Monday, January 13, 2014

Labor Strikes: Holding Ourselves Hostage

by Eze Eluchie

Often times, when a crisis situation unfolds in any country and thousands of people embark on long ,seemingly endless treks to destinations unknown, there is the tendency for people looking at the emerging pictures from afar, to think that the persons embarking on such pitiable journeys are urchins, miscreants, ne’er-do-well’s and people society can do without.  That impression is unfortunately, not correct.

A closer look at the trekking mass will reveal that in that throng of human bodies, soaked in their individual sweats, faces caked with dust, with their mattresses, foodstuff, jerry cans of water and most precious possessions perched precariously atop their heads with children  and livestock tagging alongside parents, there are professionals of all callings (teachers, Architects, Lawyers/Judges, Health service providers and so on) and all those held in esteem by stable societies on account of their intellectual prowess. When crisis ensues and survival becomes the name of the game, class distinctions, professional rankings, wealth and other criteria used to distinguish one from the other gradually disappear until all persons in the given crisis laden environment merge into one indistinguishable unit. The collapse of the State, under crisis situations, allows for the emergence of a new breed of ‘leaders’, based on mans primitive instincts – the rule of the brawn.

Professionals, skilled persons and those generally termed as the ‘middle-class’ in any society bear the brunt of any collapse of State structures. The urchins, miscreants and ne’er-do-wells were already down and, as the saying goes, need fear no fall. Those who have had opportunity to rule in such societies would usually have looted sufficient funds to acquire some semblance of comfort in foreign territories - this is however quite suspect as these category of exiles are held in absolute contempt by their American/European hosts/neighbors who know that such ex-rulers of collapsed States are basically criminal elements and their offspring's, scions of criminals. The professionals who constitute the middle-class are apparently stuck in limbo, resigned to a life of misery in refugee camps and where they are able to find a country willing to grant them  asylum, have to contend with all manners of indignities in the new territories they have to habit – perpetually day-dreaming over what might have been only if they had avoided the crisis which turned their homeland and lives around.

One only needs to take a ride in a Taxi cab in the major cities of the United States or European countries, dine in Restaurants in those foreign climes or even visit Car-wash facilities to appreciate the monumental waste, to which diverse intellectual resources which would have been of better use in the societies where the hapless refugees originally hailed from, have been rendered. With Surgeons and Attorneys of several years experiences competing with themselves over who would drive a cab for a few hours in a day, to Engineers and Bankers waiting on tables at eateries, to Teachers and Artists wasting away, washing cars in frigid hostile temperatures – people who allow themselves and their countries to plunge into crisis really loose out big time.

It is in the light of the foregoing that one is perplexed by the exuberance with which professional and labor organizations in countries in transition assiduously work towards the collapse of their countries with extremely self-serving insistence on a piece of their country’s flesh and blood, at times cloaking such actions in the guise of national interests.  

Unfolding events in Nigeria would illustrate this worrisome trend. For an incredulous period of over 4 months, the umbrella association of Nigerian public university lecturers (the Academic Staff Union of Universities - ASUU) embarked on a crippling strike over payment of allowances (some of these allowances had such incredulous titles as ‘Examination’ and ‘Thesis Supervision’ – what are these lecturers receiving salaries for?), a strike action which grounded all academic activities in Nigerian universities, holding the Government hostage until ASUU was able to extract whatever they felt was satisfactory.

Soon after the strike by Lecturers, the umbrella association of Medical Doctors in Nigeria (the Nigerian Medical Association - NMA), sensing it could likewise have its way, threatened to call off all doctors in public service unless it was assured that their members would in addition to maintaining dominance in the public health sector, be assured of permanent slot as Minster of health, continued percentage remuneration superiority gap for their members over the income of other actors in the health sector, and creation of a novel office of ‘Surgeon General’, crafted after the model adopted in the United States, which will be occupied only by Medical Doctors. In private meetings with the NMA, and worried about the collapse of the already fragile public health sector, the Federal Government indicated it was willing to capitulate to the threats of the Medical Doctors. Soon after and in order not to be out-done by the Medical Doctors, other professionals in the health sector have likewise threatened a showdown with the Government if it dared accede to what I must admit are quite greedy demands of Doctors.  A crippling strike in our public health sector is thus guaranteed.

Even the umbrella organization of lawyers, a profession group to which I belong, is gleefully jumping into the fray of bodies issuing threats to Government over issues in the polity. Following the bombing of a court house in the south-south zone of the country, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) issued a 30-day ultimatum to the Federal Government to conduct necessary inquiries, fish out and prosecute culprits involved in the terror related event otherwise….. This is the same NBA which seems not to be bothered when thousands of Nigerians are routinely sent to their early graves resulting from terrorist attacks and whose members ‘prosper’ from a most unjust justice system which ensures that over 90% of our prison inmate population are persons who are presumed innocent by our laws until they are proven guilty and where civil and criminal suits drag on for seeming eternities.

Professionals and workers in the petroleum, maritime, financial and virtually all sectors of the Nigerian economy have issued threats which cumulatively can hasten the demise of the Nigerian state when all such threats come to maturity later this year.

Without doubt, the perception, and in some cases, reality of large-scale and endemic corruption in the polity serves to energize the quest for a piece of the ‘national pie’ by professional and labor associations, but have we as a people wondered what happens to the pie when all the pieces of it has been taken away? What about the situation of the vast majority of our fellow citizens who are not opportune to go on ‘strike’ for or negotiate their way to some slice of the national pie?

