Here we go again....

by Eze Eluchie

From whichever way one looks at them, the images coming out from the areas where chemical weapons were allegedly used in the ongoing Syrian civil war are horrendous.  The sight of several hundred people suffering on the throes of obviously painfully and agonizing death is quite benumbing.  The question that readily agitates the mind is: “what manner of animal(s) would visit such evil on a people’?

With the dust yet to settle in the areas where the chemical weapons were detonates, members of the Syrian rebel armies had begun to circulate video clips and pictures, blaming the Syrian Army for the atrocity. The denial from the al-Asaad regime was as vociferous as the blames being heaped on the regime. The one sure victim in this present episode appears to be those who have been sickened or died and the truth.

Without any doubt, the ‘red line’ drawn by U.S. President regarding the use of chemical weapons, had indirectly made the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian crisis, a tool which would eventually be deployed as the crisis prolonged. By either the rebels, to ensnare United States intervention to their own favor or by the Syrian army to ensure speedy victory and or prove their independence and ability to do what they want within their territory.

Without any independent confirmation of the nature of chemicals weapons used or from whence the weapons were fired, some countries and entities have rushed to conclusions, conclusions that will if unchecked lead to very dire situations for the entire Middle East in a couple of days.

One salient fact which seem to have been swallowed up in  the uproar following the release of video evidence of deaths resulting from what appeared to be use of chemical weapons is the question of which side in the Syrian civil war stood to gain from the use of chemical weapons at the point in time when the weapons were used? In every crime, motive, opportunity and who gains from the crime has always served to reveal the culprits.

For the past couple of months, the tide of battle has noticeably turned against the rebels, with the Syrian army recording consecutive victories across several fronts in the civil war. From the loss of control of the strategic city of Homs, to their defeat in Qusayr on the Lebanese border, and in several key towns across the length and breadth of Syria, the Syrian rebels have been on a losing streak and were in dire need of whatsoever that would turn the tide in their favor.

As the world seems once more on the threshold of yet another enlarged conflagration in the Middle East, the following questions readily agitate the mind:

1. Could the Rebels themselves have used chemical weapons in a moderate dosage on their own side of the divide with a view to eliciting the reactions presently being experienced from the United States and its European allies?

2. Could the chemical weapons have been deployed by any of the several extremist Islamist groups which hold sway in diverse parts of Syria some of which are known to have actively sought chemical weaponry expertise?

3. Would it have been in the interest of al-Asaad to resort to chemical weapons in a war he was on course to winning and risk the possibility of internationalizing the war?

The answers to the questions raised above should ordinarily reinforce the need for deep reflection.

If indeed it is proved beyond any iota of doubt that the chemical weapons were deployed under orders of the army loyal to President al-Asaad, then all efforts, inclusive of ensuring the removal of the al-Asaad regime, must be made to extinguish the likelihood of a re-occurrence.

Until such incontrovertible proof is adduced by an impartial international body, such as the United Nations inspectors presently on ground in Syria, and not the fictitious 'proof' former U.S. President George Bush marshaled out in his desperate quest to eliminate Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, it is in the best interest of international peace and stability that extreme caution is exercised in addressing this most unfortunate escalation in the Syrian civil war.




Picture: corpse of children and some adults killed by the chemical weapon attack near Damascus

The 4 Billion Naira (U.S.$ 24 million) bail bond.

by Eze Eluchie

Globally, when a Judge is of the opinion that, based on the information contained in originating documents for criminal prosecutions, there is a high probability of an accused person interfering with or impairing the course of justice, eloping from jurisdiction or being found guilty of the offences as charged, it is the norm to set stiff bail conditions or at times deny an accused person bail. The purpose of such stiff bail condition is amongst others to ensure expedient adjudication of the matter and safeguard the integrity of the judicial process.

These factors must have weighed on the minds of the presiding judge over the 54-count charges of fraud and misappropriation of public resources leveled against the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly (Mr. Adeyemi Ikuforiji) and one of Ikuforiji’s personal aides, The Honorable Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Federal High Court, Lagos, when he set bail at an ordinarily incredulous sum of One Billion Naira (over U.S.$ 6 million), and 2 sureties each at the same sum, respectively for two accused persons. Total bail sum and bonds required to effect the release from custody of the duo of Mr. Ikuforiji and his aide was over 4 Billion Naira (more than U.S.$ 24 million).

