one would be able to call for assistance, and the heart attack I may have, may be my way out of the present dispensation.  Such eventuality would certainly be a source of great sorrow to some, whilst to others, particularly the kleptocrats (and their cronies) who are robbing Nigeria blind, it will be a good reason to pop several bottles of exotic wines, bought with looted funds, in celebration thereof.

For the larger society, a death could likewise cause a great deal of sorrow and or celebration, depending on whose time came up.

For well structured societies, the death of a principal character will no doubt cause some dislocation in the polity – which will be immediately contained by societal structures. When for instance, the Pope passed on recently, there was in place a structure to take care of the interregnum. The situation when Hugo Chaves passed on in Venezuela was likewise easily contained with an in-built societal mechanism. The United States, Britain, other European Union countries and most other well structured political entities have sufficiently strengthened back-up plans in the event of the death or permanent incapacity of their respective heads of governments.

When a country is however in transition or plagued by insidious internal dynamics, the death of the principal figure in government could portend far more ominous consequences for all concerned.

When on the 6th day of April 1994, the then Rwandan President, Juvenal Habyarimana, was killed in a plane crash alongside his Burundian counterpart, Cyprian Ntayamira and eight other persons, the mere ‘accidental’ death was to mark the beginning of one of the most vicious orgies of mass killings man-kind has ever witnessed. By the time the Rwanda genocide ended, over 800,000 people or a full one-tenth of the Rwandan population had been annihilated.

Despite similar ethic demographics in Burundi, the people of Burundi were able to contain reactions to the death of their president, and the killings did not spill over across the border from Rwanda.

In Nigeria today, some interest groups and or ethnic blocs have threatened ‘war’, ‘cessation’, ‘bloodshed’ and the commencement of mayhem based on whether the President continues in office beyond his current term or not.

Whilst one continues to wish that the President lives long enough to see his 100th birthday and beyond, with the posturing of various ethno-religious militias in Nigeria in the course of the past few months, the multiple killings taking place in the northern fringes of Nigeria and the threats emanating from all corners of the Nigerian contraption, one cannot but wonder what will befall the country in the event of the death of the President.

Would it make any difference if the death was by reason of a bout of malaria (as is the case with most Nigerians)? or an accidental slip in the bath tub? Choking on food? Or by the Presidential plane falling from the skies (as happened in Rwanda)? Or whatsoever

Can a Rwanda-style event occur in Nigeria or are we prepared to take the Burundi route?

What can be done to prevent this precarious state we find ourselves in today?

Again, let’s restructure and renegotiate our contraption whilst the tide is low!

Picture: A casket

Hedged out of the Hajj!

by Eze Eluchie

The news of the deportation of Nigerians intending to perform the pilgrimage  (Hajj) in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, is yet one more slide down the steps to infamy.

When will it dawn on these impostors who parade as elected public officials in Nigeria that the world is daily becoming aware of the scam represented in the contraption called Nigeria and will continue to treat the country with disdain and ridicule? 

Is it when the President himself gets deported from a foreign trip?

Kano State trains its own Air Force personnel!

by Eze Eluchie

What really is Governor Kwakwanso (and the Kano State Government) up to?

Without doubt, Kano State and indeed all States in Nigeria require all the man-power they can muster and train, wheresoever, to assist in the march towards State, regional and or national development.

The need for man-power in the area of health, infrastructural development, education and the sciences can surely not be faulted.

If Kano State was expending its funds to train Medical Doctors, Nurses, Medical Lab. Scientists and other health-sector specialists, Engineers (Electrical, Mechanical or whosoever , Computer specialists, Teachers, and a plethora of other areas relevant to societal development, one would not really be worried.

In a State suffering from an abysmal lack of manpower, the State government chooses to train pilots - in of all places Jordan!!!

Kano State has no Airline! So the ruse of training Pilots for its airline is non-existent!

There are less than 5 airplanes registered to Kano State indegenes!

What in heaven’s name is Kano State planning to do with 100 pilots?

Is Kano State preparing its own Air-force? For which war?

The fact that Kano remains one of the hot-beds and strongholds of the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria ought to suffice to allow well meaning individuals pause to think.

Did authorities sufficiently vet the persons attending this training for fundamentalist views?

Is there probably something the Nigeria Ministry of Defense is not being told about the true intentions of the Kano State Government?

Is there something the world ought to know about Kano State funding the training of 'pilots'?

http://thenationonlineng.net/new/news/kano-spends-over-n1b-to-sponsor-graduates-for-pilot-training/

Picture: Pilots in formation.

When the tail wags the dog.

by Eze Eluchie

No doubt, when Barack Obama drew an imaginary line of ‘use of chemical weapons’ as the point where Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria would venture beyond to attract greater United States involvement in the Syrian Civil War, the US President committed a political gaffe.

On the one hand, there was the possibility that any of a plethora of actors in the Syrian conflict could deliberately use chemical weapons so that the al-Assad regime will be blamed for it and thus attract US intervention; and on the other hand, the regime itself could use chemical weapons and blame same on the rebels, as a ploy by rebels to elicit US intervention – either way, a US reaction would be tele-guided, not by US interests, but by the manipulations of some smart alec in Syria or any of the several puppeteers using Syrian interests to propagate their own agenda.