by Eze Eluchie
Faced with opposition from several quarters, inclusive of: 1) anarchist elements posturing as opposition politicians who directly encouraged terrorist activities, 2) hired brains and lobbyists in capital cities across Europe and North America, and 3) a most vociferous clique of partisans who claim to be ‘activists’, the Nigerian central government appeared curiously deficient in articulating and implementing appropriate response to address terrorist activities which challenged the very essence of the Nigerian federation and was practically and surely bleeding the country to a certain pathetic end.
Perhaps buoyed by a series of lethal attacks in May 2013, which recorded high fatalities of both civilians and security personnel or a sudden awakening or dawning of reality or whatsoever, Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan, to the chagrin of those who sought to make political and perhaps pecuniary capital of the blood of innocents, rightly ordered military operations to restore sanity and humanity in our beleaguered northeastern region.
Sub-Saharan perspective. (ezeeluchieassociates@yahoo.com) twitter: @ezeluchie www.facebook.com/eze.eluchie
Friday, June 21, 2013
Monday, June 10, 2013
Political support for terrorists
by Eze Eluchie
Some Nigerians who had been under the illusion that the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) represented anything good for our contraption will remain eternally grateful to Mr. Lai Mohammed, the loquacious spokesperson of the ACN for giving us a clear insight into the mindset and mentality of the characters who populate the ACN, and by extension, its hybrid, the yet to be registered All Progressives Congress (APC)
Some Nigerians who had been under the illusion that the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) represented anything good for our contraption will remain eternally grateful to Mr. Lai Mohammed, the loquacious spokesperson of the ACN for giving us a clear insight into the mindset and mentality of the characters who populate the ACN, and by extension, its hybrid, the yet to be registered All Progressives Congress (APC)
The ACN which
has never been on record as condemning any of the numerous murderous terrorist attacks
perpetuated by terrorist organizations against innocent Nigerians suddenly
finds its voice and has the temerity to declare as unconstitutional the recent
proscription of terror groups by the Goodluck Jonathan Federal Government.
Sunday, June 9, 2013
Will he go first?
by Eze Eluchie
Despite the semblance of
peace and tranquility which some level of economic stability may portray for a
people, it only takes a little scratch of the surface for true societal
feelings to manifest in an environment with an enlightened populace.
For close to a decade since
he mounted the saddle of leadership, Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
has enjoyed a continuously rising international profile and an uncanny ability
to navigate the murky landmines the Turkish Military had always represented in
Turkish politics.
By deft maneuvering, Erdogan
was able to not only rein in the erstwhile powerful Turkish military which had
served as guarantor of the secular characteristic of Turkey, but also proceeded
to detain and put on trial several high ranking Turkish Generals – a feat that
was hitherto unfathomable. Having dispensed with the guarantors of secularist Turkey, Erdogan embarked on a course to curb freedoms the Turks had over the
decades taken for granted.
At the international level,
Erdogan leveraged on the strategic importance of Turkey to military campaigns
in the Middle East to extract favors at will from the West, sought to position
himself as the Global Leader of Islamic states (amongst other things, ensuring
that the world media was present when he landed in Somalia to inaugurate
Turkish Air’s flights to Mogadishu as the first scheduled international flights
to the war-torn country by a commercial airliner) and incredulously pontificates
against Israeli treatment of Palestine’s in Gaza whilst at the same time meting
out worse treatment to Turkeys minority Kurdish population and aggressively denying
the genocide perpetuated against the Armenians.
A further testimonial of
Erdogan’s craftiness could be gleaned at by his position on Syria’s al-Assad
and the ongoing conflict between the Syrian State and rebel insurgents. Desirous
to eliminate his nearest rival in terms of political clout within the region,
Erdogan had been in the fore-front of apostles for United States intervention
into ensuring the ouster of the al-Assad regime. Amongst other things, surreptitiously ‘helping’ to
identify when the Syrian regime had crossed President Obama’s proverbial ‘red
line’. A few days to his State visit to
the United States in May 2013 to convince Obama on the need to get more involved
in Syria, Erdogan had despite clear indications that elements from Syria could
be behind the twin bomb blasts in the Turkish city of Reyhani which had killed
over 40 people and injured more than 100 others, publicly affirmed the
reluctance of his government to get militarily involved in Syria saying Turkey
will “maintain our extreme cool-headedness in the face of efforts and
provocations to drag us into the bloody quagmire!”
Really? You do not want to
get involved with your neighbors affairs, yet you invite outsiders from
thousands of miles away to get involved? Good thinking!
All that guile is
apparently being torn to shreds over plans to commercially develop a piece of
park land in Istanbul. The initial protest from ordinary Turks which was met
with high-handed draconian response from the Turkish police has since
snowballed into a national conflagration threatening democratic governance in
Turkey. Like all pretenders to democratic leadership, Erdogan has continually
described the protesters as ‘terrorists’, ‘political touts’ and ‘misguided
youths’.
A close look at the initial
days of popular protests throughout the countries affected by the Arab Spring
will reveal similar categorization of protesters by the dictators then in office such as Qhadaffi, Mubarak and Ben Ali.
These were actually the same phrases used by al-Assad to describe the Syrian
rebels over 18 months ago.
For anybody with knowledge of Turkish society, an indication of how deep Erdogans troubles are could be gleaned at from the fact that for once, supporters of the three main soccer teams in Istanbul, Fenerbahce, Besiktas and Galatasaray, have for once in their violent and acrimonious relationship with one another, teamed up to demonstrate against the present Turkish government. The riots keep on spreading and expanding in size.
Will Erdogans police replace tear gas canisters with live bullets?
Will Taksim Square become the next Tahrir Square? The next Tiananmen Square?
For anybody with knowledge of Turkish society, an indication of how deep Erdogans troubles are could be gleaned at from the fact that for once, supporters of the three main soccer teams in Istanbul, Fenerbahce, Besiktas and Galatasaray, have for once in their violent and acrimonious relationship with one another, teamed up to demonstrate against the present Turkish government. The riots keep on spreading and expanding in size.
Will Erdogans police replace tear gas canisters with live bullets?
Will Taksim Square become the next Tahrir Square? The next Tiananmen Square?
It is thus quite germane to inquire if Erdogan will actually go the way of those before him. Will Erdogan
go before al-Assad?
Picture: Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey
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