To the astonishment of discerning observers and any sane legal system, the two accused persons (one a mid-level politician and the other a low ranking civil servant), who are notoriously aligned with the political leadership in Lagos State, were able to fulfill the bail conditions and never stayed one minute in prison custody. The Speaker till date continues to preside over the Lagos House of Assembly, he and his aide continue to revile in having out-scammed the legal process, and our contraption is the worse for it. Considering that the accused persons have returned to their offices, the case is as good as dead!

What else could we have expected from our Judges, our judicial system, apart from what the Judge in the present matter did? Yet, it had been possible to post bail bonds in excess of US $ 24 million and the system has not enquired into the charade?

In other climes, indicted persons would have opted to save the polity the stench of their nuisance, by resigning or at least temporarily stepping aside from the public office - not so in our beloved contraption, the indicted reign supreme. The indicted Speaker, out on bail, continues to shamelessly preside over the affairs of the State legislative house.

The loud silence from the usually vociferous ten-a-penny ‘anti-corruption’ ‘civil society’/’activist’ community to this present episode is really not unexpected, knowing who the accused persons in this matter owe allegiance to.

A situation where a State Government surreptitiously posts bail to secure the release of persons accused of defrauding the same State, is to put it mildly, pathetic.

This particular nightmare for our system occurred way back in June 2013 - it seems to have gone under the radar, setting a most worrisome precedence. 

The rot is certainly not sustainable!

Only a holistic restructuring and renegotiation of the Nigerian contraption can abate this continuing nuisance.

http://premiumtimesng.com/news/139779-lagos-assembly-speaker-ikuforiji-aide-perfect-n2-billion-bail-conditions.html

Picture: Corruption poster © elephantic.com

Corruption: Accomplices all!

by Eze Eluchie

One Federal agency Nigerians seem ever willing to lampoon for corruption and gross inefficiency, is the Nigeria Police Force (NPF). This is not unexpected, considering their presence in our nooks and crannies and the highly visible profile of the Police in our polity and the injustice inherent in our polity (with the Police as the primary contact of the ordinary citizen with the injustice).

Time and time again, however, when confronted with evidence of corruption in their midst, the Police Force has remarkably acted with dispatch and alacrity, as exhibited in the dismissal of their personnel recently caught on camera negotiating a bribe.

When policemen get dismissed, realizing that the game is up, they go.

This cannot be said of other segments of our polity. When professionals, the Lawyers, Medical personnel, politicians and our ‘almighty’ civil/public servants (or more appropriately 'masters'). When these others are caught red-handed with their hands deep in the public till or enmeshed in acts of corruption, all hell is let loose. Not only is no one punished, but the society is forced to undergo despicable charades in the guise of an unending legal process which will gradually fade away when public attention is deviated by yet another large-scale crime by another 'high-brow' thief.

Rather than accept responsibility for his misconduct, a senior appeals court judge caught corresponding illicitly with counsels and parties in matters before his court opted to throw up tantrums, accusing everyone else, inclusive of the Chief Justice of the Federation, but himself, of corruption; rather than go and bury his head in shame, criminals who defrauded the Banks they once presided over as Directors, have engaged the country’s legal system in an endless hide-and-seek game; rather than go out in peace, public servants who stole criminally converted their agencies pension funds placed in their custody, Politicians who loot public treasury resort to age-old ethnic sloganeering to maintain a strangle hold on our collective psyche - in one sickening instance, a politician currently serving a prison sentence abroad for corruption recently had a lavish birthday celebration with 'religious' leaders and politicians in attendance .

The willingness of the generality of the populace to accommodate, and often times glamorize corrupt public office holders will be our undoing as a society. When we do not look upon corrupt persons with the disdain and scorn they deserve, we only, wittingly or unwittingly, encourage corruption. We actually become accomplices to the crime of corruption when we condone corrupt persons in our midst.

We do not have to look far to see the dire consequences of our complicity in corruption in our lives, our environment, our polity.

We have a choice; we can continue to condone and thereby participate in corruption and continue to exist (not live, because where corruption thrives, people only exist) in it’s after effects or simply say ‘No’ to it, individually resolving not to be accomplices to corruption.

