Destroying Cash - As Kenya Burns Raw US$30+ Million

by Eze Eluchie,

Did the Republic of Kenya really, as in practically and truthfully, burn US$30 Million worth of Ivory?

Good gosh!! What must have come over the system?

The Elephants were already dead! Why not convert the Ivory to Cash and channel the proceeds of such auction to other areas where the monies realized can be put to some good use for the population – perhaps to even training more personnel for the ‘Conservation Industry’, to enhance the public health sector or even pay more teachers salaries.

This folly is akin to what  goes on in my country, good old Nigeria, when the Customs Border services seizes contraband foodstuffs (Rice, Cooking Oil and so on) and rather than redistribute these items {which are in edible and good condition}, they prefer to destroy the seized foodstuffs in huge and wasteful bonfires, further desecrating the environment. This happens in our clime where several thousand’s go to bed on empty stomachs unsure where the next meal will come from and the thought processes of our rulers are twisted after years of aggravated malnutrition during their infant and childhood years.

Some may proffer some arguments to try and justify the folly of Kenya’s decision to burn Ivory, all such arguments amount to bunkum! Burning cash in a poverty stricken neighborhood or any neighborhood for that matter, simply defies logic!

If an earlier bonfire of 12-tonnes of Elephant tusks in July 1989 by former Kenyan President, Daniel Arap Moi, did not serve to stem the practice, what makes the present regime think that burning 150metric tons (as they did today) or a 1000 metric tons will make any difference?   

Will this act of folly stop poaching of Elephants for their tusks? No! Will more Elephants have to be killed to augment the demand for Ivory following the destruction of so many of Ivory? Probably yes!

Then what really was the rationale for this act - an act which is unfortunately replicated, in one form or the other, across Sub Sahara African countries and other territories which allow themselves to be swayed by nuances of some over exuberant activists.

After this wasteful bonfire, I would not be surprised if the Kenyan Government approaches some international financial institutions seeking for a US$20 Million loan facility.  My suggested response to any such request for financial assistance for any territory that engages in burning cash is better not printed here...

Picture: The 105 metric tons of seized ivory (Elephant tusk) burnt in Kenya earlier today.

As the Blood Loan Gets Repaid With Blood....

by Eze Eluchie,

When a man becomes a serial candidate for the highest political office of any territory, it will not be wrong to presume that if ever an opportunity is accorded to such candidate to assume the office he had long sought after, enormous zeal would be channeled towards addressing the myriad of problems which beset such territory. The foregoing would be trite if from the very onset, the quest for political office had been motivated by altruistic positive considerations.

If however the quest for power had been founded on devious foundations, spite, ill-will, and with the intent to retaliate for perceived or actual wrongs thought to have been committed against anyone particular ethnic group in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious enclave, the ascendance to power of the serial candidate will mark the commencement and or entrenchment of darkness over the territory with accumulated grievances of the several years of failure at the polls being transformed into a fast-track agenda of nepotism, anger, hate and violence.

After his (s)election in the March 28^th Presidential elections in Nigeria, there was palpable expectation, not just amongst some segments of the Nigerian population but from the international community) that Muhammadu Buhari who had contested all three presidential elections in Nigeria over a 12-year period, would upon assumption of office approach the issues of governance and addressing the myriad of problems afflicting Nigeria with requisite attention.

Not to be. Far from it! For several months after his inauguration, the newly elected Nigerian president appeared to have been caught flatfooted – bereft of any economic, social or governance blueprints, unable to even perform such basic tasks as appoint his own Ministers or populate the various governing Boards of government agencies (tasks for which he was at liberty to perform). The one area where Mr. Buhari seemed to have already made plans was in surrounding himself with persons from his ethnic and religious group under the pretext that he ‘knew and trusted’ them. There was a frenzied craze to populate virtually every meaningful office in the Presidency with Muslims of the Hausa-Fulani ethnic stock, same stack as the President – amongst other absurdities, Mr. Buhari actually went to his own village in Daura, Katsina State, fished out a retired security officer, Mr. Lawal Musa Daura, and anointed the later the head of Nigeria’s State Security Services (SSS), an outfit that is fast metamorphosing into a dreaded instrument for witch-hunting perceived and real opposition to the government.