Are we all not better off synchronizing efforts towards a holistic restructuring and renegotiation of our polity to ensure the emergence of a system which accommodates all: professional, skilled and unskilled, literate and illiterate and of whatsoever category, rather than merely seeking to, via tactics akin to hostage taking, carve out the maximum slice of the polity we can for our professional or labor set?  

Some professionals who are deluding themselves with the thought that their qualifications will offer a safe parachute to jump ship in the event of a collapse of the Nigerian state to some other life/jobs abroad, should think twice and ask of the whereabouts of other professionals from crisis-prone countries who found refuge in foreign lands. In the event that we persist in our various insistence on a piece of the country, we should also begin to fine-tune our dish-washing, driving, and gigolo skills(yes, you are reading right: gigolo), because when the chips are really down, our existence in those foreign climes may well be dependent on such inanities and not on intellectual prowess.


Let us renegotiate and restructure whilst there is yet time.


Picture: Refugees in motion


Friday, January 3, 2014

Sex as a cardinal tool of foreign policy?

by Eze Eluchie

With a view to gaining respect and varying advantages in relations with other countries and advancing their values as ideals worthy of emulations (freely or by compulsion), States across the world have deployed varying tools and strategies to showcase themselves and their ethos. The foreign policy thrust of States serves to define each country to the rest of world.

The military might and combat preparedness of States are quite commonly adapted as a tool to project State interest and advance foreign policy thrusts. Nothing more underlines the seriousness of a situation, and is more convincing, as the massing of military personnel and hardware just across national borders in a state of preparedness for military action or the stationing of an Aircraft Carrier Battle Group in international waters just off the shores of a belligerent or ‘non-conforming’ State.

Good old money, in the form of international aids, loans, trade incentives, bilateral or multi-lateral assistance also comes in quite handy as a tool for advancing countries foreign policies.

Over the past few years, however, Sex, yes the good old copulation of individuals or more particularly, sexual orientation, has gradually been growing in stature as a tool by which some countries seek to foist their values on others. This trend was brought to international prominence following a direct threat by British Prime Minister, David Cameron, to deny financial assistance or aids to countries which have laws which penalize a particular form of sexual orientation, which until the last decade had constituted a crime or anti-social conduct in virtually all countries across the world. Britain, via the stance of its leader, was in effect applying Sex as a cardinal tool in its foreign policy thrusts. The European Union, the United Nations Organization and some other multi-lateral organizations soon joined the bandwagon of entities factoring domestic legislation's and policies relating to Sex as criteria for international cooperation and collaborations.

Sex has recently also been adapted by the Barack Obama-led administration in the United States as a tool of foreign policy, with its pointed inclusion of persons who are openly of a particular sexual orientation (homosexuals) in its official delegation to the Winter Olympics scheduled for Sochi, Russia in February 2014, apparently as a direct snub and provocation to host nation, Russia, which recently enacted stricter laws regulating and criminalizing non-traditional sexual practices. Prior to now, no one really bothered with the sexual orientations of whosoever was representing States at wheresoever. Calls, at surprisingly high level quarters were, astonishingly, actually made for a boycott of the Winter Olympics over sex/sexual orientation issues!

Reaction to the deployment of sex as a tool of foreign policy has been varied. From the total capitulation, via reversal of domestic statutes which criminalized the sexual orientations and preferences been advanced by the countries which tow this trend as experienced in Malawi (since the ascension to office of President Joyce Banda), to tougher sanctions for sex practices considered anti-social in some other countries such as The Gambia, Russia, Uganda, China and Nigeria.

One clearly discernible irony evident in the approach adopted by the countries which are spearheading the deployment of sex as a tool of foreign policy is the fact that, whilst aggressively promoting homosexuality, most of such countries still hold tenaciously to their domestic laws which discriminate against and criminalize some other forms of sexual preferences and orientations – such as laws against polygamy, pedophilia and bestiality, which may be acceptable nuances to other countries.

The nagging question, which no one seems to address, appears to be: Where do we really draw the line?  Will there be a time when the frequency and timing of copulation also become a tool of international policies by States? Is there likelihood further down the road of international sanctions being levied against a country and its populations on grounds of sex? Will States actually go to war to enforce a right to have sex with the person of one’s choice? Though these questions sound preposterous, they are actually natural projections from the present situation. 


Picture: Sex symbol


Thursday, January 2, 2014

Prognosis: Dying as a result of large-scale corruption.

by Eze Eluchie

President Goodluck Jonathan simply MUST act against large-scale corruption which has become endemic in our polity.

The stench from the corruption in our contraption reaches up to the high heavens and serves to make advancing the cause of national integration a more onerous task.

Agreed, this vile practice permeates all levels of governance, be it Federal, State or Local Councils, and sectors in our country, Public and or Private, and the argument can be made that most corrupt practices occur outside the purview of Presidential authority, the enormity of powers vested in the Office of President of the Federal Republic accords the Office authority to stem the horrible tide and bring perpetrators to justice.

This accounts for my repeated query as to the whereabouts of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice - someone ought to be giving advice as to how to address this debilitating disease and adapting the more than sufficient provisions in our domestic statutes as anti-corruption tools.

Clearly, considering the free-for-all situation in the looting enterprise, the leadership of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and other agencies charged with tackling the corruption behemoth are either out of their depths or have chosen to be accomplices to graft,

There is always an extent to which a cow, no matter how well endowed it is, can be milked…..


Picture: Corruption in Nigeria