NB: This post in no way deviates from my often reiterated views on the impropriety of the continued retention of MD Abubakar as the head of the Nigeria Police Force by the Goodluck Jonathan administration.

Video:  The Police officer negotiating a bribe in this picture was sumarily dismissed.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pk4xeLjLReQ

Picture: Nigeria  Police Emblem

Corruption - a societal cancer.

by Eze Eluchie

Well over two decades ago when I ventured into the then novel terrain of private sector initiated re-orientation of the Nigerian youth, with a view to contributing towards the building of a morally well-rounded sane society, one of the first questions I would always throw at my mostly teenage audiences before the commencement of what I termed Public Awareness Lecture series (PALS) would be: 'What will you like to be when you grow up and why?" In response, the youths will voice their dreams, expressing desires to become professionals in diverse fields proffering diverse reasons as the motivation for their aspirations.

As the years rolled by, the questions remained same but the responses remarkably changed. From the choice of Lawyer, Medical Doctor, Engineer, and diverse professions, the most common responses increasingly became: Politician, Soldier, Policeman, Businessman/woman and in a couple of outright brazen responses, some teens frankly responded that they would want to get involved in '419'! (‘419’ is the number of the section of the Nigerian Criminal Code which relates to the offence of advance fee fraud - a scam which many persons outside the shores of Nigeria have pitiably fallen victim). The change in responses was widespread, stark, startling and in any clime where there is interest in societal development, ought to have been a grave cause of concern for all – not so in my good old country.

The PALS sessions I organized or participated in, held across the length and breath of Nigeria with youths of diverse ethnic nationalities, from such towns as Igbokuta (Lagos State), Ihube (Imo State), Offa (Kwara State), Wusasa (Kaduna State), Kano (Kano State), Gwagwalada (Abuja) and across all the States of Nigeria. In other words, the pathetic phenomenon was truly nationwide.

What could have occasioned the degeneration in the ideals of our youth, our future?

The human nature gravitates towards self-preservation. Man, generally, tends to gravitate towards comfort-zones, towards where s/he perceives self interest, survival and needs will be best met, served or better protected. The very choice children and youths make in life is influenced by, above all else, what they observe as most likely to assure wellbeing in the society around them.

At the inception of my outreach programs, the youths obviously influenced by successful professionals in various fields had no difficulty in aspiring to be like such professionals. As the years rolled by, and society, consciously or otherwise, altered its definition and perception of success, it was only natural that our youths, ever desirous to be successful, like youths elsewhere, will alter their aspirations and dreams accordingly.

A scrutiny of the preferences of our youths in recent times as enunciated above will reveal that they are vocations which have flourished and blossomed using corruption as a pedestal. The corrupt politician and the '419' kingpin who are able to amass a fortune practically overnight and the uniformed law enforcement or security officials who are able to, with impunity and corruption, subvert the course of justice, for self benefit, now parade as the role models of our youth, our future.

Like a cancer, the corruption canker-worm crept into our system and metastasized to the present gigantean monster which threatens not just our present, but worse still, our future and to a great extent several societies that look up unto ours. Our failure to tackle corruption head-on when it first crept in, has now exposed us to the present sorry state of being in the terminal stages of a pathetic societal cancer.

As our contraption goes through the pains of this societal cancer, we are faced with the reality that mere analgesics, in the form of high sounding names of toothless governmental agencies such as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commissions (EFCC) or the Independent Corrupt Practices Commissions (ICPC) are insufficient to douse the pains of our cancer or cure the malady. The treatment for advanced stages of cancer is very painful, usually excruciating bouts of chemotherapy. At the stage we find ourselves, we are actually faced with the sole prospect of full scale exorcism, amputating the diseased segments of our polity which has been infiltrated with corruption.

Some say the number of amputations to be carried out will be simply horrendous - the response to that would be to inquire as to which option is preferred: removing a few thousands or risk a conflagration that will result in widespread sufferings, diseases and deaths on a proportion that will benumb the globe.

When we decide to commence the treatment that must be, some will say it is too messy, but that will be because they either choose or do not to see the pains we are presently going through or they are part of the causative factors of the cancer.

The operating theater is set.

Are we ready for the surgery?

Picture: Corruption