Buoyed by the eerily feeling of ‘we-are-now-in-charge-and-can-get-away-with-anything’, a view reinforced by the mannerisms, demeanor, comments and activities of Buhari, inclusive but not restricted to the infamous promise to unequally treat those that gave him ‘5% votes’ during the Presidential elections (made at the United States Institute of Peace, in Washington DC; warnings made to the immediate past regime of Goodluck Jonathan that ‘attacks against Boko Haram were attacks against the North’; the tweet made on the 15^th July 2012, by Nasir el Rufai, also a Fulani Muslim and principal confidant of Mr. Buhari and now Governor of Nigeria’s north-central Kaduna State that 'We will write this for all to read. Anyone, soldier or not that kills the Fulani takes a loan repayable one day no matter how long it takes', erstwhile nomadic Fulani Herdsmen who had for centuries plied their vocation by negotiating passage through various communities with the indigenous land owners have now resorted to murderous orgies, indiscriminately decapitating, raping and maiming members of other ethnic groups over whose territories they choose to herd their livestock. The magnitude of the killings and the virtual complicit silence that has characterized the response of the Muhammadu Buhari-led regime over the mayhem caused by his kinsmen has left most Nigerians wondering if indeed this was the repayment of the ‘blood loan’ Mr. El Rufai had tweeted and assured would be made.

As the killings and pillage continue unabated, it is instructive to note that despite the seeming invincibility of the Fulani herdsmen resulting from the inability and or unwillingness of relevant security agencies to confront and curtail their crimes, the continuation of the ongoing trend can only lead to foreseeable calamities not just for those who seem to be the present victims but for even the present day perpetrators.

When blood loans begin to be repaid, it tends to assume a vicious circle, generating a life of its own that propels vile crimes for generations unborn.

Picture: Snapshot of Governor Nasir el Rufai’s tweet of 15^th July 2012 and some victims of a recent attack by Fulani Herdsmen/Militia in Agatu, Benue State, Nigeria.

Presidential Junkets - Next Stop: Mount Everest!

by Eze Eluchie, 

Clearly, the President, ‘saint’ Muhammadu Buhari’, is embarking on his scandalously numerous foreign junkets as an escapist ploy to avoid the embarrassment of his overly long siren-blaring convoy of state-of-the-art, fuel-guzzling SUV’s having to cruise down our death-trap roads whooshing past eternally long queues of hundreds of thousands of Nigerians stranded at Petrol Station in a desperate bid to get some fuel to power their vehicles, homes and lives.

For today, the train takes off to China; thereafter probably to North Korea to exchange ideas with Kim Jong-un on brutality. As the number of options for such escapades continue to diminish (already there has been 4 swings to the United States, and frolics to territories of dubious value to Nigeria) it is only expected that the numerous Presidential aides who in addition to believing they are shielding their boss from the shame of having to wastefully cruise the streets of Nigeria’s cities at a time when anger is palpably entrenched on the faces of millions of Nigerians, also get their pockets get lined from hefty largesse’s they amass for themselves in the name of ‘estacodes’ for the ‘inconvenience’ of having to spend days in 5-Star hotels in foreign lands, will soon dream up such ideas as a State Visit to inspect Mount Everest or Antarctica, under the ploy of exploring how a country in the tropics can benefit from harnessing Snow. 

Some Nigerians had been deceived by a deluge of claims of a pious mien rooted in integrity and humility, alas we are now confronted with a spendthrift relic who seems anxious to cover as much mileage and profligacy as possible to cover for 2 to 3 lifetimes.

No matter how long the flight takes, planes still have to land. Nigerians are indeed looking forward to when Mr. President will visit the country and begin to govern.

Video: Buhari's convoy:  http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x33fy8d 

Pix !: Buhari’s convoy; Pix 2. Nigerians queuing to buy fuel (an aberration that has grown into a norm since the misadventure of the present regime)