Friday, August 21, 2015

West Africa says NO to 'Legalization'!

COMMUNIQUÉ OF THE 1ST WEST AFRICAN FORUM ON DRUGS (WAFOD) ORGANIZED BY PEOPLE AGAINST DRUG DEPENDENCE & IGNORANCE (PADDI FOUNDATION) WITH SUPPORT FROM THE WORLD FEDERATION AGAINST DRUGS (WFAD).

THEME: MAINSTREAMING HEALTH AND CHILD RIGHT CONCERNS IN SUBSTANCE ABUSE POLICY, PLANNING AND PROGRAMMING IN WEST AFRICA.

LAGOS, NIGERIA. 8TH – 10TH JULY 2015.

COMMUNIQUÉ

CONCERNED about the aggressive efforts by some persons and organizations to ensure that countries in the West Africa sub-region alter their laws and policies to legalize some substances classified as illicit under international laws,

ALARMED at the likely impact on the West Africa sub-region of the legalization of illicit substances (particularly marijuana)

WORRIED about the implications on the rights and welfare of children, particularly the right to a meaningful existence and protection from harm) and overall Public Health of the legalization of addictive substances presently classified as illicit under international and domestic laws;

CONSCIOUS of the contiguous nature of countries in the West Africa sub-region and the fact that what affects one country eventually affects all in a very short time frame;

REALIZING that the lack of a committed Civil Society (CSO) and informed stakeholders response to the aggressive efforts to legalization of illicit substances might have sent the wrong impression that the West African sub-region and its peoples desired such affronts to commonsense;

ENCOURAGED by the convocation of the United Nations General Assembly on the Worlds Drug Problems (UNGASS - 2016) as a veritable means to announce to the world at large the views of the peoples of West Africa regarding Substance abuse laws, policies and programs; and

DESIROUS of ensuring that the voice of the peoples of the West Africa sub-region are heard at the global arena regarding issues of Substance abuse;

The participants at the 1st West Africa Forum on Drugs now resolve as follows:


  1. In view of the weak economic situations of most countries in the West Africa sub-region, Drug Abuse Prevention strategies and programs, which have been proven to be cost effective, should take prominence over all others in addressing the Substance abuse scourge.

  1. Taking cognizance of the need to prioritize concern for Public Health and the Right and Welfare of Children in all matters, Substance abuse laws, policies and programs in the West Africa sub-region-rights should ensure that the interest of children and public health are held paramount.

  1. Targeted sensitization programs should be undertaken to enlighten and equip key stakeholders in addressing the Substance abuse situation, particularly Legislators, Policy formulators and administrators and CSO’s, with information that will enhance their efficacy and understanding of the dire cost on society of Substance abuse.

  1. There is need to actively and effectively seek the cooperation and integration of Religious and Community/Traditional organizations in ensuring success in activities geared towards curbing the adverse impact of Substance abuse on society.

  1. Substance abuse education should be effectively incorporated into the curricular of all academic institutions in the sub-region with a view to infusing into the Children and youth relevant prevention skills to avoid abusing substances.

  1. As is the case with tobacco products and alcohol, legalization of addictive products makes such products easily available to a population, and despite whatsoever safeguard measures put in place to prevent access of Children and Youths to such products, Children and Youths eventually, to their own and society’s detriment, find a way to access such products. 

  1. That addiction to substances should be recognized and addressed as a mental health infirmity and not strictly a crime-based issue.

  1. There is need to strengthen the manpower and infrastructure available across the West Africa sub-region for the treatment, care and rehabilitation of substance abuse related ailments.

  1. Taking into consideration the poor state of public health infrastructure and manpower, and the fact that basic/primary health care needs already overwhelm the health care system in the sub-region, the Legalization of some substances (presently categorized as illicit under international laws) will be most injurious to the already weakened public health care environment in the sub-region.

  1. The Governments and peoples of the West Africa sub-region should resist efforts being championed from forces external to the sub-region, to legalize some substances of abuse, particularly marijuana.  

  1. That following from this Forum, efforts should be increased, via the convocation of group specific summits, for instance, Youth Summit, Traditional Rulers Summit, Health Workers Summit, Legislators Summit, and so on, focused on galvanizing a unified response and approach to the sub-region wide Substance abuse scourge facing West Africa.


Forum Secretariat, 1st West Africa Forum on Drugs

10th July 2015, Lagos, Nigeria


Pictures from the 1st West Africa Forum on Drugs:


Saturday, August 15, 2015

We Were Scammed! - The Many Lies of Mr. President


by Eze Eluchie

1ST IN THE SERIES OF THE MANY LIES OF MR. PRESIDENT
I will declare my assets, publicly.
- Muhammadu Buhari.

Conscious of the yearnings by Nigerians for greater level of transparency from those who aspire to lead the country, Mr. Buhari, whilst campaigning to be elected President expressly reiterated in his ‘I Pledge To Nigerians’, ‘to publicly declare my assets and liabilities, encourage all my appointees to publicity declare their assets and liabilities as a pre-condition for appointment’.

Immediately upon being sworn into office, drastic changes, amounting to violent assaults on the pledge to publicly declare assets became pronounced. Recourse was had to legalese, subterfuge under contrived protocols and bureaucracy and even direct insults on the sensibilities of the populace, with some of his aides asking Nigerians to ‘show proof’ that any such ‘pledges’ were made.

By his failure to publicly declare his assets upon being sworn into office (and ensuring that his appointee thus far do same), Mr. Buhari has created an enabling environment for monumental fleecing for self-enrichment of the Nigerian treasury, as it becomes impossible for the Nigerian public and interested parties to gauge his assets prior to entry into office and at the expiry of his tenure.

Over 70 days after his ascendance into the Office of President of the Federal Republic, Muhammadu Buhari has failed to publicly declare his assets.

Muhammadu Buhari, on this score, lied!



2ND IN THE SERIES OF THE MANY LIES OF MR. PRESIDENT
There is no office of the First lady in the Nigerian constitution.
- Muhammadu Buhari

In selecting the falsehoods to be highlighted in this series, generous allowances are made for the usual hot balloons emitted by politicians in the heat of campaigns and focus is had merely to lies that give an insight into the character trait of Mr. President.

The need to reduce wastage in governance by scrapping the Office of the First Lady, a scam that had been transformed to a monumental drain-pipe of public funds, had over the years become an ideal dear to Nigerians. To cash in on this fad, whilst responding to questions from newsmen in Kaduna during the period preceding the 2015 presidential elections, Nigerians were unequivocally assured that such an office was unconstitutional and would have no place in his government, if he won the elections.

The Office of First Lady of the Federal Republic is in 'keeping with the pledge', now non-existent. In its place however, is the Office of the Wife of the President, occupying the very same office space as the Office of First Lady of the Federal Republic, serviced by an equal number of Special and Personal Assistants, security paraphernalia and lavish logistic arrangement all at great expense to the public purse. In addition, a ‘pet project’ of the WotP, the main funnel of public waste, is in the process of being unleashed on the helpless masses who had hoped for 'change'.

Muhammadu Buhari, on this score, again lied.



3RD IN THE SERIES OF THE MANY LIES OF MR. PRESIDENT
We will crush Boko Haram within two months
- Muhammadu Buhari

Coming from an uninformed aspirant to political office, the above statement made by President Buhari would not have qualified for inclusion in any serious ‘list of lies’, as ignorance of the intricacies of overcoming insurgencies would have been rightly presumed. Here, however, we have a retired General and former Commander-in-Chief of a country’s armed forces, who is presumed to at the very least appreciate the nature of tackling amorphous, armed entities. More worrisome is the fact that some elements in our military might have been led by Buhari's comments to mistrust the capability of their then C-in-C and his Military Commanders to lead and proceeded, in one instances, to shoot at their commanding officers, run AWOL from their position and generally suffer from a loss of morale. The comments however served to bolster the terrorists.

Well over 2 months after Mr. Muhammadu Buhari was sworn into office as President, Boko Haram has continued to increase in its viciousness and evil, attacking and killing Nigerians with reckless abandon. Early this week, we lost over 40 of our compatriots to a Boko Haram terror attack in Maidugri, Bornu State – and the only response from the Federal Government remains the much worn-out lie that the terror outfit will be ‘destroyed in no time’. Bunkum!

This lie was treacherous and bothered on treasonable felony.

At the swearing in of the new Chiefs of the various services of the Nigerian Armed Forces a few days ago, Mr. President shifted the goal post and ‘ordered’ the service chiefs of ‘destroy’ Boko Haram within 3 months. Not even the President of the United States or any of the international military powers will dare fix a time-frame within which to destroy terror organizations.

Muhammadu Buhari, on this score yet again, you lied!



Pictures: President Buhari, a poster congratulating an appointee to the Office of The Wife of The President and the Boko Haram insignia.




Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Can a beneficiary of corruption tackle corruption?

by Eze Eluchie

Can a beneficiary of corruption tackle corruption?

This is the question that will haunt the incumbent President of the Federal Republic as he continues to pontificate on his plans to ‘confront corruption’.

The answer to the question asked is ‘yes’! 
The ‘yes’, however, comes with a huge caveat – there must be conscious efforts by the beneficiary of corruption (Mr. President) to distance himself from the corrupt who funded his ascendance into Office. In the absence of a discontinuance of camaraderie between the beneficiary of corruption and his corrupt sponsors, all talk about ‘confronting corruption’ can be dismissed as inconsequential and mere hallucination.

In his recent trip to the United States, the official delegation of the Nigerian President comprised of some quite shady characters who occupy or occupied high political offices in Nigeria, positions which they use(d) to horrendously fleece the public treasury in Nigeria. It was thus no wonder that when the US President Barack Obama announced that he was ordering the American security and investigating agencies to collaborate with the Nigeria Government to ensure that looted public funds emanating from Nigeria and deposited in US financial houses or such outfits subject to US laws, were returned to Nigeria, there were a lot of bemused faces in the audience – men who knew that all such talk would amount to naught so long as they had good access to their man, the Nigerian President, whose campaign for presidency, they had bankrolled and ensured was ‘successful’.

The irony is that some of these characters, like the former Governor of Rivers State and major financier of Buhari’s presidential campaign, openly brag about their prowess in graft (see Blog Article: ‘The Audacity of Thieves’ http://ezeluchie.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-audacity-of-thieves.html) and yet others have sought to transform the opportunity of their entry into the White House and ‘golden handshake’ with the US President into tools to further fleece the hapless populations over whom the rule.

President Muhammadu Buhari must, somehow, find the courage to divest himself of the excess garbage that surround himself and purge himself of long established, though salient, nuances which may becloud whatsoever ideas he might have nurtured to leave an anti-corruption legacy and confront corruption.

For the sake of our contraption, it is hoped that genuine non-partisan, non-sectional and non-parochial actions be initiated and pursued to rid the Nigerian State of the scourge of corruption which has served to diminish us, blur our visions and enthrone poverty in our polity.

We simply cannot afford to continue the way we have been going on.




Picture: Two high profile sponsors of the Buhari presidency, ex-Governor Amaechi (Rivers State) and Governor Okorocha (Imo State)